Garage help

[sirenwerks]

I'm starting to think to the future and a layout. Three-quarters of the garage is mine and, while it needs some deconstruction before I get there, I need to plan out what to do about the sloping floor. I can either leave it as is or I can build a sub-floor to level it off. Any thoughts?

[Rossford Yard]

I had to move my existing layout to the garage of my new post divorce town house 12 years ago.  I painted the garage floor to keep dust down, and added insulation to the garage door to keep it reasonably cool, and added a portable AC unit, which was an energy hog.  Ductless wall units probably better, but even newer portables use less energy.  Don't skimp on size.

As to the floor, after painting, I left it, and just added new legs of varying heights. I needed/wanted to raise layout height anyway, (mostly to clear my car's mirror for when it was parked in that side of the garage) so new legs were a must.  Established 0 level on a wall, drew the horizontal line on the side wall along the slope, and worked from there to determine leg height.  Would recommend the old lag bolt in the leg bottom for fine tuning.

[Philip H]

My new layout is in the garage as well, and that augers for a shelf style layout attached to the walls at a consistent height.  No need for legs, and you can build all manner of work spaces and storage units underneath. and paint the floor - perhaps one of those epoxy paints with the speckles that create traction?

[sirenwerks]

My wife has actually agreed to keep the cars out, so I will likely build a stud wall across the door, keeping the door in place of course and possibly including a loading egress or pass through; and, maybe, at least a partial wall on the inside. So I'm thinking shelf around the perimeter with islands on legs. I plan on a modular design as I suspect this will not be our last house. Not sure if I will go double deck. If I do, it may be a walk in with double helix to maintain an open floorplan, and the helixes can act as structural units to hold up islands.

[nickelplate759]

Leave the slope of the floor alone.  Garage floors need to slope towards the door, and some future owner will thank you for leaving it alone if they, sadly, are not a model railroader.

[sirenwerks]

If I do anything, it will be to stud it out, not going to level it with concrete, that's for sure.

[dmidkiff]

Mark Lestico build a layout in his garage and incorporated the sloped floor as a "grade". He modeled the SP/UP in the Cascades with level bench work and let the operator height change with the floor elevation. He also used metal shelving tacks as a base for his bench work on he island portions.

Doug

[C855B]

While it would take a major search-and-rescue in my layout thread to find the discussion , I am dealing with a similar floor-as-grade issue. In my case this is about 2%, although in total it's probably worse than what you're dealing with because I have this 2% happening over 40 feet. What I have done is compromise by setting my target benchwork height in the middle of the grade, then sloping the benchwork at 1% over the distance. It seems to work, and the 5" relative bench height difference between the ends is tolerable. All but the lightest power in the fleet has no problem with pulling trains up the 1%. Where I get into trouble is in wanting to change track elevation for flyovers, etc., and it is then too easy to exceed 2%, which shortens train lengths considerably.

As far as creating your own floor surface - that would be my plan if it were my garage. The floor happens to be about 2' of step-down from the house with no decrease in ceiling height, so it would easily tolerate a raised floor.

EDIT: I just reminded myself that you have to plan around "deliberate" grades like this. I've discovered 1% is right around the threshold for free-rolling cars to take off on their own. All the yards planned on my layout unfortunately go with the grade. So the benchwork for the length of the yards will have to be leveled to around 0.5% or less to prevent runaways. Industrial trackage should be no problem; for that matter adjusting the grades on setout spurs can be a feature that adds interest.

[wm3798]

The floor shouldn't slope more than 1" in 12', so unless you have extra tingly spidey senses, it should be imperceptible to you while standing there working on the layout.  As for keeping the layout level, Phil's option of mounting it to the wall with brackets that are leveled would work, or if you don't want to put a bunch of holes in the wall, use those T-bolts they use to level N track modules at the bottom of the legs.

Lee

[sirenwerks]

There's a part of me that's thinking adjustable wall brackets and another part thinking four feet on the floor. I like the idea of having ample storage, since the garage is the catch all space. The four feet on the floor idea puts a leg at the front that can be an attachment point for a scrim to hide the junk. Of course, the adjustable brackets offer cleaner lines, less to construct, and flexibility.

[Tom L]

Nothing to do with the floor, but I had a neighbor that studded out his garage for a somewhat temporary bedroom. He left enough space (maybe 3or 4 feet deep and the width of garage) behind the garage door and the back wall of the bedroom for lawn mowers, bikes etc. I thought that was a pretty good idea.

Tom L
Wellington CO

[Rossford Yard]

Mark Lestico build a layout in his garage and incorporated the sloped floor as a "grade". He modeled the SP/UP in the Cascades with level bench work and let the operator height change with the floor elevation. He also used metal shelving tacks as a base for his bench work on he island portions.

Doug

Mine sort of worked the other way.....the track was level, but as you went around the main, the floor sank a few inches, and at about 1%, giving the impression the train was headed gently uphill, without the gravity related hassles!

[Rossford Yard]

There's a part of me that's thinking adjustable wall brackets and another part thinking four feet on the floor. I like the idea of having ample storage, since the garage is the catch all space. The four feet on the floor idea puts a leg at the front that can be an attachment point for a scrim to hide the junk. Of course, the adjustable brackets offer cleaner lines, less to construct, and flexibility.

Not sure about your soils or foundation quality, but here in N Texas, a few guys who have anchored to the wall, only to see the house shift a bit have had some problems.  Feet on the floor eliminates those problems, if they occur.

[jpwisc]

My layout is in my garage. The wall sections hang on heavy duty shelf brackets. The portions that aren't in the wall have different height legs to accommodate the slope of the floor. All the legs have adjustable height feet. I haven't had to turn one on over two years, but I have the ability if I need to. [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[Ed Kapuscinski]

My layout is in my garage. The wall sections hang on heavy duty shelf brackets. The portions that aren't in the wall have different height legs to accommodate the slope of the floor. All the legs have adjustable height feet. I haven't had to turn one on over two years, but I have the ability if I need to.

Those legs are sexy! Tell us more about them.