Best ways to reduce road noise

dominoman

We are buying a house on a busy road and thinking of how best to reduce road noise.

1) A layer of secondary glazing added inside the existing double glazing

2) Triple glazing

Which of those is likely to be more effective?

shegar

A good thick hedge a round your boundry would help, also double glazing ....I personally wouldnt buy a house so close to the road, thats because im not use to traffic , are you use to traffic noise ,? do you think you can live with the noise if you cant block it out ?.......

Tancred

dominoman wrote: »

We are buying a house on a busy road and thinking of how best to reduce road noise.

1) A layer of secondary glazing added inside the existing double glazing

2) Triple glazing

Which of those is likely to be more effective?

Definitely (1) - triple glazing is more designed to preserve heat than keep noise out.

Mobeer

Wait six months and see if you still notice the noise - friends living near the A2(M) became immune after a while.

dimbo61

What is the condition of the double glazing which faces onto the busy/noisy road ?
Double glazing has improved alot over the last few years so why not consider replacing them if old or single glazed

Tancred

dimbo61 wrote: »

What is the condition of the double glazing which faces onto the busy/noisy road ?
Double glazing has improved alot over the last few years so why not consider replacing them if old or single glazed

Double glazing by itself does little to reduce noise. The best way to reduce noise is secondary glazing together with double glazing. And there should be at least 10cms between them for the noise to be properly absorbed.

Tancred

dominoman wrote: »

We are buying a house on a busy road and thinking of how best to reduce road noise.

1) A layer of secondary glazing added inside the existing double glazing

2) Triple glazing

Which of those is likely to be more effective?

You also need to bear in mind that in hot weather you will be needing to open windows, especially at night, otherwise you'll stew. Even the most soundproofed windows won't be of much use then.

DRP

Tancred wrote: »

Double glazing by itself does little to reduce noise. The best way to reduce noise is secondary glazing together with double glazing. And there should be at least 10cms between them for the noise to be properly absorbed.

Actually, in my experience, modern double glazing makes a huge difference relative to the old stuff. I would recommend changing it if the existing upvc windows are decades old.

Oxid8uk

Depends on a number of factors:

how noisy it is;
size of the windows; and
size of the rooms.

If very noisy then as Tancred said, double glazing together with a secondary glazing system. To reduce low frequency noise (which is the main component of road traffic noise) you need greater mass and a larger air gap which standard double glazing and triple glazing doesn't provide.

In my work I sometimes have to specify glazing for new residential properties - usually it is higher specification double glazing (thicker glass, larger airgap) or secondary glazing systems. I don't ever recall specifiying triple glazing as acoustically it doesn't make much difference other than filtering out the higher frequency noise making the lower frequency noise more noticeable (all to do with wavelength).

The issue will be ventilating your rooms especially if there is no other mechanical method to ventilate the place i.e. air conditioning or similar. Opening a window for ventilation seriously reduces the acoustic performance of any window system.

fionajbanana

Mobeer wrote: »

Wait six months and see if you still notice the noise - friends living near the A2(M) became immune after a while.

When I was 13, my parents and I moved to a house 150 yards from the parish church. I couldn't sleep at first as the church bells were ringing every quarter of an hour. Within 6 weeks I never heard them.

Even returning to my parents after 5 years gap, it didn't affect me.

JennyW_2

Aside from the glazing you could put up acoustic fencing?