Real Estate Community Forum

I have a house that resides on a hill with a huge backyard which stretches to the highway down below. This highway is often busy with traffic and a lot of noise can be heard from these cars at my house. Some municipalities have the construction of walls and fences tall enough to provide an effective sound barrier, but in my situation its hopeless since my house resides on a hill overlooking the highway. Is there any way to reduce this noise through proper landscaping? I have thought of planting trees and hedges, but I'm not sure what type would be the most beneficial and where would be the best place to plant them. Any suggestions?

I have a friend the lives near a freeway in Ohio, and he got these speakers that somehow reduce or mask the noise in your backyard or something. I went to his house and you seriously couldn't even hear the unwanted noise. I googled "sound masking backyard" and came up with:
http://www.comfozone.com/

My research suggests that you could also try getting a water fountain to drown out the noise with water, but that may just be adding more noise to a noise problem. There is also the planting/hedging option you have mentioned. Road noises generally travels upward, so if you have a slope down to the road or a second story home, the closer to the road you get the wall/berm/plants, the better. These, in combination with deciduous plants with thick, fleshy leaves have been shown to be most effective in absorbing, deflecting and reflecting noise. Evergreen trees, shrubs, and ground covers can be mixed with deciduous plants to create a solid, year-round buffer. Wide bands of such plantings or a six-foot solid wall covered in Ivy and a 5-foot wide hedge in front will also absorb a lot more sound than a simple hedge of boxwood. The wider the hedge, the more sound it reduces, as it is the twigs, leaves and branches that "absorb" or reflect the sound back at the source.

I have a friend who lives next to a highway. He lives in a beautiful house with lots of land, but the noise of the highway can be very annoying. I suppose he's used to the noise by now, but I worry that he will have a difficult time selling the house one day. Lets face it, who wants to live next to a highway and pay over $400,000 dollars for a home with highway traffic noise? Not me!

In regards to lowering the noise level, he hired a landscaper to create a hill in his backyard. The hill is relatively big and is all the way to the back of the yard. I'm sure he paid a lot of money for the construction of the hill because a large amount of dirt was brought in. At first it looked ugly, but now grass has grown over it and it blends much better with the yard. According to him, the noise is lower, but to me it's the same.

If your house is on a busy street, you can buy special windows that absorb sound, or you can insulate your existing ones, but you might also want to look outside the windows to address the problem.

The best way to reduce traffic noise is actually to break up the sound waves. Generally speaking, if a barrier blocks your view of the road, it will do a good job reducing noise transmission. You can put up a sturdy fence, or you can plant some trees (trees do tend to be prettier than fences).

Though hedges grow quickly, evergreen trees work the best for blocking noise. They are better than hardwoods, too, because they are fuller and they stay that way all year long. If they will thrive in your climate, plant a screen of evergreens as close to the roadway as possible to create a barrier that will reduce traffic noise for years to come.

Hope this helps and good luck

Two things that really worked for me to reduce traffic noise were vines on a stake fence and a waterfall. But there are tricks to both. The noise level from a freeway changes in pitch. Some times it is high and sometimes it is deep (like when a diesel 18-wheeler uses the engine break).

Try and figure out which is the most annoying and pitch your waterfall to that general pitch. I used some oak barrels and tipped them over each other. The pitch was pretty low, since a very busy freeway was about five blocks away. Because it was a constant hissing noise, I needed a high pitched sound to mask it. So I added blocks at the bottom of the barrel half and stones on top of those. The shallow water made the trickle into the barrel pitched higher, and did the trick. A solid fence will reflect the road noise back into your ears. One fence that got plenty of sunlight was easy to plant a fleshy vine on. The shadowy half was not so easy. I finally found a vine that likes shadow; grape ivy. Just be sure to control the roots, or the neighbors won’t like you.

A proposed Kenmore Bypass Freeway (freeway 90km/hour and reduce to 70km/hour at the Gem Rd based on the Qld Mainroads's feasibility study ) proposal is about above 100 meters from the house. I am afraid that as soon as the Kenmore Bypass is completed, the traffic noise will effect the house.

Does anyone know how bad the noise will effect the house if it is about above 100 metters away the freeway? Actually about 8 house blocks.

How much the house price will be discounted if it is located such close to the freeway?

Would a sound insulation fence will help reducing the noise?

Thanks a lot

Reducing the traffic noise can be a bit tricky, but 8 Blocks is a good distance and if you have any shrubs or a privacy fence it should not be as noticeable. In terms of the road affecting the price, it may have a positive impact if it reduces the time to get to desirable locations (shopping, grocery, downtown, etc). Hope that helps.