Will I get used to road noise in garden?

[StaringAtTheWater]

We've had an offer accepted on a house we really like, but there's worry keeps coming back to niggle at me, which is road noise in the garden.

The road the house is on, is a very quiet dead end road, but it's about 200m from an A road. You can't hear anything in the house, but you can in the garden. It's not very loud (about 45-50 decibels according to a phone app) but it is pretty constant.

DH and my sister (who I invited round for a second opinion) think I'm being a bit ridiculous! We will struggle to find anything nearly as nice house wise within budget in that area. My plan is to purchase a solar powered water feature to drown the road noise out - has anyone done this and did it work? Will I just get used to it anyway?

You’ll get used to it. I lived next to a pedestrian crossing with the beeping and after a while that barely registered. with yours being a consistent low hum sort of noise (I imagine) I think you’ll very quickly not even notice.

6 months in you won't hear it

We are one garden away for a road that's busy during the day, has emergency vehicles with sirens most days, but fairly quiet at night.

You get used to it.

I was going to get a water feature, but not sure I will now.

My parents lived on a military base and my mum slept through all that noise and it never bothered her, she barely noticed it. When dad left the army they moved to a village and mum got woken up every day for a month by the cows in the field next-door. She eventually got used to it and like the military base barely noticed it.

You won’t get used to it if it bothers you ! We have a hospital at the back of our garden and the fans became slightly louder, I hear if every time I sit in the garden 😩

Thanks all, sounds like the majority think I will get used to it ☝.

That's a shame @ScarlettnotOHara. How long ago did the fans get louder? Or does it change regularly?

You’d need to go quite far rural not to be near a road. Roads are useful things. They allow you to access other places. For me this distance would be fine.

Lol, that's a good point @Coffeetableposhbooks . I think for me it seems like a drawback because our current garden is very quiet even though we live in a big city. We are quite close to a busy road, but because the speed limit is only 20mph the noise doesn't travel far.

We live near an A road, the houses opposite have gardens, a small field beyond the gardens then the A road, it's a busy ring road round the city that leads to the motorway.
Tbh you stop hearing it, it becomes background noise that you don't really notice.
It's busy 24/7.
I can't hear it from inside the house and I don't really think about when I'm outside as I'm so used to it.

I just measured (online) and I’m 160meters from an A road. I genuinely don’t hear the traffic.

We have put a small water feature near our seating area, lovely sound and likely to cover road noise.

You get used to it. We used to live on a fairly busy road (double decker buses and the like) as well as being opposite a train line.

I didn't realise how noisy it must have been until we moved to a quiet road and the silence was so noticeable - you do just learn to drown it out.

My friend lives in a similar situation. When I’m in her garden I think the noise is unbearable, she doesn’t notice it. Of greater concern is the pollution. You would be surprised how bad it is even quite far from an A road.

You will get used to it. I grew up with a railway line and trains going past at the end of the back garden and you just don't notice it.

It can also depend on the wind direction as i now live about half a mile from the A30 and you rarely hear the traffic but occasionally if the wind blows in a certain direction at night when it's quieter in general you can hear the rumble of the traffic on there.

I have a motorway a field away. It does irritate me sometimes but I convince myself it's the sound of a distant river. It only really gets intrusive when the road is wet after rain, much louder then.

I live near a main road, a train station and a tram stop. You do get used to it, I notice now what time it is by the traffic or lack off.

DH lived under the flightpath for LHR, right under and said he got used to it. You'd have to be very isolated to not have any noise at all.

We live within earshot of a motorway. You do get used to it, but lockdown was lovely without the noise. Actually noise has got worse since they converted it to a smart motorway. There's a compromise with every house, and this was the compromise for ours. Handy for work and getting around though.

I think if you’re bothered by it you will hear it ! My husband doesn’t hear the fans but it really annoyed me 😂

I've lived in mmy house 11 years and it still pissed me off.

Wish I'd listened to my inner doubt.

DH doesn't notice it.

I've lived in 2 houses with road noise. We're not big garden users compared to the rest of the house so it never bothered me or DH. If anything we quite liked a bit of background buzz, made us a bit less self-conscious out there especially with young kids!

It depends
Are you predominantly introvert or extrovert?
I am the former and avoidable noise is the first item on my checklist. I would never get used to traffic I don't think.
Having said that I have become sort of accustomed to the extraordinarily intrusive noises - loud grunting , shrieking and howling sounds mainly, from a profoundly disabled child next door.
When it all kicks off into what sounds like a full on assault I just turn up Radio 3 on my headphones.
I can't afford either to move or sound proof.

I bought a house with the exact same situation of the road nearby and I’m moving out 2 years later because of it. The noise just ruins the garden, even though it isn’t crazy loud it’s just a constant distraction from any relaxation you’re trying to do. Scares my pets too when “boy racers” zoom up the road. Tried the fountain & it doesn’t do the trick. It’s just road noise + water running.

Depends a lot on wind direction. We were a field away from the M6 at one point, and we had to shout to make each other hear if the wind blew the sound our way, which, as the motorway was west of us, was a lot of the time.
When we moved east of it, though somewhat further away, but very close to the railway line, we noticed that we didn't hear either of them unless the wind was in the east, which is a lot less often in the English Midlands, prevailing winds been Southwesterly.
Having said that, I lived on a four lane road in north London, at traffic lights between a massive fire station and two hospitals one way, and all the people they wanted to visit the other way. I got so used to it that when several fire engines turned up to a fire across the road I only noticed when the fire broke a window. That tiny tinkle drew my attention when all those engines screaming up hadn't, becaue I wasn't used to it.

@Words I'm definitely introvert while DH is extrovert, which might explain our different perceptions! I don't mind some background noise - e.g. I like the general beach background noise (waves + snatches of conversation + kids playing), but if someone starts playing their god awful music that sets my teeth on edge!

@Blankscreen and @Mostmarriedcouple this is what worries me. Out of interest, have you measured the noise level in decibels?

I live on the flight path of an international airport and very near the A1, you get used to it and don't hear it anymore