layout in a unfinished basement?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
21

How’s the rest of the basement?

The same things you need for the train “dungeon” would make the rest of the space much more attractive. As others have said, it will add to the value of the house. It will also make your wife happy, even if she doesn’t know it yet.

Yes, it’s more work, and more expensive, but sometimes Peace With Honor doesn’t come cheap. Also, if you’re going to be down there a lot, a covering on the floor will greatly reduce the amount of dust you track upstairs when you go to the fridge for a beer.

Or maybe you should save some room under the layout for a half-height fridge…

22

Oh, we already have a finished basement of about 1000 square feet with a TV area, and my children’s play area, etc. That’s not allowed to be “trainified” because it doesn’t meet with the decor standards of the house. HA HA. So, I’m stuck with this unfinished area under our sunroom to play around with.

23

Come on, you can’t tell me I’m the only guy on here that’s gotten grief from his wife about wanting to “play with trains”. :slight_smile:

24

There are only two kinds of model railroaders:

Those who get grief from their spouses about playing with trains, and…

Those who have never been married.

(Apologies to Sue and Larry, who both play with trains.)

25

Nah, take up golf. She think it’s tres chic and much cooler than trains. Wait 'til she sees the greensfees and / or country club bill though.

Lapdances go for about $20. [;)]

If you need a quick fix for your ceiling, you can staple heavy grade plastic sheet to the floor joists. That should keep the gunk from raining down. Paint the walls and floor with DryLoc or similar. You can add a vinyl floor with peel and stick squares later. Look for them on sale at HD.

26

Got grief from the ex-girlfriend. Might explain part of why she’s an “ex”.

27

Let’s see, wife is an impediment to your most secret yearnings. Maybe you need to approach this in a whole new way. Tell her you’ve thought about what she has said, and that you agree. You want to spend a lot more time with her, you know, more intimacy, help her around the house more, do more cooking, going with her to the store more, to her book club with her, take over the finances to relieve her of all that trouble,…

…I think you might find that she reconsiders. [:-,]

28

How about the guy who had his (future at the time) wife choose his scale and prototype for him (a nice, shiny brass locomotive will do that!)?

The only grief I’ve ever gotten is, “Can’t you get it finished faster?”

(Comes of picking the right wife, I guess. Except that I think she picked me!)

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with total spousal support.)

29

You could just paint the ceiling flat black. I did that to my pool table room. I havn’t had any problems with dust yet. It kind of seals everything up. The ceiling on the left side of the basement is what I’m refering to. Oh, and here’s a picture of how things are run around my house![:D]

30

I would at the very least seal the cinderblock walls with Dryloc paint, seal the floor with an epoxy floor sealer, (if you seal the floor of the whole basement, it’ll cut down on dust in the whole house in general) and to keep things on the cheap, cover the ceiling with some plastic drop cloth. Total cost would be less than $100. You can have the Dryloc paint tinted sky blue, (what I did), to get you through until you get backdrops built, (I would goe with the free standing system mentioned previously). If you’re real ambitious, paint all the walls sky blue finished or unfinished - it’s better than looking at the back side of studs and drywall and it’ll certainly brighten up the room and make it more pleasant to work in.

31

Oh, definately not. But, many have pointed out that their wives have hobbies too…

does your wife like to “play at the spa or beauty parlor”, “play with jewelry…like diamonds?” or “play at shopping/having outfits in walk-in closets that they never wear because they look ‘fat’ in them?”*

[;)][:)][swg][:-^]

(*Sue not included)

32

I like the take over the finances idea. =) I already do that so… heh.

33

Nope. I got grief from mine about them. After a few years I decided to keep the trains and get rid of the old lady. Smartest, most cost effective thing I ever did.[:D] (but that’s just me)

PS-She complained about the lap dances too. There was just no pleasing that witch![:-,]

34

Why tell her you want to “finish the room” ? If she asks what the drywall is for, just tell her that it is for the layout. Not exactly a lie; maybe stretching the truth a tiny little bit. Indeed, most, if not all of the so-called “finishing work” can be explained away as “a critical and integral part of the layout”. You do need to invest in such work in order to protect your investment in the model trains, tracks, etc. – no point in storing her shoe collection in a damp, pest-infested closet is there ? Same with trains; they require a proper space.

Since she’s already given permission for the layout, she can hardly complain about you wanting to protect your investment.

Get an inch; take a

35

To get back a little to the original questions [:D]

There’s no reason the layout necessarily has to be attached to the walls. It just means a little bit different means of construction. Or, there are ways of anchoring to the block wall, if you want to go that way. Might be a pain if you want to change stuff later,though.

I agree with at least painting the walls. Though if there are already studs it would be awfully tempting to put up drywall, even if you didn’t even tape the joints. I really think you need to cover that insulation with something. Even plastic, though you might be asking for condensation trouble, you might need a bit of ventilation there. Hmmm…

36

My wife would never think about giving me grief about something I like to do (unless it was drink to excess, put my money up my nose or chase women - things damaging and/or disrespectful to the family). I think it’s called “respect.”

37

I’m not real happy on attaching stuff to a block wall, especially in a basement. You can shoot 2x2s on with a Hilti or use cut nails into the mortar jopints, but you run the risk of losing watertight (heh) integrity each time.

You can bore holes for expansion bolts or molys, but that’s a ton of work and a ton of drill bits, even if you rent a hammer drill.

You could build benchwork and “fix” it tight to the wall with wood wedges (at mortar joints to avoid loading the block corewalls) on the ends, but said benchwork would need to run from floor to backdrop heigth, at which point, my favorite option looks efficient and more productive.

I’d shoot (Hilti) a treated 2x3 plate to the concrete floor, plumb up at both ends and airnail a 2x2 plate to the bottoms of the joists, then measure (individually) 2x2 studs to fit on 16 inch centers. Get a tube of PL400 and glue a shim between each stud and the block wall at mid heigth to give a little more support. Glue or screw the stud to the shim too.

Now you have half your “benchwork” built, you can rock the whole face, rock above the layout backdrop, or just leave the studs exposed. The rest of your benchwork coulkd be shelf brackets, horizontal arms scabbed to the studs, with or without diagonal braces underneath, (I’d use braces unless your doing all foam layout base), or fully braced build out benchwork with a plywood surface.

Powerwise, access to one 20 amp line out to be more than you need, unless some big customers also access that circuit. Big customers use big motors or glow red hot, or both, beware the dryer.

If you can, look at incandescent lighting, especially if you are into photography. Florescents throw an odd color cast into images that’s hard to get rid of. You can get special daylight incandescent bulbs that deal with that problem before it starts. Be aware that UV will fade scenery over time.

There’s going to be many many many trips between workbench and layout, workbenc

38

You forgot the third–the model railroader whose wife supports his hobby and encourages it.

I’ve been building model railroads since childhood, roughly 30 years before I met my wife, so her understanding of how important it is to me was a critical factor.

39

Same here. The only “restrictions” I got were that I had to build her a circus train and that I could model any era, but steam remains the motive power of choice…read as no diesels.

40

Now you know that as soon as you improve the room to the point that it’s actually usable she’s gonna find another use for it.