For those who have lived in new home construction areas, what's the experience like? Interested in hearing about things like safety, noise, traffic, etc. Also if anyone had a baby when they lived in that area, did you have any health concerns for the baby?

Again, any thoughts would be appreciated.

We built a house in new construction area. We were one of the first houses on our street/cul de sac. Didn't have a baby (my youngest was 4 yrs). We didn't experience any significant problems. Yes, they would start work early in the morning and it did cause some noise (especially when the roofers were busy) - but it usually didn't start before 7am and they were gone by sunset. There were no health concerns at all. I enjoyed watching the neighborhood being built and walking through the homes before they were sold. (I've been inside almost every house on my street). I would definitely do it again.

I also built in a development with ongoing construction. After I moved in, two houses directly adjacent to mine and one across the street were built. I was out of the house and at work between about 7 am-5 pm and wasn't around to hear most of the noise. The exception to this was one of the houses built directly adjacent to mine. It was built during the summer, and the workers would routinely work until 830-9 pm at night. This was an issue because at the time there was no land-line service to my end of the street and cell phone reception inside the house was bad, so I had to go outside to talk on the phone. Needless to say, it's hard to talk on the phone or enjoy your back patio with construction noise. But my HOA had rules regarding how late construction workers could work. One call to the HOA management company and the late-night work ceased. Know what the rules are in your neighborhood and be prepared to request that they be reinforced. Most new construction houses should be well-insulated enough that the noise you hear inside the house should be minimal.

The only other issue was construction trash. For the most part, the workers are slobs, and I did have to pick up (sometimes quite large) items of construction trash out of my yard every day. I just sucked it up and told myself it was only temporary. Be prepared to get nails in your tires, though. I think I had two or three holes in my tires plugged the year I built and moved in.

In the middle of a HOT DRY summer, there is a possibility that they could be pouring a slab a 4am

Thanks for then insight. One of the other concerns is working from home during the day and the noise factor, so have to keep that in mind. I'm just concerned because the house is the last one of the phase and right next to the next phase which hasn't been started. There are about 18 or so houses in that next phase and I'm trying to find out when it's scheduled to be completed. Lots of concerns all around.

quote:

---

other concerns is working from home during the day and the noise factor

---

I work from home as well and we'll be moving into a new Pitman house in a couple weeks in Bryan. There are probably 4 or 5 houses still under construction in there and another 5 or so lots left. Like the previous poster said I haven't noticed loud noises, other than roofing. There was a slab poured one night (that we happened to stop by), but I don't remember that being loud.

Also remember most new houses have some really nice windows installed. You might want to find some nearly completed houses that are near roofers or a saw running and see how audible it is inside - remember the room you office out of might factor in with how much noise is heard as well. Personally I don't do many conference calls and usually am listening to music, so a rare roofer or saw running won't factor in for me.

best of luck

P.S. the only thing I'm currently concerned about is nails in tires...but as long as they keep the streets clean we should be good. I second the walking into neighbor's houses, watching others move into the neighborhood - it is exciting in a way.

Slab was poured next door on a Saturday morning at 5am....lots of concrete trucks with backup buzzers

Yay for progress. Buyer beware.

Fonzie, what do you mean by buyer beware?

Just make sure you do your homework.

Bought a house in a new subdivision several years ago and don't recall any issues. Sure there was some extra noise but only when it was homes around mine. I think all the homes around me were complete within a year and then there was no issues. I worked nights at the time and usually had no problem sleeping during the day.

The benefit I found was the various food trucks that showed up around lunch time if
You are adventurous, some good others not so good.

Ive built several new homes in new hoods surrounded by empty lots that were built on over the next few years. I had no real problems except, like stated above, trash. BUT you can also get a ton of building materials for the numerous products you do in a new build. The amount of wasted building material is amazing. Simply picking up the discard allowed me to build all the shelving, a small pergola and numerous little projects around my house.
What is kind of interesting is the need to " remind" the "no hables's" that we have something called private property here, they have no problem simply hooking up a hose or an extension cord to YOUR hose bib or outlet if they need to. I once had one try and simply walk into the house saying "bano" . I gently , and with a 2x4 in my hand , splained in several languages that this was no bueno and eventually had to get the area supervisor to help.

Never heard of any health issues for new house construction.