Making the road noise a little less with willow screening??

Hi all

Just wondering if I could get a bit of advice on reducing road noise as I've just moved house and have (possibly foolishly) bought a house right next to a busy A road (although the main reason for buying was 6 acres to play with!!! )

I've been having a read around about planting for noise reduction and came across a suggestion of putting two fresh woven willows screens up about 75cm apart and filling between them with earth, and the idea was that the willow would then grow and provide a noise barrier and attractive screen

I can't quite envisage how this would work and if it would just look a mess with the willow??

I was originally thinking some yew hedges but expecting it taking a bit of time to get them big enough to make a difference

Any suggestions welcome!!

 

Willow is not unattractive but there's no way it would support the weight of a wall of mud. Not without support from some very substantial stakes anyway.

Unless the mud wall is not exactly vertical. Then it would work, and is fairly common practice in some modern developments I've seen.

 

If the wall was angled so that it sloped on each side and flat on top, say 3 metres wide at the bottom, one metre wide at the top, and sloped at 45 degrees, adjusting the measurements to achieve the desired height but I wouldn't go steeper than 45 degrees. On its own that would erode away over time, but willow would bind it and also add further height and mass to the barrier.

While that will muffle the sound a bit, it won't fully silence it. But on the plus side you could end up like my mate who lives right next to the M1. He can hear perfectly well when you speak to him, but he can't hear the traffic passing his garden. Anyone who visits can, it's loud. Very loud. But he can't hear it anymore.

 

I've looked into noise reduction .

If you have double glazing already - the best way to reduce road noise is secondary glazing - there is special acoustic glass which can be used.

The bigger the gap between the double glazing and the secondary glazing the better the noise insulation.

In terms of outside - you really need a solid barrier - I use a busy road going to work - with houses on each side. There is a high earth bank and solid (looks like corrugated metal) fencing. This seems to be the approach used by builders - I'm not sure how effective this is as the houses on the side of this particular road are always up for sale.

You could also try purchasing some mature hedging plants to see if this helps.

 

Similar story - I was at a conference a couple of years ago. Someone there didn't sleep very well as the hotel was too quiet - she was used to cars driving past her flat all night. So as you say clueless - you get used to noise - and either block it out or even miss is when its gone.