Radon mitigation across Ames and Story County
Ames is a university town north of Des Moines with a housing profile shaped by it: a dense campus ring of older homes largely converted to rentals, established family neighborhoods, and steady newer growth to the south and west.
Iowa records the nation’s highest average indoor radon levels. This hub routes Story and Boone counties.
Radon in Ames & Story County
EPA places Story County — like every Iowa county — in Zone 1 of its Map of Radon Zones, its highest predicted category. Elevated results are common enough here that testing is default advice. That describes county averages: individual homes across Ames test the full range, and only your own measurement settles your number.
Who may do the work in Iowa
Iowa certifies radon measurement and mitigation specialists through its state health department. The credential is Iowa-specific — not a general contractor license, and not a university or municipal registration, neither of which exists for radon work. Verify it directly before hiring.
Radon in a Iowa home sale
Iowa sellers disclose known radon information on the state residential disclosure form; nothing requires testing or mitigation. Story County’s large student-rental market means many properties changing hands have never been measured, so buyers should assume no data exists and order their own test.
Why results vary across Ames & Story County
Story and Boone counties sit on the Des Moines Lobe, the youngest glacial landscape in Iowa — flat, poorly drained, laid down roughly twelve to fourteen thousand years ago. Fine-grained lobe till holds soil gas rather than venting it, so what reaches a foundation follows the disturbed backfill around it. Boone County is the exception worth knowing: the Des Moines River has cut a deep valley through it, exposing the section and creating a very different setting on the valley slopes than on the flat ground above.
Housing stock and foundations here
Ames pairs a large student-rental sector near Iowa State with owner-occupied neighbourhoods of postwar ranches and 1990s-forward subdivision colonials on poured basements. The rental conversions are the complication: added bathrooms and kitchens cut slabs that were never sealed against soil gas, and a system cannot hold pressure over a perforated floor. Nevada, Huxley, Gilbert, and Story City are small-town Iowa with older cellars and newer infill; Boone is an older railroad town with a deep stock of 1890s–1930s housing on block and stone.
Does new construction change the answer?
Huxley and Gilbert subdivisions mitigate cleanly and cheaply — accessible sumps, poured walls, open joist bays. The lobe till beneath them is the same till beneath the century houses in Boone. What newer construction removes is difficulty, not risk. The most common local trigger for a first test is a basement-finishing project, and that instinct is right: the number you want is for the space you are about to start living in.
When to test in Ames & Story County
Central Iowa winters give strong stack effect and reliable closed-house conditions from December through March. The late-summer rental turnover window is the practical time to test and mitigate investment property, when units are vacant and closed-building conditions are actually enforceable. If you are planning to finish a basement, test it now rather than after the drywall goes up — mitigating an open basement is materially cheaper.
Ames & Story County guides
Five commercial guides written for this market — the work itself, what testing involves, what it costs here, what to do after an elevated result, and what installation day looks like.
- Radon Mitigation in Ames & Story County
- Radon Testing in Ames & Story County
- Radon Mitigation Cost in Ames & Story County
- Failed Radon Test in Ames & Story County
- Radon System Installation in Ames & Story County
City guides in this market
Not sure whether your ZIP is covered? The quote form resolves it instantly and tells you honestly if it is outside our current territories. Browse all markets.
Deciding who to hire? The homeowner decision guides cover comparing bids, what drives cost, handling a result inside a transaction, and how to verify the work — starting with how to choose a radon contractor.
Licensed radon professional in Iowa? See how Iowa territories work — coverage requirements, homeowner qualification, and how to apply.
Ames & Story County questions
Which communities does this market route?
Six published city guides across Story and Boone counties, plus additional ZIPs — Cambridge, Collins, Maxwell, Slater, Zearing, and the Ogden and Woodward areas. The quote form resolves any address definitively.
We own student rental property. What applies?
When you sell, Iowa requires disclosure of known radon information on the state form. Beyond that, testing ground-contact units and keeping written records is simply the defensible position for any rental owner — testing costs little relative to the question it settles.
Are newer south Ames homes safer?
Not inherently. Radon comes from the soil beneath the slab, and Iowa soils produce it regardless of build year while tight modern construction holds what enters. Many newer homes do have passive rough-in pipes, which makes the fix smaller — an advantage in remediation, not immunity.
I am about to finish my basement. Should the system go in first?
Yes, and it will cost you less. An open basement lets the contractor put the suction point where a pressure-field test says it belongs rather than where the finished layout allows, run pipe along exposed joists, and seal the slab perimeter while it is reachable. After drywall, the routing gets compromised and the sealing gets partial.
Does an unfinished basement need testing if nobody goes down there?
Test it if you might ever finish it, because that is the number that will matter when you do. If it is genuinely just utilities, also test the lowest floor you occupy, since that reading describes your current exposure. Many Story County homeowners test both levels at once — a second detector costs very little next to the cost of guessing.
My reading is 4.2 pCi/L. Is that meaningfully different from 3.8?
Not physically — measurement uncertainty alone spans that gap, and EPA suggests considering action anywhere between 2 and 4 pCi/L. What differs is convention: 4 pCi/L is the number people negotiate around, so a result just above it carries transactional weight a result just below does not. Outside a transaction, a long-term detector tells you far more than the second decimal place.
Sources
- U.S. EPA — Radon
- U.S. EPA — A Citizen’s Guide to Radon
- U.S. EPA — Consumer’s Guide to Radon Reduction
- U.S. EPA — EPA Map of Radon Zones
Quotes across Ames & Story County
One request, routed by ZIP to independent licensed radon mitigation contractors covering this market.