Noise from traffic
martini9760
Posts: 1
I spent twelve years growing up living next to the M62 (now the M60), including during its construction. Houses close to motorways and other busy roads can be bought for significantly lower prices than exactly the same properties a short distance away and not affected by traffic noise. It's a myth that planting trees can mitigate noise to any discernible extent, albeit that they will screen the road or motorway from view. They have to be densely planted over a wide area to achieve even a very minor traffic noise reduction and will take decades to mature.
If you buy a property and later on a motorway or other major road is built nearby, you'll be eligible for compensation, the new road will be surfaced with lower noise material and a noise barrier or earth mound will be constructed. Noise barriers are not your ordinary B&Q timber fences - they can be larger, require substantial foundations, are certainly thicker and can cost hundreds of thousands of pounds for a few hundred metres.
However, buy a property near a busy road and you'll feel like you're quids in - a bargain too good to be true - even if there's already a noise barrier and lower noise surfacing in place. But you'll pay a price in the long run. Step into your garden in the Summer with your friends round and you'll realise why the property was so cheap. There are limits to how much benefit a noise barrier and lower noise surfacing can deliver. But there is an instant benefit with these forms of mitigation - and a psychological lift. However, many years down the line the increased volume of traffic will erode the noise mitigation benefit. The lower purchase price of your property is your compensation, but it won't feel like that.
After a while we got used to living next to the motorway - even the vehicle headlights shining into my little bedroom, but it taught me a lesson - unless you have no alternative (and some do have no alternative) don't move into a house near a busy road. It's a false economy. If the road comes to you, grab the compensation and sell your house because in years to come the compensation will be worth less and less and your ability to buy another comparable property will be compromised.
In the 1970s we were told about how traffic volumes would grow in years to come. Traffic will continue to grow. Remember that.
Posts
...and your point is?
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Quite. I'm always a bit baffled by these single post forum members! What are they trying to achieve?
We live next to a main road and installed an acoustic fence, which is brilliant at masking the sound albeit totally hideous until we covered it with climbers. The dense hedge which it replaced had virtually no sound absorbing qualities.
The 'first time posters' often have another 'agenda' S.Gardener
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Our acoustic fence is wooden but constructed so that there are no gaps between the boards or where it meets the wall of the house or around the gate. It's also 2.4 metres tall and has a drop of a metre or so on the other side as there is a bank which slopes down to the road and this prevents much sound coming over the top. We did look at the kind they use for motorways but they really are hideous!
Having the fence has transformed our enjoyment of the garden. Previously we couldn't have a conversation if we were sitting out because of the traffic noise - not least because at the weekends our road is used by a lot of bikers on their way to Epping Forest.
One unwanted side-effect is that we were burgled a couple of times just after we installed the fence, presumably because people thought we must have constructed it to protect something worth stealing. We've improved our security now though and have had a few years without incident.
Oh no - she's trouble, that Philippa bird......
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Was it only in 70s when folk realised there were more cars around and there would be more in the future?
As they'd been making cars by about 70 years by then, surely some clever person realised before the 70s?
Perhaps I too, have missed the point?
There's a particular car park where all the bikers gather and admire each others bikes so actually they're much quieter when they're in the forest than when they're on the way there.
I forgot to say anything about cost but I'm afraid I don't really remember as it was installed several years ago. Expensive though, very expensive! I didn't want to do it but OH insisted and (as usual) was absolutely right!
What a scunner, SGardener. They're a pain in the butt on the Loch Lomond road up here. The way they weave in and out is the biggest issue. They all gather at The Green Welly Stop at Tyndrum to do the 'admiring' ...
I often think the same about alarms on houses. Do people think you have something worth nicking if you have one?
Hosta - 'head in sand' syndrome re cars....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I have to confess , one of the many things I love about living here are the times when we have total silence. Very rare these days.