Is Radon Gas inspection necessary in TN

[Narmada Ramesh]

Hello All, I have been looking for short term rentals near Pegeon Forge TN and I have been reading that Radon gas inspection is recommended..State of TN says that radon gas is dangerous and one should test it but not mandatory.  Wondering if anyone has done this?  Any good recommendations?  My realtor never said anything abt it but sent me a doc to sign and there is a clause asking me to say if I want to do this inspection or not.

2nd I see homes that says 3 bedroom but the county health dept says the septic is only for 2 bedrooms..cannot understand why they use bedrooms va a bathroom..anyway have folks come across this issue when buying and what did you do?

Please advise

Thanks

[Luke Carl]

Originally posted by @Narmada Ramesh:

Hello All, I have been looking for short term rentals near Pegeon Forge TN and I have been reading that Radon gas inspection is recommended..State of TN says that radon gas is dangerous and one should test it but not mandatory.  Wondering if anyone has done this?  Any good recommendations?  My realtor never said anything abt it but sent me a doc to sign and there is a clause asking me to say if I want to do this inspection or not.

2nd I see homes that says 3 bedroom but the county health dept says the septic is only for 2 bedrooms..cannot understand why they use bedrooms va a bathroom..anyway have folks come across this issue when buying and what did you do?

Please advise

Thanks

 Your real estate agent should be able to give you solid answers on both of these questions but here goes.... 

25 doors in Tennessee and I've never gotten a radon test. It's a bit of a racket. BUT you should get one just in case so it's not on me ;) 

As for the septic.... OP Question Number 1... It's nation wide standard to qualify septics by BEDROOMS which if you think about it makes sense. You can have a one bedroom house with 12 bathrooms, you're still only going to have 2 people crapping and showering in those 12 bathrooms and washing their clothes in that laundry room. You can have a 12 bedroom house with one bathroom.... You still need 12 bedrooms worth of field line to handle all that flushing from the one toilet from those say 24 people. More people = more water = more work for the field line.  

It's VERY common to see properties around here with undersized septics. There were no inspections in Sevier county until 2008-2010 somewhere in there. In the early 2000s we had a big boom in building. Builders would go to the county to get a septic permit. County would give them say 2 bedroom permit. Builder would build say a 3 bedroom house knowing the county would never come back to inspect. 

There are situations where I would not buy a house based on the septic being undersized... such as, if the septic file says "No Reserve." This basically means if the field line fails you'll need to dig it up and replace it where it is currently. Much more expensive and time consuming the the alternative of shutting down the current field line, leaving it where it sits, and putting in new field line elsewhere on your property. ** NOTE unless you have an earthquake the septic tank is self should last until the end of time it's just a big tank made of concrete. It's when the solids escape the thank that the field line can start to have issues.

IN generally a slightly undersized septic is no big deal, in fact I own two of them and never even think about it. Don't forget to get your septic tank pumped and inspected after closing and every few years after that. It's very easy and inexpensive to keep a septic system healthy. 

Hopefully the picture below will help explain a bit. 

**NOTE there are different types of field line. Dome systems are most commonly used today. In the late 80's 90's they were using gravel-less pipe. 
***NOTE: Field Line and Drain Field are the same thing just different names. 

Good luck!