Here is the information that TARION has provided to builders about their warranty for Radon Gas Mitigation coverage.

Radon Gas & Tarion’s Warranty Coverage

Tarion’s Statutory Warranty and Related Tarion Forms

What does all this really mean?

This is great news if your home is in Ontario and is under seven years old, and is covered under TARION warranty (almost all new homes built by a builder are!).

This means that the cost of a radon mitigation is not coming out of your pocket.

You will need to follow the claims procedure and fill out a TARION claim form and it has been our customers experience that it will take some time and a fair bit of back and forth.  We have been told that TARION will initiate a claim based on a short term test but, will likely require a long term test (3 months conducted during heating season) conducted by a C-NRPP certified radon professional before authorising a radon mitigation.

A note of caution: It is possible that your TARION warranty may be voided if significant work has been completed without a building permit i.e. finishing basement with a washroom.

In the first two years of the warranty: (Fit for habitation) and (OBC Health and Safety) is up to the builder to fix the high levels of radon out of his own pocket. This means that they will select a radon mitigator and schedule a day at your home to get the radon mitigation work done. Please ensure that you insist that they use a C-NRPP Certified Radon Mitigator and ask for their Certification # so that you can confirm their status at www.c-nrpp.ca. Some builders have been contracting this work out to handy people who know very little about Radon with disappointing but very predicable poor results, it’s only nuclear science after all.

Please insist on a C-NRPP certified Radon mitigation contractor who is insured, this means they have attended courses and passed a national certified exam and have found an insurer that will insure them for radon mitigation work. Mr Radon® does service southern Ontario ( Ottawa to Windsor) but there are other certified and insured radon mitigation contractors in Ontario. Any radon mitigation should include a post mitigation test (by the mitigator) to ensure that the mitigation is doing what it is supposed to do.  You may be wise to conduct your own test to confirm the mitigator test and provide peace of mind to your family that radon levels are now reduced.

Warranty 2 yrs + one day -7 years (Major Structural Defect) If your home was built before 2012 this is where TARION will fund the radon mitigation directly. If your home was built after 2012 Tarion may hand this back to your builder for the work to be completed. Tarion will support your insistence that the work be completed by a C-NRPP certified radon mitigator who is insured for radon mitigation work. Please do not hesitate to contact Mr. Radon® at our office for more information.

Here is the Ontario Building code (20120 references ) that the TARION document references.

 If you need help understanding them please do not hesitate to contact us at Mr Radon ®

9.1.1.7. Radon

(1) In addition to all other requirements, a building in the following designated areas shall be designed and constructed so that the annual average

concentration of radon 222 does not exceed 200 Bq/m3 of air and the annual average concentration of the short lived daughters of radon 222 does not exceed 0.02 working levels inside the building for,

(a) the City of Elliot Lake in the Territorial District of Algoma,

(b) the Township of Faraday in the County of Hastings, and

(c) the geographic Township of Hyman in the Territorial District of Sudbury.

9.13.4. Soil Gas Control

9.13.4.1. Soil Gas Control

(1) Where methane or radon gases are known to be a problem, construction shall comply with the requirements for soil gas control in MMAH

Supplementary Standard SB-9, “Requirements for Soil Gas Control”.

9.13.4.2. Required Soil Gas Control

(1) Except as provided in Sentence (2), all wall, roof and floor assemblies in contact with the ground shall be constructed to resist the leakage of soil gas from the ground into the building.

(2) Construction to resist leakage of soil gas into the building is not required for,

(a) garages and unenclosed portions of buildings,

(b) buildings constructed in areas where it can be demonstrated that soil gas does not constitute a hazard, or

(c) buildings that contain a single dwelling unit and are constructed to provide for subfloor depressurization in accordance with MMAH Supplementary Standard SB-9, “Requirements for Soil Gas Control”.

(3) Where soil gas control is required, a soil gas barrier shall be installed at walls and roofs in contact with the ground according to MMAH Supplementary Standard SB-9, “Requirements for Soil Gas Control”.

(4) Where soil gas control is required, it shall consist of one of the following at floors in contact with the ground:

(a) a soil gas barrier installed according to MMAH Supplementary Standard SB-9, “Requirements for Soil Gas Control”, or

(b) where the building contains a single dwelling unit only a subfloor depressurization system installed according to MMAH Supplementary Standard SB-9, “Requirements for Soil Gas Control”.