Today I emptied out the room in the basement that I’ll be building my layout in. There are several things I’ll have to do including furring out the walls so theyre plumb & hanging drywall for the backdrop.
Well, today I vaccumed the entire room with the shop vac & got the pressure washer down there to clean the walls. Even though our basement has always been dry, there are a few cracks in the foundation. I’m planning to patch them & paint the exterior walls with drylock. Does this seem like overkill?
Small cracks are pretty normal. If there has never been evidence of dampness and the cracks are very small, I would not worry about it. Of course it couldn’t hurt.
I echo what Aralai wrote. If the cracks showed no signs of seepage or leakage BEFORE you start with teh drywall and insulation, you should be fine.
SInce you “power washed” the walls, then I would strongly suggest you run a dehumidifier for a good few days to be sure to dry out the basement very well before starting
ANd the Dry Loc does NOT sound like overkill.
A finished off space for a layout is far better than an unfinished space!
Had a few reflections reading this[swg]. Several years ago I decided to convert a storage room into my train room. Cleaned it out, vaced it, and was ready to order wood and all the stuff to get-er-donee. The track was being sent at that time and was eagerly awaiting the UPS truck.
One corner had a bit of water damage from high wind and rain. Pulled the sheetrock, decided to re-sheetrock the room, being no insulation in the wall. Then noticed the wireing 1942 cloth covered wire, ran home runs to the breaker box, added a lot of duplex plugs (overkill) I thought I would never use (use most of them now[8D]) and then I looked in the attic, more insulation and wireing. Noticed a bit of dry rot around the outside to garaqge door[banghead]. Perhaps the potholes in the road are caused by my pick up loads from numerious trips to home depot[;)]
So anything you think you need to do… go for it, Depending on the size and shape your layout, it may be very difficult to latter do or repair.
Then installed office carpet of which really wears well
Thanks. I was thinking I might be going a bit overboard but even if I was it’ll give me piece of mind. If I painted the interior walls with dryloc that would be overkill LOL.
I’ve got the room pressure washed, but that’s as far as I got. I still have to move a few pipes, 1 heating duct (if I hit my head on that thing 1 more time…), and the water heater. It’ll probably be 2 weeks or so before I get to start furring out the walls. As I was running stuff up & down the stairs I noticed how dingy the stairwell is & also the first room that I pass through to get to the train room. I think I forsee a bit of “sprucing up” & painting in those rooms as well. No fun going down to the train room if you have to walk through a cave to get there!
Knowing what I know now I would have done more about the foundation before the benchwork and backdrops came in. There are small signs of damage that were not there at all when I decided things looked good enough to proceed. Things can happen in a decade.
It makes sense to over-prep the room now because once a layout is there, you really do not want workmen having to do much of anything around it be they electricians or whatever. So now is the time to really look at the electrical service (outlets, lighting, switches), are there any plumbing issues, whatever.
I sweated bullets knowing electricians were all around my layout this last week while I was at work – changing the service in another room but they needed to be in the train room where the circuit boxes are. Nerve wracking. I was not afraid of theft – although that is worth thinking about too, these days – just accidental inadvertent damage. Fortunately, nothing bad happened – that I’ve found yet.
Luckily the breaker boxes etc. are in another room. I have to update the electrical for the train room…actually rip it out & start over. Basically I’m starting with a shell & have to build everything I need myself.
Thanks, I’m planning for that as well. I have plenty of flourescent lights, I just need to decide the best way to locate them.
I was looking through back issues of MR last night looking for track plan ideas (& not finding anything that was jumping out at me) and I saw a layout where the ceiling from the valance to the backdrop was white and the other side of the valance (over the aisle) the ceiling was black. It was quite a nice effect & really brought your attention to the layout.
I got started patching the cracks in the walls this morning…not as bad as I thought it was going to be. So far I have the room emptied out, cracks patched & heating duct run into the room. Next weekend I’ll need to get it painted & then the fun begins. The first thing will probably be lighting. I haven’t decided on a track plan yet, but I have a pretty good idea of how the layout will run around the room.
The room is 11’x12’ and it’s going to be a shelf/around the room layout. I plan on using 4’ flourescent fixtures as I have an abundance of them. How far apart should I space the fixtures to get a decent amount of light on the layout?
I agree, even though it feels like I’m getting ahead of myself I want the walls/lighting/backdrop in place before the benchwork goes in. On the flip side, I need to know where the benchwork is going to be so I can get the lighting in the right place.
Ddrylock Is Great Idea! The way our weather has been lately, this or next Spring might just be nasty enough to cause moisture problems you never had before. It’s much better to be Safe than Sorry! TTFN…Old Tom aka papasmurf in NH