Advice on buying house on "busy" road w/ poll

[edro]

I recommend visiting during rush hours too.

We are only 100ft from the road.

It's really peaceful at night... I wish it was always that quiet.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I'd consider it .... maybe have a bunch of truckloads of soil dumped and build a 6 or 7 foot tall mound like 30 feet back from the road to reflect some of the noise ... then put a bunch of trees and bushes on the mound ....

you wouldn't see the highway ... and you may hear a lot less of it ...

Also, if the property is fully wooded ... then you may already not have much noise problems ...

 

[D1gger]

Don't settle.

 

[kalrith]

I'd consider it .... maybe have a bunch of truckloads of soil dumped and build a 6 or 7 foot tall mound like 30 feet back from the road to reflect some of the noise ... then put a bunch of trees and bushes on the mound ....

you wouldn't see the highway ... and you may hear a lot less of it ...

Also, if the property is fully wooded ... then you may already not have much noise problems ...

I looked into ways of reducing road noise, even putting in acoustic fence. The problem is that the house itself is on a big hill. The first floor is probably 30 - 40' higher than the road.

 

[lxskllr]

I looked into ways of reducing road noise, even putting in acoustic fence. The problem is that the house itself is on a big hill. The first floor is probably 30 - 40' higher than the road.

Depending on how the land sits, the traffic in front of your house is the minor problem. I've been places where you hear a car 5 minutes before it appears. The sound carries forever, and that one car every 5 minutes turns into a 5 minutes event. What that means is constant sound as cars pass.

 

[highland145]

Heavy metal, lots of heavy metal to damage your hearing. Because your ideal 10+, with the house in the middle, will be next to someone like my bro. Who has a gun range that we all use,.... a lot. Or my bro-in-law that's ~3 miles from a local drag strip....

What I'm saying is is that no place will be perfect unless you get 100+ ac. You'll get used to the noise like has been posted.

More importantly, does the wife likes it?

 

[FoBoT]

i live in the country
rural neighborhood, we are about .5 mile from the 55 mph highway and 2 miles from the 65 mph highway

i can still hear traffic in the middle of the night, wish i was ~5 miles further from it

 

[rh71]

You will adjust to the noise. It would be a non factor to me.

I think the infrequency of cars means that he won't get used to it. I grew up on a pretty busy 2-lane road (one in each direction) and that could be gotten used to. Though either way it's annoying... the house sold for less of course.

 

[kalrith]

I think the infrequency of cars means that he won't get used to it. I grew up on a pretty busy 2-lane road (one in each direction) and that could be gotten used to. Though either way it's annoying... the house sold for less of course.

The infrequency is what concerns me. It goes from absolute serenity to a noise loud enough to hear inside with the windows closed, every 5 minutes. If I were .5 to 1 miles from a major highway, I think that would be better, because I'd probably get used to the constant, consistent sound of it. It doesn't help that 2/3 of the vehicles seem to be big farm trucks.

Heavy metal, lots of heavy metal to damage your hearing. Because your ideal 10+, with the house in the middle, will be next to someone like my bro. Who has a gun range that we all use,.... a lot. Or my bro-in-law that's ~3 miles from a local drag strip....

What I'm saying is is that no place will be perfect unless you get 100+ ac. You'll get used to the noise like has been posted.

More importantly, does the wife likes it?

I know there's no way to ensure perfection; however, my brother and my parents-in-law each have a lot on 10 acres that is very quiet the majority of the time. I've spent weeks at each residence, and a car every 30 minutes or a dog barking for 20 minutes per day is about all the noise I've heard there.

My wife does like it. However, she likes our current house too, which is in the middle of a few loud neighbors. She seems to have the uncanny ability to tune out any annoying noise in the world unless I'm the source of it

 

[highland145]

My wife does like it. However, she likes our current house too, which is in the middle of a few loud neighbors. She seems to have the uncanny ability to tune out any annoying noise in the world unless I'm the source of it

lol

Sounds like we're back to the heavy metal. Actually, I prefer old rock.

 

[HeXen]

Pass here too. .....imagine this little annoyance. its late, your slowing down on a highway to turn down your drive while holding back others to do the same...assuming its not multi lane for those to pass... and someone honks at you as you turn cause their a dousche in a hurry....that happens very often to some i know who live on highways and coudl be scary when its slick out. tailgators, people trying to squeeze around you..etc are a nuisance all on thier own

more annoyance potentials than just noise imo.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

If you need to be 100% isolated move about 20 minutes further into the boonies. Just remember you'll be making 30-40 min trips to pick up tomatoes for your salad or making that same trip back cause you forgot one thing at the store.
I have an acre in a small town and its plenty for me. Anything beats the cookie cutter suburb I was in before.

 

[Charlie98]

BTW I voted "No" because I believe that you should buy what you really, really want. Don't settle IMO, especially with a house

^^^ That.

 

[kalrith]

I'm leaning majorly towards "no" now. I'm only 31, but my wife and I are trying to buy the house that our kids will grow up in and possibly we'll grow old in. The thought of road noise for the next 40 years is quite alarming. Especially since my commute will be increase from 25 minutes to 90 minutes round trip. I don't mind driving that far for peace and quiet. But to drive that far for road noise isn't worth it IMO.

It helps that the house needs some work, and I can partly use that as an excuse with the wife. It would be a harder decision if the house were in perfect shape, but needing work and being noisy equals a big fat "no!"

It's hard to balance what my wife wants with what I want. She wants a nice house. In my mind a house can be fixed or replaced, but the land can never be used. I'd rather have a shack with total peace and quiet than a mansion in a noisy setting.

I really appreciate everyone's help. I needed some unbiased third parties to talk to, so thanks again!

 

[OlafSicky]

wow 90 minutes vs 25 x 40 years just imagine what you could do with that time. Perhaps replace windows in your place now if you want less outside noise .

 

[rh71]

wow 90 minutes vs 25 x 40 years just imagine what you could do with that time. Perhaps replace windows in your place now if you want less outside noise .

windows don't help... we got new Andersen 400 series windows with our new 2nd floor and we can easily hear the dog next door bark when it's inside their house with closed windows. Oh and garbage trucks. Windows are no better than the sheetrock/insulation/siding they sit next to. You still hear things.

 

[TridenT]

windows don't help... we got new Andersen 400 series windows with our new 2nd floor and we can easily hear the dog next door bark when it's inside their house with closed windows. Oh and garbage trucks. Windows are no better than the sheetrock/insulation/siding they sit next to. You still hear things.

It really depends on your house... Some walls block a lot of sound and the windows really do let the noise in. Some don't, like yours.

 

[Capt Caveman]

If you ever plan to sell, note that it will detract a lot of buyers from even looking at the place.

 

[kalrith]

wow 90 minutes vs 25 x 40 years just imagine what you could do with that time. Perhaps replace windows in your place now if you want less outside noise .

Even if I could make my house absolutely silent, it would be nice to enjoy playing with my son outside or eating dinner on my deck without neighbors' bands playing or their dogs barking for hours every day. That plus the Harleys that like to ride up and down the street behind my house. Those are the sounds I'm trying to avoid.

Also, I want my son to grow up in the country. I want him to take care of goats and chickens. I want a slower pace of life. All of those things are worth an extra 65 minutes of driving every day. If I'm home and awake for 6 hours every evening and all weekend, then that's a lot more than the 5 extra hours of driving per week. I know it's not worth it to everyone, but it's worth it to me.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'd pass as well, not so much because of the noise, but because of the constant aggravation of trying to go in/out of your driveway with all that traffic. Try backing into your driveway when you got 100 cars on your tail beeping at you because you stopped for 5 seconds.

 

[mmntech]

My house found itself on a busy road due to poor planning the town's part. I'd love to move away form it because the noise is just awful. We can't even use our back bedroom anymore because the rush hour traffic (house backs on to road) is bloody unbelievable. Unfortunately, I can't afford to move right now. Housing is just too expensive. Even rental rates are insanely high.

 

[mugs]

Update: It's a "no". I decided to pass on the house. I don't think I'd ever get used to the road noise. I'm moving to the country mainly for peace and quiet, so it's silly to move 35 miles away in the middle of no place and then live on a 55mph highway with a decent amount of traffic.

Thanks for all the help!

I want to move to a quiet country setting on 5 or more acres. I found a really great property. I like everything about it except that it's on a 55mph highway. It's not really busy, but one car drives by every 5 minutes. The setting is perfectly quiet except for the very loud sound of trucks and motorcycles driving down the road.

Am I being too nitpicky/anal about this? Do I need to just get over it?

Or should I pass on this property because I'll always be disappointed with the noise?

Wow, I used to live on a road that had to handle hundreds of cars an hour and a good number of trucks, I never even noticed the noise. A car every 5 minutes is no big deal.

The only thing that sucked was that I could only turn left out of my driveway late at night.

 

[Jeff7]

My apartment is by an intersection of a side road and a main road. The traffic is certainly not heavy, but there is a fairly constant stream of cars during the usual rush hours. There are of course assholes who want to ensure that everyone within a mile radius is blasted with their <30Hz bass, because they really just don't give a shit about anyone but themselves.
There are also those who have very loud motorcycles, and sit there waiting at the intersection revving the engine repeatedly, presumably to satiate their ancient chest-beating urges. Then once there's an opening in traffic there's a good long and loud blast as they tear off down the street.
My own primitive violent urges generally well up at this point, as I quietly ponder how nice it would be to have an orbital pulse laser system available to quiet down the area.

So, no, I do not want to move somewhere that is next to an intersection, nor to a house that is near a busy road, particularly somewhere hilly that does not disallow brake retarder usage on trucks.
If you don't like noise, you'd likely regret a decision to buy such a house many times each day.

If it was just plain cars driving by, I wouldn't mind - I sometimes notice them, but most of the time I don't. It's just the really loud ones that make it suck, in part because of the knowledge that they're merrily flipping off the world with every decibel they willfully fire out.

 

[Red Squirrel]

My street is fairly quiet and I'd say gets a car every 5-10 minutes in the day, that's not a huge deal. Of course living in cottage country would be super awesome and all, but it's always hard to justify the distance unless you are self employed. I totally want to retire in a place like that though. Off grid, solar/wind system and whole nine yards.

The issue I have with my street is it's very rough and it's a school zone, and for some reason people here think that "school zone" means "drag race strip". People will race down the road doing 80+. For some reason a lot seem to do it with an empty metal trailer attached which makes lot of noise when it passes through all the pot holes and ruts in the road.

I would fully approve of speed cameras on my street to stop those assholes who will one day run over a kid.

 

[kalrith]

Update 9/6/2012: Bought a different house and moved in last weekend. The house is on 10 acres on a private lane about half a mile off of a non-busy 55mph highway. When outside my house, I can't hear the highway most of the time and can't see or hear my neighbors (other than the occasional dog or cow off in the distance). With the previous option, I could hear the traffic inside the house. It was definitely the right choice to pass on the previous house and keep looking for exactly what we wanted.