Living next to a road or railway line - how much is a deal breaker is it?

Tom99

I have lived in a house which was less than 6ft from a railway embankment and you very quickly learn to ignore the noise.

davidmcn

Depends on the road or railway - I've lived next to a branch line with a half-hourly service, with both directions passing at roughly the same time - so 25 minutes or so of silence between a very regular sound, which you quickly get used to. And no trains overnight (and generally advance warning of any overnight engineering work or chainsawing of vegetation!).

Whereas a main road could have random noise 24/7, boy racers, drunken pedestrians etc.

Have also lived close enough to a motorway to hear the roar of it in the distance, but that quickly becomes white noise which you can tune out.

ProDave

I spent the first 23 years of my life in the family home on a very busy road. The road noise was worse when it was wet, so it was mostly tyre noise, that will be just as bad with electric vehicles.

It almost never stopped and in spite of what people say, I could never tune it out, it was always there.

The result of that is I am now VERY particular about noise when I buy a house. I just could not go back to that again. I want to be able to sit in my garden and hear nothing but natural sounds, not traffic going past all the time.

Sapphire

Railway line is fine – we lived in a place overlooking a large section of tracks with a siding, at which heavy-goods trains would stop and steam, emitting clouds of smoke. The trains themselves were always filthy and grey, though really interesting and characterful, like dragons of some kind. We were quite used to the noise and in fact would stand on the balcony observing the trains. I would even enjoy living in a place that overlooked railway lines.

Busy roads (or loud humans) are another thing. I definitely wouldn't want either outside my property.

Marvel1

Train track wouldnt bother me, busy main road would.

Albala

Busy road- no, I lived on one for several years and I found it was actually quite tiring. Also lived a field away from the M6 at one point- you had to shout to each other if you wanted to talk in the garden if the wind was blowing from the motorway (always best to be on the west side as the prevailing winds are generally from the SW).
Now live a field + minor road + house and garden away from a main line four track railway. No problem at all. In fact, we were agreeing that we'd actually miss it when we moved. I find it quite pleasant to her a train go by in the night if I'm awake- it's never loud enough to wake me up.

DibbeeG

I've been living on main road for 6 years... never got used to the noise.
The house vibrates when buses drive past, I have to sleep with earplugs and can't relax in the back garden because all you can hear is traffic!

Waterlily24

We used to live on the A259 coast road and didn't find it a problem, the house was 2 car lengths plus a fairly wide footpath back from the road. We didn't have a problem selling either but it was a nice house.