Opinions on flooring for new train room

The OP is building his layout in a bedroom so I think he has several options to choose from.  Here is what I did for my basement layout.

I had an inexpensive carpet in the basement when Hurricane Irene hit us back in 2011.  I was in California so I couldn't help my wife try to keep the place intact.  It rained for 24 hours and for 14 hours of that we had no power, so we wound up with about 2 inches of water in the basement.  All our electrical power lines are underground so it could have been a lot worse.  I decided no more carpet and am using the rubber mats where I walk.  These are great.

When I need to get on the concrete under the table I use a foam camping sleeping pad that works very well, a lot more cushion than carpet.  If you are going to go without carpet, these pads come in different thicknesses and are great to kneel and sit on.  (Note:  my layout table is 48" high.)

My floor is laminate over dricore and on a concrete basement slab. No moisture issues so far and no regrets with the laminate. Should help with resale value when our kids move us to a nursing home! By the way, it looks like Tom "Gilly" Gilsdorf and I have the same floor - on sale at Lowe's about 18months ago.

This is an interesting discussion with good insights. I’m facing this carpet vs hardwood decision. Fortunately, we are having a new room built above the garage. In one of the responses it was mentioned that sound carries in the joists. This gave me the thought of sound proofing the joists. Has anyone tried this or do you have any thoughts on the possibility?

 Thanks,

Jay

While I don't have it in our public layout now, for the at-home layouts we built, we enjoyed having them on carpet. 

Jay Francis posted:

This is an interesting discussion with good insights. I’m facing this carpet vs hardwood decision. Fortunately, we are having a new room built above the garage. In one of the responses it was mentioned that sound carries in the joists. This gave me the thought of sound proofing the joists. Has anyone tried this or do you have any thoughts on the possibility?

 Thanks,

Jay

Having done some projects where sound proofing was a priority, I can offer some information.

 First, if there is to be living space under the new room, sound deadening furring strips can be fastened to the underside of the wood joists.  The drywall then gets screwed to these strips.

Second, sound deadening insulation should be used between the floor joists.  We call it rotten cotton.  It resembles fiberglass insulation but is much more rigid.  It is available in varying thicknesses and widths.  It comes in a bundle, in lengths of four feet.  The newer rotten cotton is much more user friendly than the stuff we worked with years ago.  

Third, before the new sub-floor is laid on top of the joists, neoprene can be fastened to the joists.  Then the plywood sub-floor laid on top of the neoprene.  

Some examples

Jay Francis,  When my wife had the train room built for me over the new 3 car garage, I did to see some of the progress when home on some weekends.  The construction was standard, per code, with decking laid directly onto the joists, standard pink lay-in insulation, 12" inside 16" joists, and poly vapor barrier beneath the floor decking.  Ceiling of garage below is 1/2 inch drywall into joists.  When I had the time home, managing local project at Tinker AFB, I lay down 4" compressed particle, interlock flooring planks on top of normal under-lay pad.  Noise from the running of several trains at same time is not noticeable in the below garage, and with the man door at foot of the stairs is closed, wife says she cannot tell when I am up in the train room running.  Didn't really consider anything special, being built over garage, but seems more than adequate.  I really like the wooden floor.  Easy to get around on under the layout and don't loose things when they are dropped on floor.  Easy to vacuum and spills clean up easy.

Jesse   TCA

This is rubber flooring made for home gyms. A 4’ x 10’ mat is $85 with free shipping.

I’m thinking of using it on the table for sound insulation under the tracks. It’s 1/4” thick so cutting into custom strips seems doable. 

So many excellent ideas. As they say, “ no sense in reinventing the wheel “.

Thank you all very much.