The Noise Nobody Mentions
Twenty-two short episodes on the noise question that falls through every gap in the house-buying, renting and planning process — for buyers and sellers, renters and landlords, and the surveyors, agents and developers who work around it daily.
All 22 episodes are ready to play below — Spotify and other podcast apps are coming soon.
The noise question nobody asks on a viewing
Viewings are almost never scheduled at the worst time, and nobody in the buying process is obligated to mention traffic noise. What real public data actually lets you check before you offer.
What your solicitor won't tell you about a busy road
Councils, solicitors and surveyors each have reasons it's not usually part of their job to flag road noise — it typically falls outside their remit, not that any one of them is at fault. Why the decision has to happen before you buy, not after.
Renting vs buying near a railway line
Why an infrequent train pass can matter more than a steady road hum, how CRN differs from CRTN, and why the bar for checking should be lower for a purchase than a rental.
What actually helps — fences, glazing and everything in between
Why a tall garden fence often does almost nothing acoustically, and what genuinely helps at each level of risk — from doing nothing, to sealing a window, to a properly designed barrier.
What planning inspectors actually want to see on noise
Why "this will be very noisy" carries little weight in a planning objection, and the sensible sequence: a quick desktop figure first, a measured survey only once it's actually needed.
Why your HomeBuyer Report is silent on traffic noise
A growing professional exposure for surveyors: some clients can assume silence means "not significant," not "out of scope." Why pointing clients to an instant check protects everyone.
Briefing developers on BS 8233 and site-wide noise risk
A planning noise condition usually guarantees a closed-window standard, not a quiet garden. How developers can check variation across a whole site at the feasibility stage.
What noise actually does to your sleep
The WHO's roughly 45 dB night-time threshold, and why noise fragments sleep well below the level of consciously waking up — explained without the anxiety.
The health case for a quiet home
Chronic noise exposure and cardiovascular risk — a genuinely graded, not binary, picture, and why knowing your actual risk band is the useful first step.
Living well next to a busy road (series closer)
A hopeful close to the first ten episodes: this is a spectrum, not one experience — and the real gap was never the science, it's that nobody checks by default.
What a seller near a busy road actually has to tell you
What the TA6 form actually asks (disputes, not ambient noise) — and why disclosing more than the bare legal minimum usually serves a seller's own interest anyway.
The first house you fall for is the one you check least
First-time buyers have no checklist built from experience and often fall hardest for "the one." Why a check from £34.99 is trivial next to what's actually at stake.
What happens when a tenant complains, six weeks after move-in
Structural fixes get far harder and more disruptive, not impossible, once a tenant's already moved in — and the bigger cost is often relational. Why checking before listing protects the landlord/tenant relationship.
The one address that's quietly costing you the rest of the portfolio
How one badly-placed rental quietly costs a landlord more than the others combined — through shorter tenancies and extra void days, not one obvious loss.
The search category conveyancing never runs
Why ambient noise typically sits outside the standard conveyancing search — and why pointing clients to an independent check protects a solicitor's own client relationships.
Noise, sleep, and a child's school week
What road and rail noise specifically does to children's sleep, and the downstream link to next-day attention — evidence-based and graded, not alarmist.
Your home office has a commute now — it's called getting out of bed
Daytime noise used to be "somebody else's problem" for anyone out at work. Why it's now a real productivity question for remote and hybrid workers.
Four things people believe about noise that aren't quite true
Myth-busting: night-time noise isn't just daytime noise turned down, a tall fence doesn't automatically help, and a new build's planning condition guarantees less than you'd think.
The guest who complains doesn't come back — they just leave a review
Why road noise is a bigger public reputational risk for short-let hosts than long-term landlords — and why an honest listing protects both the guest and the booking rate.
What the price actually knows
Property prices do bake in noise, on average — but that average tells you nothing about one specific house. The thread tying the whole series together.
"I complained to the council and they can't do anything" — why
Traffic noise is specifically excluded from statutory nuisance law (EPA 1990, s79(6A)(a)) — why that exclusion exists, what Noise Important Areas are instead, and what the real options actually are.
The house is fine, it's the road that might get busier
A desktop or measured noise result is a snapshot of today's traffic, not a guarantee for the next twenty years — the real DfT growth scenarios, and what's actually worth checking before a long-term purchase.
Check your own address.
A plain-English noise risk assessment for any address in England, from £34.99.