Room Prep: framing and drywall

 I built my house. My wife and I drove every nail, every piece of siding, all the electrical, drywall, insulation, mounding, paint and plumbing. I swear, I’ll never hire that plumber again!

Anyway, our original plans were for a stand alone train building. But we both got “Severe Construction Fatigue” so, by mutual consent, I got the basement for the train room. It’s 2000 sq ft. Right now it’s full of junk which we are sifting through, slowly. 

In addition my knee surgery has kept me upstairs for the first six months of this year. 

We did get a very small leak in a fitting under the master shower, and because it was way on the far side of the basement, and because we didn’t go down there much anyway, this small leak just dripped, unremarked, for weeks. It’s doubtful something like that will happen again. I don’t mean we won’t get another leak, it just won’t go unnoticed for weeks again because I’m in the basement a lot more often now. 

Still it scared me away from carpeting the train room floor. I had planned carpet squares, but I worry about water, so I’m looking at rubber mats.

In the meantime I have several projects going outside the house and when it gets too hot I move inside and do a little work on the train room. I’m framing the walls in the stairwell and then the entry to the train room. In the stairs I need backing for the drywall, and in the entry it’s a floor to ceiling stud wall with electric outlets. These walls will conceal the insulation blanket that is over the concrete basement walls. I’m putting the studs at 24” on center since they are not structural, and in this area will not carry any layout benchwork. 

Eventually I’ll install a T-Bar ceiling. 

My plan for the walls that will be supporting the layout are somewhat unconventional. I’m going to frame them conventionally, but I’m going to cover them with 7/16 OSB as opposed to drywall. These walls will be anchored hard to the basement floor and to the floor joists of the house that form the basement ceiling.

The idea behind this is that the layout, being multi-deck, will cover a substantial portion of these walls. In fact ALL the wall, floor to ceiling, will be behind some sort of covering. Either skirting from the benchwork to the floor or layout and scenery all the way to the ceiling. These plywood walls make electric outlets a bit difficult, and to be honest I still have not decided whether to surface mount the outlets and  conduit, or put them inside the walls conventionally. But the plywood makings hanging the layout benchwork EASY. there is ALWAYS good nailing anywhere you choose. 

I’m just going to keep moving slowly, framing, hanging drywall, taping and mudding then priming. No thoughts on a finish color in this area. I’m sure my wife will tell me what my opinions are.

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