Do you know how hard it is to find a nice house with an unfinished basement here? Just when I had given up my search, such a house came on the market. I acted immediately, bought the house and moved into it in May, 2016. Immediately I set to work having the basement custom-finished for a layout. It was finished as one big open space with ample outlets to support the layout and workbench's power needs.
I found a great builder - honest, meticulous and really easy to work with - to finish the space. It turned out to be a great collaboration, and we have become good friends. Since we were working from my general concept and specifications for power and finish, we made decisions on key details as we went along and as the room began to speak to us. The room exceeded my expectations - especially since it was the first time either of us set out to build a layout room. We stayed very close to the original budget and schedule. A good layout really is a collaborative effort, and having a good relationship inevitably yields the best results, not to mention more satisfaction.
The room is lighted throughout with soft LED track and can lights, all on dimmers and multiple curcuits so that I can control the light during work and operating sessions. Track lighting is really an experiment, but it has the advantage of moving adding/removing fixtures to suit my needs. With the cost of LED going down every day, and their low consumption and virtually no heat emission, it was the way to go for my layout room.
The room (19'x35' to the concrete walls; 18'4"x34' finished) was already roughed in (another bonus!), so it was simply a matter of finishing it off. Here is how the room looked when I bought the house:
I found a great builder - honest, meticulous and really easy to work with - to finish the space. It turned out to be a great collaboration, and we have become good friends. Since we were working from my general concept and specifications for power and finish, we made decisions on key details as we went along and as the room began to speak to us. The room exceeded my expectations - especially since it was the first time either of us set out to build a layout room. We stayed very close to the original budget and schedule. A good layout really is a collaborative effort, and having a good relationship inevitably yields the best results, not to mention more satisfaction.
The room is lighted throughout with soft LED track and can lights, all on dimmers and multiple curcuits so that I can control the light during work and operating sessions. Track lighting is really an experiment, but it has the advantage of moving adding/removing fixtures to suit my needs. With the cost of LED going down every day, and their low consumption and virtually no heat emission, it was the way to go for my layout room.
The room (19'x35' to the concrete walls; 18'4"x34' finished) was already roughed in (another bonus!), so it was simply a matter of finishing it off. Here is how the room looked when I bought the house:
The wall framed up here was a bearing wall, so my builder replaced it with a post and beam for support. Because I now had to contend with a support post, my builder and I decided to add a wall that would become the center for the main peninsula. We added a wall that was angled to accommodate the peninsula. 18' from the post to the south wall, we finished it from 54" up, leaving the lower studs exposed to anchor the peninsula. Once finished, we painted the wall a light sky blue. I chose flat paint for its light absorbtion, which had the ability to change hue at different light levels to simulate the different times of day. Background images will be painted onto the walls as the scenes develop.
The unfinished view transformed into this:
I used blue painter's tape to outline the layout on the floor, which is easy to use and remove when no longer needed. One of my requirements was easy access to all parts of the layout - absolutely no duckunders or liftouts! Floors are left bare concrete until the benchwork is completed, at which time I plan to add padded foam interlocking tiles for support and comfort while working on and operating the layout.
I decided to put the workbench in the room with the layout so that everything I need is right where the work needs to be done. The workbench is 14' long by 30" deep. Above the workbench I added a 6" shelf, which is situated at the same level (54" from the floor as the main level. This shelf will hold two tracks for working on, programming and staging power and rolling stock.
On the left in this photo, just beyond the workbench, I had to accommodate a utility room for the furnace, water heater and water softener. Outside of that necessity, nothing encroached on the space. The plan calls for the work/staging tracks on the shelf above the bench to connect directly to the mainline. This will be done with a track through the utility room. Because I need to have access to the utilities in the room, this track will be a simple structure with a liftout for emergencies.
The workbench provides ample workspace but quickly filled up with projects and supplies.
Wiring the room was a bit tricky, since I wanted to be able to control both lighting and layout power centrally. This involved creating two light zones - one for the layout, the other for the workbench - which allowed me to turn off the workbench lights when not in use. Also, we created several power zones, some always hot, some switched so that the command base can stay on while boosters and other layout functions can be turned off at the wall switches. The workbench has outlets below it spaced every 6' and 4-gang outlets every 4' at work level. As the saying goes, more power!
My next entry will talk about the planning process for the layout.
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