Suggestions for a Room to House a New Layout

[rmbarry]

I am finalizing plans for an addition to my house and havce wisely created a space for my future railroading kingdom. I plan to have a room dedicated to an HO scale layout with rough dimensions of 13ft by 14ft. The room will have a forced hot water baseboard heater and central A/C, one door (possibly a pocket door rather than a traditional swinging door) and no windows.

Should the concrete floor be painted, tiled, or carpeted. What treatment should the ceiling receive (i.e. finished plaster ceiling, exposed wood joists, etc.)?

As for lighting, should I go with flourescent lights, track lighting, recessed "can-type" lights, or a combination of lighting fixtures?

Thank You.

[Big_Boy_4005]

The pocket door is a great idea, it makes things a lot easier from a planning and access perspective. Flooring, I'm partial to carpet. However, construction, especially scenery, can get messy. Just put down drop cloths. Lighting, I like fluorecent for general work lighting. Track lights are best for layout lighting when you are running trains. My suggestion would be to start with the fluorecent, but wire for both when you build.

[rmbarry]

I also want a room that is relatively dust free. What types of finishes would help keep dust in check?

[Big_Boy_4005]

As far as dust goes, a drywall ceiling finished smooth or with a knockdown texture and painted will really keep the dust down. A drop ceiling is what I plan to use. That should be pretty good for dust pervention.

[jkeaton]

Seal the concrete floor before you lay the tile or carpet - our house is a mixture of carpet over both bare and sealed (good paint) concrete) (thanks to different owners doing different renovations) and you can tell very quickly by the dust level which rooms have a sealed concrete floor and which don't.

Personally, I am going with painted concrete in my layout room - easier cleaning. But I have several good-sized scraps of carpet saved from a renovation that I will use for standing on, or put under my chair at the workbench, to save my feet and ankles from the hard concrete.

A drywalled finish is ideal I think - but wire in lots of boxes for the future lighting system, covering several possibilities and multiple electrical circuits, before you drywall. Nothing creates more dust than cutting through existing drywall to move or install electrical boxes for new lights and switches!

Jim

Jim

[jrbarney]

RMBarry,
Don't know where you live or whether the room is in the basement, but if it is, I suggest that you use zone valves so that the basement can have its own thermostat. Maximize the insulation in the outer wall and put foam insulators in the outlet and switch boxes on the external walls. Consider a separate breakout electrical panel for the basement. If you use receptacles in the ceiling for the lighting, have the links removed so that you can put the lights on either one of two circuits so you can save electricity when you don't need all the lights on. Consider using Energy star fixtures, and if available, residential T8 fluorescent fixtures. If your workbench is going to be in this room, consider putting a plastic mat under it so you can find those coupler and truck springs, which you'll never find in the carpet, unless you use the old trick of putting a piece of white thread through each spring temporarily until it's installed.
Bob
NMRA Life 0543

[cwclark]

about the lighting, I like the flourecent lighting but also installed three yellow and three blue lights in recessed cans in the ceiling for sunset / sunrise and night time scenes...I like the carpet idea...hours of standing in one spot doing scenery can be tough on the feet..i use the commercial building type carpet (the kind with a very thin ply) so if i miss the drop cloth with something the clean-up is easy..and you may want to make your room a bit bigger if you can...a 13 x 14 will be a very small MR...my MR room is 25 x 23 and I still wish it was bigger....chuck

[Leon Silverman]

rmbarry:
If you are designing this room yourself, check with you town's construction office. I am converting a garage to a train room and had to install GFI protected outlets due to the concrete floor. If you wire two or three outlets on the same circuit, using a GFI outlet on the outlet closest to the circuit breaker will protect the entire circuit. A wooden or carpetted floor might negate this requirement.
Also, you have have at least one outlet every 12 feet along the perimeter of your wall.

[Anonymous]

I agree with a pocket door. Also you didn't mention electrical, but I would have at least one dedicated line to the room for plug ins like DCC,etc. seperate from lighting etc. In fact in my "ideal" world, I would have two dedicated electrical lines into the room, for all your electrical needs. And don't forget a phone jack.

[trollw]

If you are still installing the wiring in the room, another neat trick is to run the wiring that goes to the outlets for your layout through a wall switch before going to the outlets. Then you can kill everything in the room with the flip of 2 switches. Sure beats the heck out of getting 50 miles from home on a 2-week vacation and remembering you forgot to turn off the DCC power and it is sitting there cooking on standby.

[Anonymous]

If your are concerned about noise i would definatly go with carpet for its sound deadening properies. Also it would be nice to have if ya have to get down under the bench work for any reason.. lot easier on the knees