Hmmmmmm

Padded carpet would drive me nuts. I have painted the floor and put an area rug down where I sit at the work desk.

I have carpet in my room.

It was there when I started construction and I just left it.  There is no pad under it and it's a very low pile, tight weave.  In my previous room, which I built in a garage, I had similar carpet.  Both have been VERY satisfactory.  Crawling under the benchwork and doing construction is MUCH easier on the body when there's carpet.  The room feels warmer and more inviting, and is more pleasant when running trains.  It's quieter too, with carpet.  At this point, I'd never have a layout room without carpet.

I had carpet in my previous

I had carpet in my previous train room.  It was a tight low pile glued directly to concrete as well.  A bit nicer to stand on than bare concrete.  The downside is it's inevitable that you drop things while working on the layout.  Things like spikes, clipped off wire ends, coupler springs, etc.  All of which seem eager to work themselves into the carpet.  So a little caution is in order if you're crawling around on the carpet - every once in a while one of those things stuck in it can get you.

For my new layout room I got good quality vinyl flooring which is also a bit nicer to stand on than bare concrete, and way easier to find tiny dropped parts on and to clean up and dropped bits.

My space is just too large to

My space is just too large to do it, but your would not be too much $$

https://www.google.com/search?q=interlocking+rubber+floor+matting&tbm=shop&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiVmP6VybPeAhVNT98KHfSgDM8Q_AUICigB&biw=1536&bih=763&dpr=1.25

Easy to put down, cut around corners and looks and feels good

Another Carpet Fan

I used a commercial grade carpet that glued directly to the concrete.  As others have described above, it's a tight, low pile carpet, and it has a dense pad built into the bottom.  I like it very much . . . comfortable to stand and crawl around on, adds considerably to quieting the room, and it looks good.  I find it reasonably easy to keep clean using a vacuum after a work session.

I have vinyl tile in my small workshop area.  It works well there.

I would use both again in a new room.

Floor

I would suggest carpet or floor mats, concrete is waaaay to hard on the feet.

I have always gone by the concept of using good pad under cheaper carpet.  I have bought cheaper industrial grade carpet and put a good quality pad.

However a friend's recent experience has made me question the carpeting concept.  He had a basement that was carpeted then build a large layout on top of it.  Double deck benchwork, peninsulas that surrounded posts, etc.  This year he had a pipe burst and flood the basement.  They had to get the wet carpet out from under the legs, which wasn't bad, but putting new carpet down was way more difficult.  They had to basically lay the carpet around the peninsulas, carpet in the aisle and concrete under the layout its self.

Based on that, I wonder if, for a layout with significant portion that rests on the floor (not wall supported), especially one with a risk of flooding, it might be best to use carpet squares or rubber pad squares and just put them around the peninsulas to begin with.

Vinyl Plank Flooring As An Option

I used one of the newer vinyl composite click and lock flooring that looks like hardwood but its just imprinted vinyl.  Mine has a cork backing and that helps with the concern over standing on a concrete slab.  Bit softer and warmer and its waterproof in case you get a leak.  No matter how careful I am I seem to get stuff on the floor, especially when doing plaster work and my flooring will just wipe up- not so with carpet.  I know the guys who have carpet will chime in that they use drop clothes to solve that problem; but so do I and somehow every once in a while I manage to spill something when I don't have the drop cloth down, or its not quite in the right place.  Even just normal cleanup of sawdust, etc is much easier on this type of floor than a carpeted one.  There is no right answer as its individual preferences that dictate, but at least this gives you something to consider.  

Craig

Carpet + Pad, and then the foam squares

I'm in the garage, and the floor in there was cracked when we bought it. So I laid down a nice thick pad, the cheapest carpet I could find, and then built the layout (which is a combination between dual-pin shelving bracket supported and freestanding). I then, because the carpet was cheap, put down that interlocking rubber matting on all the aisles.

It works.

Watched a Video on Vinyl Flooring Installation

Amazing stuff! Seems like a good alternative to some of the others.

Floor...

I would paint the concrete first, it really helps to seal it and keep the dust down and makes it much easier to sweep or vacuum. I would then lay 2x2 rubber floor pads from Harbor Freight, bought when they're on sale. Easy to keep clean, easy to replace, easy to cut, and cheap to replace if needed. Walking on bare concrete sucks. During construction the mats work well for all the aforementioned reasons. I might add carpet on top of the mats when construction is finished, but so far the mats are doing a nice job. 

Randy 

Here you go - the solution to compressing carpet

I used these on my carpet over concrete and they work great.  The nails go right through the carpet and rest on the floor without compressing or damaging the carpet.  If you want more info on these just let me know.

agree completely with RSeiler

Until construction is complete, including scenicing, avoid carpet.  I use the 2'x2' square interlocking exercise pads; my room is immense, but I only need to have them in walking areas.  My feet hurt so much less now.  When the messy work is complete, I'll replace the ones I need to, or go all out with something else as padding, but for construction, you can't beat removable, replaceable tiles.

Blair

I don’t really have the “cold

I don’t really have the “cold floor” problem in my basement.  When I built the house a few years ago I had to insult the floor for 24 or 30 inches inside the footing on all outside walls as it was code.  At the time extruded insulation was not as expensive as it is now so I spend like an extra $700 or so to insulate the whole thing and it really is a help. I can sit on the floor in winter and it is not really cold.  

The problem I have is that standing on it for a few hours will leave my back and such sore.  My solution is to either use good shoes or I have rubber pads I can put in the walkways where I am working.

Someday I want to do something with the floor.  Perhaps Carpet tiles but.. I only have so much money and I have a larg floor.

-Doug M

Plus One for Carpet Tiles

I recently added carpet to an odd shaped room using 24” square carpet tiles from Lowe’s. It ended up about a dollar a square foot. It is purchased in packs of 15 tiles so can be bought and installed where you will walk at a very economical price. 

Randy, That's exactly the

Randy,

That's exactly the rubber tile option i was looking at.  Are they comfortable to stand on?  I would imagine that clean up is really easy, or worst case pull one up and replace it.

May look a little odd though where it meets up with the carpet.

Rick those are a great idea,

Rick those are a great idea, are they home made?

Mr. Mayor...

Yes, sir, your honor, they are a vast improvement over hard concrete. Easy to clean, vacuum, wipe down, or pull out and replace. 

Randy

Mayor79 - Yes, the pads are homemade

I was going to private message you about the details on the construction of the pads; however, there isn't a tab to do so.  If you would like me to email you the information please email me at:

The funky graphic is designed to keep bots from reading it and sending me junk mail.  The letter afer the "m" is the letter "i".

Rubber tiles

Along with the 2x2 tiles, I found some that are about 1x1, and interlock with the larger ones. Works really well where the big ones are not quite big enough. 

Layout room floor?

I have two layouts. The small layout room  in the house has carpet tiles ( like commercial office buildings often use) they are very short nap so easy to vacuum dropped small parts out. The layout is wall mounted so it's easy to put down a drop cloth if I'm doing heavy duty messy work.   The larger layout is in a partitioned off area of my workshop and has bare plywood floor which is very comfortable to work on as things roll on it easily and it's got a bit of give compared to concrete or other harder surfaces. For a layout room with a bare concrete floor the 12 inch square glue down vinyl composition tiles are easy and relatively cheap to install. ...DaveB

Personally, I would opt for some kind

of linoleum flooring.  Yeah, I know I'm back in the 60's but think about it.  During your layout construction You'll be doing a lot of painting.  How upset will you be when that drips on the floor? or worse yet a blob of plaster from your mountain.  Anything can be wiped up and you don't have to use a drop cloth unless you want. When the layout is finished, purchase a throw rug and pad if you like.  Maybe even two or three.  You can have these made at your carpet dealer by adding an edge around the perimeter of any small left over scrap pieces he might have.  This way you can take it and shake it out and maybe find that small piece that fell into the rug.  Try doing this with a carpet.  Just something to consider.  You have a ton of options.  Best wishes.

I've used carpet squares in

I've used carpet squares in the past, which worked well. In my current layout room I have laminate flooring, the stuff that looks like hardwood but isn't. I prefer the laminate flooring as small dropped details and stuff are easily recovered where even a short nap carpet can seem to eat the small details dropped, never to be seen again. Oh ya, I should mention that I drop a lot of stuff!.

carpet runners

Last time I priced anything in this area (13 years ago) carpet binding was about a buck a foot, so even free scraps are still going to cost you if you have the edges bound. Better than trying to use scraps from a carpet dealer, you can get carpet runners made for stairs & hallways in 3 foot widths, already bound along the long edges. HD had this stuff sold by the foot, and you buy some tape for the cut-off ends. If  your aisles zig zag you can cut diagonally across the runner and bind that point with the tape. 

Or once you get the pieces cut the way you like them you can roll them back up and take them in to a carpet dealer for professional binding along the ends. They might even be able to join the pieces along your diagonal cuts. 

But for you guys who don't like cold floors, I recommend:

Flooring

I am in the process of getting my new railroad room in order, the  house was built in the late 40's. Good solid house. I will use some type of sealer (floor paint). Then I will install Dricore subfloor membrane. Each panel is 23.5" x 23.5" Menards carries it. The model number is 1243100 and the SKU is 1243100. At Menards it sells for $6.25 per panef. Any large box hardware store like Home Depot should carry it or can order it for you.

Once the subfloor is in I will either put down a good quality pad and carpet or use the 2' x 2' pads from HFT. Right now I am leaning to the side of pad and carpet. 

I plan to use Dricore throughout the basement, depending on its use will either have carpet or tile. 

This just one idea on how to finish of a basement floor to get it ready of a railroad in your basement. A additional bit of information is that by using Dricore subflooring the temperature at the new floor level will increase by about 6.25F. Not only will your back feel better, because you're now standing on a floor that has some give to it, just like the floors on the main floor. Your feet will feel warmer because you have built in a air space below the new floor.