Soundproofing Forum Topics > Soundproofing your single family home from traffic noise and neighbors.

New Fence - Maximizing Noise Road Reduction?


My fiance and I are currently in the process of purchasing a home. The house is beautifully redone and is on a ~1 acre lot that, unfortunately, backs up to a pretty major road - 4 lanes (2N, 2S) with speed limit of 45mph. Were it not for this negative the house would certainly be out of our price range, and so we've decided to compromise on the presence of some street noise.

That being said, the majority of the noise problem is outside. Inside, with the windows closed (presumably b/c they're brand new) we can't hear any street noise.

The fence along the back of the yard needs to be replaced. It's pretty rotted and essentially falling down in a few places (as you can see in the pictures). Since we're going to rip the thing out and replace it anyway, we want to consider what our options are in terms of trying to get the most noise reduction we can.

I've done a bunch of reading and the biggest factors seem to be mass and height. The fence itself is roughly 50 ft from the road, while the yard is then ~200 feet from the back of the house to the fence. It' essentially a flat line between the house and the road. The lot is ~140 feet wide

I know there are issues with city ordinances, which I will look in to, but I know a couple of our neighbors have fences that look like they're 10ft or so along the back of the property line.

The plan right now is to have a fence built and line it pretty densely with trees and shrubs. I have a couple questions, though, about materials for the fence.

I've read a bit about using MLV in conjunction with a wood fence to add some absorption to the sound dampening. I'd love to hear someone's experience with this and whether it was deemed worthwhile from a cost perspective. I saw in another thread here it also suggested to add cement board, presumably to add some more mass to the fence?

We've also considered having a cement wall built, but this seems like it would be prohibitively expensive. We need to fence a good chunk of the rest of the yard as well (have a couple of dogs), so the budget is a concern.

Building a bern also seems infeasible given the location of that shed structure and the proximity to the road.

Someone on another forum had suggested Symtek

I think the biggest concern is spending a significant amount of additional money beyond what it would cost to just put in a board-on-board cedar fence without any noticeable benefits.


Pictures of yard and road:

Randy S:
The mass of the fence/wall is important but what gives you the value is the diffracted path and shadow zone..

The distance from the road to the fence is normal, The problem I see is the distance from the fence to the house, a 10' fence might take the edge of the traffic noise off but I would not expect more then 3db drop at best.

What I would do (if you can) is go to the neighbors house and stand at the 10' wall in there yard  then start walking away from it and you will hear the sound increase when you reach the end of the quiet zone.
If this value is acceptable then proceed.

Feel free to call me direct.

Randy S.

Hi Randy,

Thanks for the info. The neighbor's fence is of the shadow box style, so it may not be the best comparison to a full privacy fence.

Nevertheless, assuming that there is a diminishing effect as one moves away from the fence are there any additional steps that can be taken?

Randy S:
Go higher and closer to source if possible.

dealing with outside noise reduction outcomes have never impressed me based on cost vs. reduction.

Randy S.


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