Hi all.
Just another Sydneysider bemoaning the current state of affairs with Sydney property right now. To try and widen the property search without increasing budget, I've been trying to find info about minimum distances from the apartment to various noise sources before you can hear it and couldn't find much except one source saying to live a minimum of 50-70m from a train line.
Does anyone have thoughts on the minimum distance an apartment has to be to mitigate -
- Highway noise?
- Train line vibration and noise?
- Rapidly collecting dust on the balcony?
And also how much being on a higher floor would help?
Cheers
It varies so widely depending on the building acoustic attenuation, lay of the land etc.
Modern buildings can be built right on train lines if they build sound attenuating building fabric to a high enough rating, double glazed windows, and air-conditioning with fresh air introduction (so you don't have to open the windows to that side), etc.
It also depends on latent background noise. If you are in a quieter area in a building without sound attenuation (no traffic noise, industrial fan noises etc) then a train line will disturb you from far further away when an infrequent train does go past - potentially hundreds of meters. Whereas if the continuous background noise is higher you may not notice it with a closed window.
In Queensland, the development codes have a "Noise Transport Corridor" map with different ranges based on how close you are. They use it to trigger noise assessments for new development to have to put in attenuation measures. These are normally done by assessing background noise for a number of days with a device left on site to record dB, frequencies of higher noises etc, and acoustic engineers design treatments to suit. However this is all only done in recent history, not so much 90s and back. Also, the noise can increase over time.
I briefly (e.g. 3 months) stayed in a building on a busy main road (commute route) amongst heavy start/stop traffic, only on about level 4, with a rail line across the street probably about 70m away for both electric and diesel trains, and on a bus route - I got used to it fairly quick and it stopped disturbing me with windows closed but a more modern building… occassionally some d!.khe@d with a super loud motor bike or modified car exhaust would wake me up early revving it / hooning past on the road just down below because it was so much louder than background - makes me wish they cracked down on exhaust mods and noise levels more to make it more controllable for the urban environment. I couldn't get over the high level of thick black toxic dust though - it coated my balcony / outdoor table with a couple of days, if you walked barefoot onto the balcony your feet would be covered, some got inside - I presume from exhaust - not healthy. Happy to get out of there.