I’m in a wheelchair so I chose vinyl flooring for a solid surface that is easy to roll around on. I like the ideas of carpeted or rubber matted aisleways though. I have a roll-in shower that has the two part epoxy clear coating. The concrete has extra pea gravel added and before the concrete completely set, I washed the surface down to bring the pea gravel to the surface for a rough finish to give the wheelchair some traction. I wouldn’t recommend doing the pea grave thing for a layout room, but the epoxy coating would be OK. It’s durable and provides a smooth (but not slick) finish. My vinyl looks like hardwood flooring, but I would recommend what the earlier post mentioned about a light color to be able to see dropped parts, etc. Tweet.
I’ve seen these interlocking rubber mats at Lowes and Home Depot. At $16 for a package of 4 - 2’ x 2’ mats, this works out to be $1.00/ square foot. This is half the sale cost of the Legato carpet squares mentioned in one of the above posts. As I recall, these foam rubber mats have a textured but relatively smooth surface that would make locating dropped items easier. The only problem I had with the ones I saw was that they only came in red, blue, green, yellow and black. These are OK colors for exercise mats or for a kids room, but, except for the black, really aren’t appropriate for a train room floor. Has anyone seen these mats in earth-tone colors?
Bob
All the ones I bought at Lowe’s and Target were a very dark gray, except one pack that had one each of red, yellow, blue and green. I put the red one at my utility sink, and use the other colored ones to move around under the layout. The grey ones are in my aisles.
One side is smooth, easily vacuumed, and most dropped “stuff” shows up pretty well. The other side is sort of ribbed, to keep them from slipping.
My Home Depot also carried them, in dark gray only, but dropped them a couple of years ago.
Do a Google search for “Interlocking foam pads” or the like.
I still like laminate. No Glue! you could take it with you when you move! I hear they do that in Europe.
To Pondini:
Thanks for the info. I’ll look into the interlocking mats further.
Bob
I overcame the problem of keeping the carpet clean during construction by using adjustable feet on my legs, built the layout and when it came time to lay the carpet I raised the legs one at a time and slid the carpet underneath.
My floor is 3/4 floor grade ply a DPM/insulation layer 3/4" then chipboard flooring panels then underlay and carpet.
Shaun