In 2 more months my new house will be done & I will move; hopefully for the last time. Which leads to my question. After intense negotiations with the property manager/ building comission (my wife). I have secured two adjoining rooms 12X13 & 10X12…[:)][:)] I was thinking of using the larger room for my layout and the other for staging, workbench, and my “junk area.” I don’t want to complain but these rooms are right off the front door/stairs and next to the kitchen. So my train room is next to and in plain site of “her house.” On the other hand there is a 24 X 24 garage. Its not heated/cooled, but for twice the size it’s hard to beat!! So for everyone that has built a layout in an unheated garage/attic, would you do it again? What would you do different, any problems with heat/cold on your equipment or yourself? Did you have good results with installing a window unit or teeing off the central A/C? Any problems with using an airbrush/painting or glue taking to long to cure? And finally how did you seal off the garage door, any problem with dust or leaks?..I know thats a lot of questions but I’m torn between small and safe or GO BIG; figure out the rest later.
Depending on where you are located the Heating and cooling of a garage is pretty Easy…
up where I am from in Northern MN you have to heat your garage if you want to use your garage for anything other then parking you car.
two ways to heat that are efficient without $$$$ is one get a used propane or fuel oil funace from a Trailer house…two could go to a place like northern tool and equipment and get a new forced air propane heater for around $500 insulation is going to be onsale again at menards/ home depot usually late march and then again in fall… at this time they tend to have sheetrock on sale too…I would say if you have a 16" wide door to go and spend the 300 for an insulated one…if you have 2 8 or 9 foot doors I would say go get one insulated…leave the other uninsulated and then build a little storage area for Bikes mowers and what everelse by that door…say alittle wider then the door and about 6-10 feet deep.
and as for cooling get a good window AC unit 220volt 8-10,000btu and if you dont want to put it in a window you can cut a hole in the wall and mount it…
that is of course if you are not planning on working on cars. or parking them in the garage.
You say something about the house being done…does that mean it’s under construction? If so, be sure to have the builder insulate the garage, and install an insulated door. If need be, buy and install the insulation yourself if the builder is reluctant to. Include the attic over the garage (as appropriate). As far as building a model RR in the garage, it depends on what part of the country you live in, and your annual climate. Up north it gets real cold, so you’ll probably not want to be in the garage at night in the winter. Down south it can get hot in the summer, so you’ll probably head for the A/C midday in July.
I’m building a layout in a trailer (not a mobile home), I live in North Georgia, and haven’t run into any problems to speak of.
Brad
hmm building into a trailer house? that might be an Idea…
how big is the trailer that you are using?
I’d knock out the wall between the adjoining rooms, use the whole thing for layout, and put workshop/junk in the garage.
Yeah, knock out a wall. Your wife’ll probably leave you, then you’ll have the whole house to use for a layout.[:D]
I think this is a clear case of quality vs quantity. My advice is quality first. The garage is tempting, but unless it is conditioned space, it is better left alone.
What kind of climate are you talking about?
Two questions:
- How intense were the negotiations [;)] ?
- Are these two rooms closed off by doors from the rest of the house including the entrance ?
I see you are in SC. I’m in mid-Texas area. When house was built we had garage insulated for a very small additional cost; it was worth it. I recently insulated my garage doors (double wide) for $180 with kit from Home Depot.
Late last year when temps were still in 90’s, garage temp was in 80s. Trick was to keep the garage door closed. Since then I’ve insulated garage door as it faces the hot afternoon sun. I’ll see how much of a difference it makes this summer. I’ve heard from others it makes a noticable one.
This winter (if there is such a thing in Texas) when the temp outside was 32 degrees, the lowest the garage got was ~ 58 degrees. I have no heating / cooling. I threw on a sweatshirt.
I live in the Puget Sound area and my 20’ x 23’ walk in L shape layout is in my garage. I have a good insulated double wide door in my garage which is sealed with weatherstrip. The walls are now also insulated and like the ceiling it has wallboard. My house is two story with the downstairs being about 2-3 feet below grade (except where the garage door is). My layout is at a height that I can just reach over the top without signals, trains and scenery being fouled. The layout is only 5.5" (1 x 4 frame 2" blue foam) thick so it is about 48" off the floor. The hood of the car fits under, so my wife can park her compact car in the garage if necessary. I easily put a heat vent in the distribution duct for the upstairs and I now have a heated, insulated garage. It stays warm. When the door to the house is closed and the heat vent is closed the garage is about 15 degrees cooler than the house in the winter, and as a side bonus it keeps the Godzilla sized cats out. Our homes are not typically air conditioned in the NW, but since we are a bit below grade the downstairs is usually cooler than the upstairs. The one thing I have not done I wish I had done was to seal the garage floor prior to building the train layout. It seems as if quite a bit of dust comes out of the floor, and it also harbors much dust. You must vacuum rather than sweep as it stirs up dust. Another benefit as I see it is no windows.
Paul
Dayton and Mad River RR
Did you ever negotiate about the garage? I live in New England, and our two cars just love that garage. We insulated it when it was built, but it has no heat. Still, even in the coldest of winter nights it never gets below 40, which is a lot nicer way to start the day than climbing into a sub-zero car to drive to work. It stays a bit cooler in the summer, too, but we tend to leave doors open for air so that effect is minimal.
I would build the layout inside, but I would make sure my benchwork is designed for portability. If you have the ability to pick it up and move it to the garage, you’ll have the option to do that in a few years if situations change. I’m not talking about the move-it-every-week kind of portability, but rather a structure that can be unbolted and un-wired in a week or so, carted to the garage with a couple of friends, and then reassembled in its new home.
Im with MisterBeasley if you make it so the sections are small enough to be carried by 2 people say no bigger then 3x6 you could move it out to the garage later on… and with it in the house you will probably do more work on it because its Right there…
I dont know if your garage is attached or not but if its not It would be nice having it in the house on a rainy day and the head is right there too so no having to run to the pot… LOL…