Problems Road outside our New Property

joebloggs09

HI All

Just moved into a new house we have just brought, the road outside our house is a bus route, I do not mind the noise, but my concern is that some of the large double decker buses and heavy goods vehicles cause the house to shudder badly a times and concerned that in the long could cause structal damaged to the house.

I have noticed that the road outside has abit of a strange small dip that looks to causes the problem, I have contacted the local council but they do not seem bothered as their highway department manager has already had a look I missed him, but I have got him to come out again tomorrow.

Sorry to go on just after some advise abit worried.


Many thanks

Rossy.

No i doubt HGV's or buses will cause any problems structually, The dip usually occurs in roads over time when it hasn't been properly maintained. It probably just needs resurfacing to bring it up to scratch.

I work in the bus industry and we have 200 buses going in and out all day, sure the concrete is looking a bit worn but we just redo it when it gets to the limit. I can understand a train making the house vibrate as you're talking a couple of hundred tonnes but a hgv maxed out is only about 40-45 tonnes, a double deck bus weighs 12 tonne empty up to 16 when fully loaded

pararct

How old is the house? Does it have a front garden or abut directly onto the road?

What classification is the road A B or minor?

theartfullodger

Caveat emptor:

Next time you buy somewhere, go round & sit outside at various times of the day & night & find out if you are happy... before you commit yourself...

Too late now I fear.. Ask council/councillors to do something about it but, you bought the place when the "issue" was there already...

Sorry to be blunt, one lives & learns..


Cheers!

Artful

PS Turn the tele up??

mrcol1000

Are you sure its the house shuddering and not just vibrations? from the vehicle. If heavy traffic did cause structual problems then a lot of old houses would have collasped a long time ago.

ItMightBeUsefulOneDay

joebloggs09 wrote: »

the large double decker buses and heavy goods vehicles cause the house to shudder badly a times and concerned that in the long could cause structal damaged to the house.

Quite possible, yes, if the vibration is large enough which is certainly sounds like from your description.

joebloggs09 wrote: »

I have noticed that the road outside has abit of a strange small dip that looks to causes the problem, I have contacted the local council but they do not seem bothered

They won't give a flying fig about a small dip in the road I'm afraid. With all the recent budget cuts, road surfaces have fallen to the bottom of the priority list. All you can do is keep pestering them about it to see if they can be persuaded to fill it in or smooth it over.

white_noise

ItMightBeUsefulOneDay wrote: »

Quite possible, yes, if the vibration is large enough which is certainly sounds like from your description.

it depends how far the property is from the road and what the construction is, BS 7385 gives a absolute mimimal level of 15 mm/s @ 4 Hz, and raises to 50 mm/s @ 50 Hz before cosmetic building damage may occur.
from the ANC guidelines

Building Versus Human Sensitivity
It should firstly be appreciated that there is a major difference
between the sensitivity of people when feeling vibration and the
onset of levels of vibration which damage the structure. Levels of
vibration at which adverse comment is likely are below levels of
vibration that damage buildings. When asked to view any alleged
vibration-induced damage, this difference in sensitivity between
people and structures should be kept in mind. It also means that
vibration-induced damage is relatively rare because building
occupants become disturbed by or annoyed with building
vibration well before it is sufficiently large to cause damage to structural elements.

and as mentioned before

For road traffic vibration and groundborne noise, the most
significant process occurs when forces, generated by vehicles

passing over road surfaces with imperfections present,

unless you the facade of your property is right on the road then i don't think that its going to be an issue and even then its unlikely, and when they resurface the road the problem is likely to go
WN