Turning my garage into a train room

Bill, you are off to a very good start. The brick adds a nice touch especially where you put the train shelves. Keep posting your progress..............Paul 2

Looks great, going to be a very nice room addition.

Very nice thus far. What will you be doing for humidity, heat & A/C?

Right now running a window unit, but back when I had my new HVAC system put in, in April, I went up on BTU's so when I get this done they can come back and run ducks to this space. Already talked to them about that. They couldn't at the time because the space still had a garage door and thus could be used as a garage to park a vehicle. 

Did you already have insulation in those garage walls? Did you put insulation in on the wall that replaced the door? The reason I asked, is because after my first garage conversion, I found that insulation was not commonly installed in garages here in Texas, and other parts of the south. It sure made the place hard to heat and air condition. The second and third garage conversions I did, had added insulation included in the walls, roof, and door enclosure. Much more comfortable for train running. I love the brick wall look by the way.

The previous walls I was not sure if there was insulation so I did add it to it. The garage door area I was using 2" x 6" so I put insulation in there double thick. So it got 6" of insulation where the rest got 3". The roof is going to get insulation when it cools down some and I can get up there. There is an old A/C unit in the attic between the house and the garage, ( not hooked up to electric and believe is no good. ) Which I'm going to separate so I have a way up there from the main house. To big to bring down. There is like 3' ducking up there to suck/blow air out the vent in the end of the house. I will flatten that so I can get over it to put insulation on the other side of it. I'm thinking of getting the machine ( rent ) to blow insulation in up there. I have a bunch of rolls in the attic on the house side I plan to use but may goto blowing it in instead. 

Sounds like you have got the climate pretty well under control. Congratulations on your new layout space. Should be a comfortable space to "play with your trains".

Insulation,  there are three grades of fiberglass. 

For a 3 1/2" void, the highest grade is an R15 special order. 

I bypassed that in my garage conversion and got ISO foam sprayed in 3 1/2" thick at 7 R  per inch.  Total 24.5R.  The spray foam not only controls the temp but knocks down on the outside noise and blocks the bugs.

Cut in your HVAC ducts first.  Also in the South West market they have some really high R value flex ducting available.

Consider drilling and treating the concrete floor for termites b/4 the floor goes in.

For your laminate floor, lay down some 6 mil poly cloth first with about a 10" over lap and tape  the seams and run it 6" up the wall.  Concrete floors on grade can be moist.

I bought 6 mil to put down, I've done all this before ( the floor part) about 8 years ago when I lived in Columbia, S.C. 

I put R-13 in the walls. which has worked fine for me. as for sound I can't really do anything about that. I have a old style wooden window at present. I hope to change it out in the future but will do whole house, so that's something I need to save to do. The insulation seems to be doing well, I have a small window A/C and it is set at 78 and it runs and cuts off as it should when it gets to temp.something it didn't do when first got it and the walls where not insulated that well. We have reason to believe some type of insulation was behind the walls but not very good and of coarse until we got the garage removed and closed in, there where big gaps between the wall and the actual door. 

I will have the guys that installed my new HVAC do the cutting in, which will be in ceiling. 

I'm still a long ways from actually start building the layout.