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new here. Recently moved into a house. Arterial road out front, cement/rcc blocks. Two story house + a walkout into a hillside slope. Main and upper floor are currently empty and we notice significant vibration coming from the traffic in front of the house, especially buses.

I'd love to the get the community's thoughts on potential solutions and while we might end up hiring an engineering firm to give us some solutions, before I spend that money I'd like to get input from any engineers here as to whether there is indeed any effective solutions possible without getting the city to do something to the road itself.

Separately, If I were somehow able to get the city to do something, what type of repaving would be most effective, these blocks just breakdown and vibrate it seems.

There was an old post on the forum here but I haven't seen much on this topic.

Thanks

Update 6/2/23: Thanks guys, since our own furniture won't be here for several weeks, I will be renting furniture for a week first (starting next weekend) to see if there's any changes in perceived ground vibrations. I would note we never felt them during the house buying process, and i confirmed with the inspector too who did the inspection when the house was filled up and he didn't feel them either.

The foundation is poured concrete.

For the trench idea, any more thoughts? I have the following "Research" on it so far but looking for smarter people than me to weigh in...

How can I eliminate home shaking caused by vibration from heavy traffic/poor road condition?

https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2008/nrc-cnrc/NR25-2-39E.pdf

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6083000/

Silver
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  • what is your foundation made of – Ruskes Jun 02 '23 at 01:46
  • 6 foot deep trench filled with sand – Ruskes Jun 02 '23 at 02:44
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    This is one of the things I checked neighborhoods for before buying. Though I will point out that after a few weeks you will probably stop noticing it, as the ape living in the back of your brain decides it's normal and nonthreatening. – keshlam Jun 02 '23 at 02:45
  • Please edit the question to limit it to a specific problem with enough detail to identify an adequate answer. – Community Jun 02 '23 at 02:49
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    I might be pleasantly surprised by the ingenuity of fellow posters, but afaik, there's not anything you can do about it. With road noise in general you can do bushes, 3-pane windows, spray foam, etc. For ground-transmission though, you'd have to isolate from the ground, which is impossible to do with an existing house; it would be cheaper to tear down and rebuild than to retrofit the foundation, rims, framing and joists. If the road is in bad shape, repaving to a smooth surface will reduce the motion generated. – dandavis Jun 02 '23 at 03:42
  • Have the building jacked up and install vibration isolators suitable to the building and vibration between the framing and the foundation, or live with it. That will be costly, but I doubt it's anywhere near "tear down and rebuild is cheaper" as claimed above. Just need to jack it and set it back down in the same location, no fuss with getting it onto a trailer and dragging it through the streets to set down elsewhere, and there are companies that do *that*... – Ecnerwal Jun 02 '23 at 12:55
  • Maybe some kind of MLV system? Probably won't be cheap. Anyway, once you have "stuff" in the main and upper floors, the stuff may soak up some of the noise. – Huesmann Jun 02 '23 at 14:19
  • @Ecnerwal a local university lab did just this a few years back and it ran several million. It will depend on the construction of course (eg slab vs rumblestone), chimney, earthquake straps, and shoring posts. _Everything_ needs to be raised >2x the p2p amplitude, which can cause issues with pipes and stacks and chases no longer reaching. It also changes the dynamic load ratings, often requiring additional structure. TBF, I may have over-stated the median cost, but certainly many house would be cheaper to rebuild than retrofit, mine included, since i can get 10 bids for new. – dandavis Jun 02 '23 at 20:08
  • added a quick update – Silver Jun 03 '23 at 01:50
  • A 100-Hz sound wave has a wavelength of 4 meters, and I bet the vibrations are even deeper bass than that. 4 meters would be width of the sand pit between the house and road. Even if only 6 feet deep (don't know where that came from), that's a lot of sand; ~120 tons on a 30' exposure. The sand pit would be bigger than a lot of front yards, and could be quite costly depending on where you live. – dandavis Jun 03 '23 at 05:32

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