To worry about living near a dual carriageway

[rogertherabbit]

I'm looking at a lovely house online which seems perfect in so many ways. It is in a smallish village (approx 600-700 people) which runs along an A road that is national speed limit. The house is probably 8-10 cars lengths away from the road and there are a few trees between the house and the road. I know the answer to my question is to go and see the house, but I'm just wondering if any of you live near a national speed limit road, and if so how much of a problem is it? The A road runs between two medium sized towns so I don't really know how busy it'll be. Major cities are further away than these towns

Do you get used to the noise? The house has old sash windows which I assume could be upgraded at some stage to something more noise-proof

I will go and see the house, but I'm worried I'll love it and the only issue might be the road! No animals to worry about luckily

I live 600metres away from a dual carriage way (have just measured on google) and you would never know that it's there.
There are a couple of fields between it and us.

It's actually very useful to be able to look aft traffic build up from my bedroom window and know when I need to leave for work!

I find the motorway noise to be much less intrusive than town road noise, personally. During the day in my garden you can hear it of course but the birds drown it out quite a bit and at night it's a relatively gentle continuous hum, which I find much less disturbing to my sleep than boy racers screeching up and down the road! I agree with the other posters who said you need to visit as much as you can and listen to try and judge how tolerable it is for you.

I once looked at a house near the M3. There was just a distant hum of traffic, the noise wasn't intrusive at all. We didn't end up buying it, but that was because we put an offer in but then they changed their mind about selling the house.

I live in a quiet spot now, but sometimes if the wind is blowing in our direction we can hear the motorway and railway line very clearly.

When I was a child we lived near a railway line. When we first moved in I used to dash into the lounge every time I heard a train to have a look but eventually got used to the noise. That said, I think on the whole, train noise is easier to live with than road noise (if it's not freight trains).

You can only tell if you can cope with it by having a look at different times of day.

As a child I lived alongside an A road and by Gatwick and I missed the noise when we moved. Silence seemed odd. My first flat backed onto a rail track in London and I really don't remember it bothering me.

But now I live in a quiet street and love the peace and quiet of the garden. Having experienced no traffic noise there is no way I would live near a busy road again.

This might help?

www.howpollutedismyroad.org.uk/roads.php

Sorry, posted too soon, didn't see that's for London! But there might be an equivalent for where you are.

I wouldn't. Noise wouldn't bother me but air pollution would.

That is waaaaaay too close to a main A road for me. And if you have cats or kids, definitely not, no, sorry.

We used to live about 7-8 minutes walk from an A road (so maybe a third of a mile as the crow flies,) and you could hear the traffic all day and all night.

I wouldn't buy it, but it's your call of course.

My bil lives in a village and his house backs onto the M1, looks roughly the distance from the road as the house you're looking at. To be honest in the house with windows shut you don't hear anything, you do hear the traffic from the garden though. There's only their back garden and a narrow field between the house and the M1 and although you do hear the traffic in the garden you don't tend to notice it after a while as it's a constant sound and you tend to tune it out after a while. I notice the M1 noise at bill's house less than I notice the noise of the main road at my dad's house that has lorries every so often as they make a racket going over the bumps in the road.

As pp have said you need to visit the house at different times of the day to see if the noise would bother you too much. As I say most people don't notice the noise in bil's garden after about half an hour but one of his friends is more sensitive to the noise and frequently says he couldn't live there.

I definitely wouldn't consider this - particularly if you have DC. The health problems associated with living next to a busy road (due to air pollution) are considerable.

I'd be more worried about the state of the air and what long term effect it would have on my health to be breathing it in day in day out, rather than the noise TBH . You can clean your windows but you have to hope your lungs do a great job of cleaning themselves!

Check if the house has any protections on it - you may not be allowed to replace old sash windows.

I wouldn't do it no, becayse I did do it, but our house was only about three car lengths from the road and not cushioned by trees. We had parking issues that were unexpected as the property had none, but parking restrictions outside changed causing issues, but sill things like uou couldn't open the windows in summer due to the fact when you did the noise became apparant, the patio constantly turned black due to pollution and uou needed to make sure it was hugely secure for pets and small kids. Also just rhe general monotony of the view.

Honestly both of us would be really hesitant to live near near an A road again and when we were buying three years ago we inadvertently viewed one which was also about 8car lengths off the main road and surrounded by a large brick wall and we immediately discounted it due to the road. drive by the house many times, when you are inside, open the windows and see what you can hear, see it at rush hour too then make your decision.

The direct noise might not be the biggest problem. If there's a short dual section, it might be down to hilly terrain. My parents are at the bottom of a hill and large vehicles come thumping down it and shake the whole house.

You also need to check how easy it is to access the property. There's a lot of accidents on a main road near us where people leaving nearby houses can't get up to speed quick enough or someone hasn't seen them pull out from around a bend and is on top of them before they know it.

The house I grew up in was next to the M3 (probably about a similar distance from your photo). Even with windows opened, you do get used to the noise.

That's a good point about the pollution - I hadn't thought of that. We have a young daughter so not ideal!

So I went to have a little nosey look today - the house is amazing!! The road noise really wasn't that bad, there are a lot of trees there. I think I will book a date with the estate agent, if only to see if it's as lovely on the inside

We live on an A road, and the front of the house is about 10 feet from the road edge - tiny narrow front garden between. Scottish borders, so roads perhaps not as busy as in other areas. Speed limit is 60 I think, not a dual carriageway. Previous owners put triple glazing at the front, and the traffic noise doesn't bother us. Front windows do get dirty though. It was a negative when we looked at the house, but this was outweighed by the fact that there are no neighbours for at least a mile in every direction, which is a big plus for us. So, if everything else about the house is what you want, maybe traffic noise is not so bad - give me that any day over neighbour's dogs barking etc!

we lived about 18 yards from a duel carriage was we lived there for about 40 years we both have lung disease .i am 71 my sister has only 6 months left to live .the net curtain in the bathroom used to have thousands of little black slithers. i took them down every month and wondered what our insides are like.