Next Door to a Sand and Gravel Company??

Okay, the house search is still on... If you've seen my "Realtor Advice" thread, you know we put in an offer on a house. The deal fell through when we were out-bid. :( (We are still with the same realtor.)

Since then we've seen another house that we love-- it's everything we want-- EXCEPT, it's right across the street from a sand and gravel company. Not only is it a bit of an eyesore (that's not visible from the house), but it's noisy all day, with lots of dump trucks coming and going. The sellers told us it's being bought out and million-dollar homes are going in, but we have no way of validating his story (currently the gravel company still owns the title). Any opinions? It's a really nice house, with tons and tons of added features, on nice property in a great location and great neighborhood, and what we're looking for is hard to come by. How much do you think living next to a gravel company will affect our lives??

My first thought is about air pollution. You would be stunned at how much dust you'd get from that sand and gravel company. Living in an area that is under heavy construction at the moment with bedrock that is very much like what you'd find at a sand and gravel place, I can attest to it being very very bad for dust. Not only do your teeth get coated with the stuff, your immune system gets weakened, eye infections become more common, upper respiratory infections occur more often, you feel like sneezing and coughing are a normal part of life after a while. Your house will constantly feel gritty no matter how much of a clean freak you are. For example, one day I dusted all the furniture in the living room (I dusted the furniture every other day back then...sometimes every day). 30 minutes after I'd dusted I found my kids making finger drawings in the dust that had already settled on the stereo cabinet!!!!!! Now most of the houses immediately around us are finished and the dust problem has been drastically reduced. However just 2 streets over, construction continues and we still have far too much dust than is healthy. When we lived in over-crowded Tel Aviv with all it's smog my kids were sick 1/4 as often as they were the first 2 years afer we moved into this house....in a city that is new and clean and full of green. Our city was started from scratch, planned completely on paper before any ground was broken. Construction started here about 8 years ago. Construction will continue for as long as people continue wanting to move here. But the bulk of the originally planned construction will contiue for another 3-4 years. A recent study showed that the air in our clean family friendly city is the worst in the country....precisely because of the construction dust blowing around all the time. And this air pollution from the dust will continue so long as construction is so intense.

If I were you, I'd ask an uninterested party to test the air...at peak work hours...to see what the air pollution situation is due to that company. I wouldn't make any offers until I knew what to expect on that front.

-Julie

Can you live with the noise and dust for a year? Two years? Five years? Who knows how long it will be? It sounds like a big gamble.

If there's one thing I learned from house hunting, is that for every "perfect" house you miss out on, another one is lurking just around the next corner. If you are not under time pressure, wait.

Rhonda

I work for a sand and gravel company and my advice would be to simply call the company and tell them why you are interested. Ask if their future plans include selling it to a developer for housing. My guess is, the answer is no. Gravel pits tend to be extremely deep and reclaimation is impossible. The pit would remain as a lake if the housing goes in. Either way, I would not personnally want to raise a family there, due to the dangers of drowning. Pits are as deep one foot from shore as they are in the middle of the lake. Every year their are drownings in closed pits. They tend to be good fishing lakes and there are always a few teenagers who decide to go swimming in them. Lou

Thanks for all the opinions... It's still such a hard decision. I think getting the air tested would be a good idea, although I didn't notice any air problems when I was there (and I'm asthmatic). And I don't actually know where the pit is, but the whole company is fenced off very well. Today we drove by the house and asked the neighbors what they thought, and basically they said they don't mind it at all-- and this is in a pretty nice neighborhood, too. The company is only open weekdays when most people are at work. No one mentioned dust problems, either. I don't think we're totally decided yet, but maybe if we make an offer we'd want to include an air testing clause...

If you do decide to take the house, you might consider putting some large trees in along the boundry line facing the gravel pit. That would help lower some of the noise and some of the dust. Dotti

Hi,

We did end up getting the house. We spent enough time there to get an idea of what it will be like (and they're closed evenings and weekends), and talked to the neighbors and the current owners. It just doesn't seem to be an issue for people who already live there. There are quite a few nice homes in the area, so the gravel company is good about not causing problems. The property is already lined with trees and shrubs-- which we really appreciate. :) We looked into getting the air tested, but it would be expensive and take a long time, so we're taking our chances. The current owner has asthma and said he's never noticed a problem. Our realtor saw a water truck wetting down the dirt to minimize the dust. And the house has an air filter built in...

We're really excited about it! It really is a perfect house and property. It sounds like the gravel pit won't be a big deal, but if we really hate it, we can sell the house and move. I think it will end up working out well, though. Thanks for your suggestions everyone! They were really helpful to us, and now we feel like we've thought this through from a variety of angles. I'll let you know how it goes.

Danak, one great advantage to your location - the shipping on any gravel you need should be verrrry reasonable! LOL Congratulations on your new home. Dotti

Yes, maybe they'd let us walk over with our shovels! :) I'm really excited. I'm convinced that the gravel company won't make that much of a difference to us. The house and property are otherwise perfect! I'm up late now with the finishing touches on our current house, which goes on the market tomorrow. Our realtor is expecting it to go fast, and our house to be busy with prospective buyers for the next couple days. I'll be so glad when this is all over!

I so glad this worked out for you! Congratulations!

Sooo...when do we get pictures? You *know* we're all dying to see your new place! ; )

Rhonda

Ooh, we're going there this weekend. I'll try to remember to bring my camera this time... :)

Update: I guess I forgot my camera when we went that weekend... As soon as I unearth it I'll post some pictures! We're finally moved into our new house. We are LOVING it here! The garden is spectacular and attracts a LOT of wildlife. We're ordering chickens today, and I'm excited because I miss having chickens from when I was growing up. We even hosted the big bash for the Fourth-- quite the undertaking since we have only lived here a couple of days, but everyone loved our new place and had a great time. So far the gravel company hasn't been an issue at all. I can certainly see ourselves here for a good portion of our lives. I'm convinced we made the right decision.

Thanks for your input everyone!
--Dana

Dana,
Sounds great! Hope you and yours are very happy there! ~ Suzi :)