I will (hopefully) be moving to a new house, and this one has a garden at one side that borders a small road (30mph limit) that is regularly, but not heavily used.
We have in the last 11 years been blessed to be well away from road noise, and it is the only negative I have against the new house, albeit one that is not unduly bothering us, and the other benefits of the house outweigh this by some margin.
The fence at the property currently is in poor condition and will need to be replaced, and we will then plant something decent behind it such as laurel hedging.
I have heard of acoustic fencing, but wonder if anyone here has any experience of it?
If we can reduce road noise in the house and garden for some extra outlay, personally it seems like a good idea.
Does anyone here have any experience both of it's effectiveness and likely uplift in cost percentage-wise?
Thanks all.
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www.jacksons-fencing.co.uk/acoustic-fencing.aspx
But I think a laurel hedge would look a lot nicer!
After you have lived there a few weeks I doubt you will even notice the noise. Its a bit like clocks. We have a number of chiming clocks which visitors usually remark on and indeed I usually silence the chimes for them but I hardly ever notice them myself. The brain just filters out the sound.
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>> www.jacksons-fencing.co.uk/acoustic-fencing.aspx
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>> But I think a laurel hedge would look a lot nicer!
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A word of warning, or at least an observation, on laurel hedges... we have a 10m or so run of down the side of the front garden; it grows quickly and provides great screening. And generally looks nice. But it's a pain in the neck to cut neatly because of the large leaves, and always looks like it's been mauled for several weeks after a trim. And that's regardless of whether I do it or someone who knows what they're doing cuts it ;)
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Some notes here:
www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardenprojects/6005689/Keep-those-noisy-neighbours-at-bay.html
Since noise is a matter of sound waves, only something that blocks them will work fully. Bricks and mortar will beat the densest hedge hands down but you may run into planning difficulties and, in any case, your high brick wall will look terrible if it is the only one in the road.
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I would dispute your theory as to a wall versus a hedge. Sound is energy and much like a hedge reduces wind energy by the leaves being moved it absorbes sound energy in much the same way. It will also remove some of the pollution from the traffic
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In another life I lived for long periods in a house whose back garden was separated from a dual-carriageway section of the A1 by a few hundred metres of flattish land.
Thee previous owners had planted a double-width leylandii hedge (about 3 metres wide) plus fence at the end of the garden, and single-width leylandii with fence at the sides. As was obvious if you went beyond the boundaries into the fields at the back, the hedges and fences had a minimal effect.
As with creating a wind-break, I doubt that anything a couple of metres tall, whether hedge or wall, would make any difference to the noise. If you look at noise-reduction measures installed near roads when houses are close, you will see that you need something pretty tall.
I read somewhere that the best way of deflecting noise is to create a tall earth bank with gently sloping sides, which projects the noise into the sky. Clearly this is impractical unless you have a lot of land.
Having said all that, as someone has already said, most of the time one didn't register the noise, even when in the garden. (Being inside the house effectively sealed it off, if the windows were closed.) But if the wind was blowing from the road towards the house the noise was significantly worse and it did get on one's nerves.
Last edited by: Focal Point on Wed 23 Aug 17 at 15:48
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What we have here is much noisier than occasional road noise. We have double track tram route at the end of the garden...about 100 ft from the lounge window. It's the racing section as well, in the middle of a 400yd section between two stops. Trams are coming past every few seconds at almost maximum speed...50 mph.
The builders put in a closed-up board fence on a metal framework about 8ft high to keep the noise down on the other side from us where there are several Victorian cul-de-sacs at right angles to the tracks. The kitchens of the end houses are about20ft from the tracks. We didn't get a fence but I do like to see the trams going past anyway. We don't really notice them, although at speed they do make a racket. We had heavy rail on the line before and that wasn't a problem either.
I wouldn't worry about the road traffic.........spend your money on beer instead.
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I presume it's 2-storey and the bedrooms are on top?
A hedge or fence won't stop any road noise unless it's as high as the room you want to be quiet.
Double or triple glazing may help, as long as the walls and roof are equally insulated.
I think it's something you may get used to. SWMBO lived a couple of hundred yards from the M1 and found the absence of "white noise" disturbing at first when we married. Her parents had the same problem when moving to much quieter area.
Daughter lived in Lewisham and has now moved to a village a few hundred yards from the A1. At first she couldn't identify the traffic noise with the windows open at night, but quickly got used to it.
If like me and I suspect many on here, we're not in our prime. Hearing deteriorates with age and it may not be a problem.
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Thank you all for your helpful feedback.
Yes, the house is 2 story with bedrooms upstairs, and has been recently double-glazed.
The noise will not be significant and I am sure we will get used to it.
I have already gone and parked just down the road from the house with the windows down in the car over a few time-frames and also listened carefully whilst in the house / garden, and it is far from bad.
What was prompting this was I am going to need to replace the fence anyway, and that will have a cost attached (possibly as much for labour as materials I would guess), so it was more a question of whilst I am spending that capital outlay, am I better off paying more for better sound reflecting / absorbing materials to get some extra benefit over the long term, or does anyone think it would be a waste of money. I like the idea of spending it n beer instead, but I am hopeful I could afford both :)
On balance I think it is probably worth paying the extra, but I appreciate that on a hot summer's night the windows on that side of the house will let in some occasional traffic noise when they are open, as I would not be having 30ft high fencing :)
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Acoustic Fencing - CGNorwich
