Dealing with road noise in potential new house and garden
Lucid
Posts: 385
Hi everyone,
We've seen a house we are interested in buying but the back garden runs parallel to a main road which gets up to 40mph. It's a huge amount of space in the garden but I found the noise from the road was louder than I expected it to be. The garden would allow me to have one of my dreams of mixed native hedging for the wildlife, and there would be room to have a thick run of hedging on the road side of the garden. There's currently standard 6 foot fencing so we'd plan to plant the hedging next to that. But my query is, would a tall run of mixed native hedging potentially do anything to reduce the sound? Has anyone got any experience of this? I know we'd probably get more used to it but we've never lived next to a main road before so to me it sounded really loud in the garden.
The garden space and the house gives us several extra features and potentials that we just don't have at our current place, and the only downside really is the garden being next to the road.
Thanks for any advice, Lucid
We've seen a house we are interested in buying but the back garden runs parallel to a main road which gets up to 40mph. It's a huge amount of space in the garden but I found the noise from the road was louder than I expected it to be. The garden would allow me to have one of my dreams of mixed native hedging for the wildlife, and there would be room to have a thick run of hedging on the road side of the garden. There's currently standard 6 foot fencing so we'd plan to plant the hedging next to that. But my query is, would a tall run of mixed native hedging potentially do anything to reduce the sound? Has anyone got any experience of this? I know we'd probably get more used to it but we've never lived next to a main road before so to me it sounded really loud in the garden.
The garden space and the house gives us several extra features and potentials that we just don't have at our current place, and the only downside really is the garden being next to the road.
Thanks for any advice, Lucid
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The house I'm in now fronts onto an old road which in turn open fronts onto a very busy B road of upto 60 mph (Yes - I know - we're trying to get this down) divided from it by a wide grass verge with open fields to its far side. There are only B roads in this area and this one leads right down the valley. The size of the back garden - and its wildlife - is to die for and it backs onto a mountainside. This is what sold the house to me - that and the walking/hiking paths right in front of the door!
I came to see the house and the surroundings several times before deciding and I've lived here 6 years now and can honestly say that I don't notice the noise from the huge slate lorries and their like and have never regretted the decision. I have no front fence or hedge - my front garden opens onto the old road and the verge (which is lovely when covered in wildflowers). Nowhere is perfect but this takes some beating for me.
I wish you luck in whatever you decide.
There is always a better house somewhere, even if you have been looking for a long time. However, if you really love the house and garden and it suits your requirements perfectly, apart from the road, I would consider a two-pronged approach. A new, noise-reducing fence then your hedge in front of it.
A dense conifer hedge is better for both noise and traffic pollution reduction and still has some value for wildlife (Blackbirds nest in mine). Combining a noise-reducing fence with a native hedge might be sufficient, but these things are difficult to predict. Native hedging if largely deciduous offers less of a noise baffle in winter, but you will be in your garden less then anyway.
Alternatively, if the garden is big enough, you could plant a conifer hedge and incorporate native hedging plants into a larger wildlife-friendly planting scheme - positioned to break up the large expanse of conifer, perhaps, as they can be pretty boring to look at.
Whether there is a large verge between your boundary or whether it backs right onto the road, the direction of the prevailing wind and local topography all factor into noise levels and the ability to reduce them. My house and garden backs onto a minor road, right the other side of the conifer hedge, but the traffic is barely noticeable. The rest of my land rises in a series of woodland terraces and from the top terrace, the traffic is far more intrusive and noisy than down at house and garden level.
If you do consider a noise-reduction fence, designs and effectiveness vary hugely and the right solution will be site-specific (and expensive) so ideally get the input of an acoustics expert or at least a specialist decibel-reduction fence supplier who will do a site visit and make recommendations beforehand.
You do get used to the noise though - our main problem was that bikers use it as a racing route at weekends and when they were roaring past we literally couldn't hear ourselves speak.