dream house but... noise!

mikee_j

Hi all,

I'm thinking of putting in an offer for a house in London which backs onto a tube line. The house itself is perfect and the only compromise is the noise from the tube and i'm trying to weigh up my options.

The bedroom which faces the tube line currently has the orginal single glazed sash window with some sort of secondary glazing sloution. The tube is definately noticable but i was wondering what can be done to increase the reduction of the tube noise and whether there is an option out in the market to completely block out the noise? (and costs!) Would a 'heavy interlined Curtain' have any effect?

I'm guessing that this must be a common issue in London, and around the country for that matter, with houses backing onto railway lines.

I have a second viewing of the house next week, what should i be looking out for interms of ways to mitigate noise?!

any help, advice and recommendations would be greatly appreciated, and any stories of your noise situations would be interesting.

Thanks,

Mike

poppysarah

You might get used to the noise.

tanith

It won't only be noise, depending how close it is you will get vibration as well.... You will get used to the noise and movement and will hardly notice it after a while.. I had friends who lived in such a house and they truly never noticed trains going by, but visitors did and to be honest it was very noticeable to me . It will all depend on wether you want to buy a house where you are going to be bothered by train noise for a time till you get used to it.. and then not mind inflicting the noise etc on your visitors... You will never block it out entirely and of course the vibration is always going to be felt..

carefullycautious

I used to live in a house that had a railway line close by. Although we noticed the noise at first we soon got used to it and within a few months became immune to it. In fact we spent 24 years at this house.

However a new build estate was built behind where the trains pulled into the station and there were complaints about work which was carried out throughout the night. British rail said that there was not a lot they could do about this as they had to work through the night to enable daytime travel.

Have not heard anything in the press for a while so hopefully this has been resolved. I think the only thing which would put me off is if the house shook or vibrated as this would wind me up. At least you wont have anyone at the back of your property causing trouble so that is a plus.

Can you talk to the neighbours and get their take on this

Doozergirl

If you're in London then the house is either shaking or vibrating or you are near to the overground line, in which case it's noisy too. Having lived in so many places in London it's almost unavoidable.

We lived a 7 minute walk away from the station yet if it was very quiet you could hear the trains underground or if you sat outside at night, the ground would tremble.

The benefits of being near to a tube station increase your value yet increase the likelyhood of being affected by noise or vibration or both. Friends have a flat worth half a million and yet the tube is noticeable every few minutes underground - yet it's brilliant for them that they can stumble out of bed and off to work in the morning.

If the trains are overground, very near to you and not so near to the station then it's an issue. We had a flat very near to a train station and the trains were so slow as to be quiet. Another friend has a flat backing onto the train line, far from the station and that is something that would take getting used to.

never_enough

I put a hedge at the end of my garden when I had the same problem. I bought it already grown to 6ft & doubled it (two close rows) so it grew very thick. It made a lot of differance at ground floor level (& the birds loved it too). Also stopped a direct view into our garden, the trains often stopped for points & it was quite strange to look up at a crowded train.
I would never encourage fitting upvc or removing original windows, but this may be a time when it makes sense to do that as noise will always be an issue for owners/buyers. Or you may be able to get a replacement double glazed unit fitted into the original frame. It is unlikely to be deep enough for triple glazing.
Also thick interlined curtains are great, but useless in the Summer when you sleep with the window open.
Put a child in the back bedroom, they seem not to notice things like that so much!
My mother has a flat with balcony backing onto the tube & you really do get used to it or just filter it out.

white_noise

mikee_j wrote: »

The bedroom which faces the tube line currently has the orginal single glazed sash window with some sort of secondary glazing sloution. The tube is definately noticable but i was wondering what can be done to increase the reduction of the tube noise and whether there is an option out in the market to completely block out the noise? (and costs!) Would a 'heavy interlined Curtain' have any effect?

Hi there,
I should be able to help out, one i live backing onto the south west main line (currently 10 m from where i am sitting, ooohh look a train) and two i also a noise consultant.
from my own experience of living close to a railway, you do slowly get used to the noise, when i first moved in i thought that it would really be a problem but its not so bad (my girlfriend also had double glazing installed with helped loads). we use the bedroom on the facade away from the railway so it doesn't effect us at night so much, however we do suffer from re-radiated noise, i.e the vibrations causing the house to shake and radiate the noise into the room, this effects use in the bedroom at night, but its not as annoying as it used to be.
as for the technical side of the noise problem, how far are you from the tracks? how many storey's does the house have. do you have line of sight to the tracks from any rooms? if so how many rooms? when you have been in the house have you noticed any vibrations in the house when the trains go past? how frequent are they?
the main problem (apart from the trains) is the sash windows, as they are single glazed (probably 4-5mm) they have a poor sound reduction as the window panes don't have a hell of a lot of stiffness so flex and transmit the noise, another problem with sash's is with age they may warp and so do not have a good seal around the frames/with each other meaning that there is air gaps where the noise/air pressure can get through.
so one thing to check is the condition of the windows and see what the thickness of the glazing is and what the seals are like, if they are rubbish it might be worth replacing them, or getting them refurbished. one word of warning is that you should check with a building control officer to see if you can replace them with modern windows as the house might be in a conservation area. if you want to stick to sashes there are quite a few companies that will renovate windows or put in modern double glazing into sashes, it just depends on the situation. a very important part though is to get good seals between the two sashes and on the outside of the frame. Also if you do replace them and you can only have a single pane of glass go for the thickest you can and if possible it be laminate glass as these things gives the glass more stiffness
what is the secondary glazing unit? how thick is it? does this have a good seal? if its a thin pane of glass with a poor seal its not going to help a lot.
you haven't mentioned much about the area between the tracks and your house, is this a garden, does this have a wall/fence/hedge at the bottom? putting up a wall or close boarded fence with be much more effective than a hedge at mitigating against the noise for rooms on the first floor.
is the type of noise you are hearing most the rubble of the wheels on the tracks or aerodynamic noise from the trains going past? hopefully you aren't near a station as you will get brake squeal and trains revving as they move off.
WN

socrates

I like to see answers based around facts - its great how there always seems to be an expert on most subjects

martindow

I believe that for sound insulation the double glazing requirements are different to those for thermal insulation, in that a large gap between the panes is best for sound, so maybe secondary glazing could be most effective. Maybe white noise who is clearly the expert here would like to comment on this?

LindsayO

any chance of talking to the neighbours, to see what they have done?

adg1

A friend of mine owned a flat on a one way system that was SO noisy it made the bedroom uninhabitable almost. He had U-PVC windows fitted and had the bedroom secondary glazed with a nice think glass pane.

The gap between was about 4 inches if I remember correctly and it worked wonders. There was only a slight drone left from the traffic. Useless in the summer though as it got a quite warm in the room.

Vibration is unavoidable if you are in certain vicinity of the lines or over the tunnels for example.

Check out Google and type in something like 'best wasy to reduce niose with windows' or something along those lines.