Hi all…first post here. I’ll add some pictures and info on my layout project. But for now is Homasote still commonly used in new layout construction? Open grid with Homasote roadbed. I know it’s not a common item at Home Depot,etc. Thanks, Andy
I haven’t used Homasote in many many years. Back in the early 80’s I started using cork.
Just the opposite from Jeff, I actually never used cork and have always used wood like TruScale or homasote and/or Homabed:
http://www.calroadbed.com/site/890800/
Having started out early with TruScale and learning to hand lay track at an early age, cork is too soft for hand layed track.
I now use Atlas track but still prefer the homabed product over cork any day.
Sheldon
Back in the Day… (Think 1950s)
When LION was a little cub
The daddy LION built a table using Homasote as the table top and we kept moving our American Flyer track about as it pleased us.
Today I AM THE LION and while I did not use Homasote, I did build most of my table tops with CELOTEX (Similar, lighter, more rigid – and not available since the advent of fire codes) which works perfectly.
If you are looking to build table tops and plan to attach the tracks directly without roabed, this is the way to go. I certainly would not have the patience to cut homasote roadbeds, or even to install any roadbeds.
LIONS AGAINST ROADBEDS, your, thats me!
ROAR
Have used Homabed (commercial product) for several years. In my50 years of model railroading, I like it best under track. It comes in long straight pieces, serrated pieces for bending curves, and switch blocks for various sizes of switches.
One thing I did do was store up a supply since you never know when a manufacturer will go belly up.
Bob
Thanks…that gives me a good start in what to start looking into. I just want to have a good base thats popular and available. That Homabed looks nice… Thx, Andy
I second the Homabed or Homasote sheets where a raised roadbed is not required.
Dante
I have used Homasote on plywood for the last 35-40 years. I am currently building a layout with open grid benchwork and handlaid code 70 on Homasote and Homabed on 1/2" plywood.
Several modelers I know use Homasote spline roadbed.
Wasn’t the OP asking for a source for Homasote? If not, then I’ll ask, where can I buy Homasote? Not Homabed; or, Tru-Scale roadbed, but a sheet of Homasote? My guess is it will not be Maynards; or, Home Depot; but, some type of Ma & Pa Lumber Store that can order it for you. At least that’s where I found mine back in the late 1980s when I bought it!
Homasote is a BRAND NAME, and will be unknown to the store clerk. If you ask for sub-floor boards you will at least end up in the right departments.
Yes I have seen in in Menards, even the Homasote brand, but the clerk has no idea of brand names on lumber. The ones I saw there I would not buy, they were stacked on 2x4s and were a bit warped. Fine for under flooring, but not for a train deck. But look about and you shall find. Or go to the Homasote website and look for a list of dealers near you, buy while you are in Menards, look about for similar products. The LION prefers Celotex, but of course the exact product that I want has not been produced since the advent of fire codes. Still they have plenty of product that will suffice.
ROAR
Lowes and Home Depot around here carry it. We don’t have Maynards who ever they are. Every resonalbe sized city/town has one or two building supply outfits that were around long before the chain stores, they will know what it is and likely have it in stock. Here in the Mid Atlantic I have never had a problem buying it.
I can’t speak to other parts of the country, but I suspect it is not that hard to find, I am in the business of building design and construction and it has been a staple in construction for more than 50 years.
Sheldon
Actually you will find it easier at a Home Depot, at least around here, if you ask for “sound board”. Here is a link to my local store, http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202090212/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=sound+board&storeId=10051. It is shown as model 206136 #440 1/2 inch X 4’ X8’ sound board. If you go to the homasote website they use the same 440 number.
Um… No. First you would have to find a Home Depot, and that is the real trick. Actually they did open a store in Bismarck… Right across the street from Menards. BAD MOVE on their part. Home Depot is long gone. Menards is far better than Lowes too. I’m surprised that they are still in town. Menards is always busy.
ROAR
It does not matter how good Menards is if you don’t have one - they don’t exist here in the east.
Sheldon
Yup, Menards is regional. Northern Plains.
No point driving out here when you have a Home Depot near by.
No point driving out there when you have a Menard’s near by.
Now where is my Wildebeest!
ROAR
If homasote cannot be found at the big box home improvement centers/stores try your your local lumber yard/supplier.
I live in a community of about 105,000 people total and that does not include those that come in from the rural areas and other smaller towns/cities. Even with this many people and potential demand and with Menards, Lowes and Home Depot you can only find homasote at a small privately owned lumber yard/supplier in this area.
Clerks who do not know of Homasote haven’t been selling lumber, hardware; or, building supplys very long. I have 3 local lumber stores in my small town of around 5,000. All the sales people I talked with at these stores knew of the product and one was able to get me a sheet of the stuff.
I laid my Homasote down over 1/2 inch plywood. It was screwed and glued down; so, some warping would not have been a problem. Homasote is a sound deadening material and my guess is it arrives in heavy banded bundles and is off-loaded by fork lift; so, using 2 bys under the bundle to get the forks out and keep the material off the ground/floor, should be expected.
Menards (pronounced meh NARDS) is Wisconsin based and primarily midwestern but expanding constantly very much like Kohls Department stores which were unknown outside Wisconsin a decade or so ago but are becoming more common out east. So you may not know Menards now, but you may soon. They have a very aggressive marketing and store location philosophy.
Many of the big box home improvement stores locally carry Homasote in 2x4’ “handi-panels” – just as they carry plywood in that same size. One advantage is that size is stored and sold indoors rather than out in the open air “yard”. I don’t have the kind of vehicle – or the kind of basement stairs – that can readily deal with a 4x8’ sheet of anything. And whereever possible I like to saw my homasote into pieces outdoors due to the pervasive dust it creates.
In other words, you may not find homasote sheets in the area that sells sheets of plywood but you may find it in the project section of the store together with melamine shelving material, and the like. Curiously one local store sells homasote handi panels but does not call it by that name even though it clearly is the product – so asking clerks at that particular store for homasote is likely to result in blank stares (actually asking them about saws and hammers at that store is likely to result in blank stares. I think they know what time lunch is, and that’s about it.)
Following the advice in a Jim Hediger article years ago I typically seal my homasote with shellac (also something you may want to do outdoors due to the odor – which takes me back to cub scout days when so many of our projects involved plywood and shellac) – real shellac has no water content so it seals without creating the very warping that you seek to avoid. That has the effect by the way of making the homasote rather hard, if not brittle, and thus it does tend to lose so
“One advantage is that size is stored and sold indoors rather than out in the open air “yard”.”
It is always interesting to see how things differ from one region to another - very little lumber is stored outdoors in sheds in this region. Major wholesale yards do keep wrapped bundles of framing lumber and such under sheds, but plywood, homasote, S4S trim lumber (1x, etc), trim, etc, is all stored indoors around here.
Lowes and Home Depot only store wrapped bundles outdoors for short time periods before stocking it indoors and the “retail” process of buying it is full indoors in this area.
Sheldon
A few months back Model Railroader had an interesting article on using “Easy Mat” as roadbed. It’s a gray plastic sheet with a sticky back covered by removable paper. It is a cushion underlayment for tile flooring. It’s easily cut and flexible when the backing is removed. I have been using it on my Pacific Cascade Ry in HO gauge and find it to be very good for holding track nails on hand laid track. You do have to build a jig to cut the sheets into strips. It’s much cheaper than cork and much more flexible than homasote and available in both Home Depot and Loes. Check out the article.
Capt. Brigg
Pacific Cascade Ry on HO gauge