Insulate Your Garage

One thing I'd do is to insulate your garage well.  It isn't usually hard to do and isn't terribly expensive.  Insulate the walls, and especially the attic.  My attached garage is well insulated and never gets over the low 80s in summer, or less than than the mid 60s in winter.  This is with no heat or a/c in the garage, and I live in South Louisiana.

Doing so will likely help the stability of your layout in the garage, and will reduce the temperature fluctuation between spaces while you're operating.

In the garage

I  insulated and dry walled my garage and dropped the ceiling Last year I added AC. I live in LA.

Bob Harris 

Humidity

stability is critical.  Temperature stability has to be close behind.  Jack and Bob are right on track with their suggestions.  It’s also much easier to do the site preparation before starting the railroad.  Same goes for cellars.

Nick

Some things to keep in mind.....

The wall between your garage and living space is required to be fire rated, along with your self-closing door that separates the two. Penetrating that rated wall, should you have a fire, will be an issue with the fire code, building code and insurance company. 2" foam board will not protect the tunnel openings you create.

Also, do you park vehicles in your garage? If so, what's going to keep the exhaust and carbon monoxide from entering your office/bedroom?

Terry

ouch

I don't know anything about building codes, but that response looks to me like a push in the direction of completely converting the garage to living space - i.e. full insulation, replacement of the garage door with a wall, and getting the new room certified as living space. I see these conversions on real estate listings with 'can be converted back' notes. It sure runs up the cost of preparing the layout space. Or it pushes toward giving up on the spare bedroom part completely. Tough choices for the OP.

:<

Garage worked for me

I'm in the SF Bay Area. This past Sunday through Tuesday, daytime highs were between 95 and 102, so I feel your pain. My layout is in half of a 1 1/2 car garage attached to a compact house constructed in 1948, but fully modernized in 2007. Before building the layout, I took these steps:

• Insulated the 3 walls including the wall adjoining the house and kitchen. The latter is fire-rated as noted above.
• Fully finished the walls with drywall and enough power outlets.
• Finished the ceiling (flat) using drywall. Installed can lights in the ceiling. The latter was my wife's preference; if I were to re-do it, I would use LED fixtures.
• Insulated the garage door. This is not a big deal. Panels of foam attach to the inside of the door. I also replaced the garage door floor seal. This is important.
• Replaced the single window in a side wall with a modern, double-paned, insulated window.
• Installed an epoxy sealed plastic chip floor, the kind you see in the custom garages that car guys have. The vendor was Premier Garage.
• Installed custom laminate storage cabinets including a workbench. These are elevated off the floor for cleaning. Premier Garage also did this.
• Installed a flat-screen TV with over-the-air digital antenna (I didn't want to pay for another cable box), DVD player, stereo receiver, turntable for vinyl records and speakers. Also a WiFi router.
• The space above the ceiling and below the roof is not insulated. If I were to do this again, I would both insulate that space and install a cyclone vent, the kind that rotates with rising hot air. My wife did not want to install the latter because it would be visible from the street.
• There is a side door providing access from one of the side walls to a narrow side exterior area between lots. Since this could provide burglar access, I installed a solid wood door with a strong deadbolt. However, I also cut a 4" hole in it to ventilate a portable air conditioning unit. It is a Mitsubishi model that cost about $300. When the garage temperature exceeds about 82 degrees, I run the AC and it easily keeps the temp in check.

This has worked for me. I enjoy using the space and the layout. It's not perfect but it provides a sizable layout space (7' x 16') and otherwise I would have zero space. And it has almost no dust problem. In the summer I can put baseball or music on the TV while working on the layout and in the fall the NFL. When visitors come I put on a railroad DVD. The entertainment touches make a huge difference in terms of wanting to spend time in the space.

None of these steps is difficult or particularly expensive, other than the floor, but the floor work made a huge difference with dust and cleanliness. Once every couple of months I vacuum and wet-mop the floor with diluted Pine Sol and after that you could eat off it.

Chris

Garage Changes a Must

You don’t want to build a layout in a garage without making major environmental changes.   Also, don’t make the mistake of implementing environmental changes just during times you are working on the layout.

As an example, I live in Arkansas which can get very hot and humid during late Spring to early Fall.  I have a friend with a garage layout that kept the air-conditioning off unless he was working on the layout.

Although he added insulation, the constant temperature and humidity change we felt was responsible for various issues.  

Even if the layout is not affected, it is no fun working or playing in an uncomfortable space. 

Also, even though many folks may disagree, the garage does not need to double as a parking space for a car and layout space.  

Joe

patentwriter

Chris,

 You just saved me a lot of typing! Mine is so similar to yours.....a few detail differences but essentially the same footprint (7x16), a computer and entertainment system, portable air con with ducted outlet etc. About the only big difference is I built a ceiling on my layout space that does drop the interior height to 7' but allows for insulation and a storage space above for sheet material.

 I used to often sweat or freeze in there due to the cost of running air/heat but my dear wife convinced me that a substantial solar system would be a good investment so now I stay comfortable year round and she can feed her little electric car all the juice it wants. Life is good in the garage!

Options

Eric (& Eastwood):

A couple of things came to mind when I read about the fire separation between the garage and the bedroom. The proposed expansion into the garage was minimal so one option would be to simply enclose that area and add a 20 min rated door. The other is to simply make the train room part of the garage, sort of, by replacing the room door with that same solid core, self-closing & latching, door with a smoke seal. (This only works if there I no living space above.) It won’t help with exhaust fumes getting in the train room if you still use the garage for for cars, of course. 

Fire codes aside, our county just adopted the Energy Code so many new homes will need a lot of insulation in the walls and roof, as well as pass a “leak test” before they can be used as bing spaces. Adding AC will now require fresh air as well. 

Bedroom to Garage Layout Access - Your Experience?

Thank you all for your input – much appreciated! 

My garage is drywalled only on the vertical wall surfaces. I plan to have the roof sprayed with foam insulation for max R value and longevity. I like the addition of foam insulation board in the garage door panels suggestion – hadn't thought of that. The shelf intrusion into the garage will measure 9' 7" by 19.25". I plan to completely enclose it and add a clear horizontal polycarbonate (Lexan) viewing/access door or doors to the front. This will hopefully reduce the dust factor and allow easy access for maintenance, etc. Train ops will be primarily from the bedroom. Will install a DCC throttle input in the garage as well. 

Suggestions for monitoring train movement in the garage extension are welcome...sensors, video...what's best for a reasonable cost?

Thanks, Eric