Layout environment

My layout is in the basement. Warm in the winter, cool in the summer. All concrete flors, with bare insulation. I can't wait till summer so we can put up something on the walls. What should i use? Drywall? Also, should i carpet it?

micheal,
Dont be discouraged by the conditions. My temps are from 8 degrees to
85 degrees f. I dont have a garden rr, i have a table top layout. Some of it (24 ft) is fastened to a fence,and a tarp is swung over it when not in use.This keeps all the debris from fallen on the tracks.My main section
4'x8' is plexiglass covered, so that all my stock is protected.Iam from
new york and not discouraged at all.

HAPPY RAILROADING

Thanks for your reply, Joe! The reason I was pondering the conditions is because the track on my current layout has warped in 2 places because of only 5 degrees difference compared to summer (the basement is warmer in winter). I guess a good solution to temperature changes would be spacer tracks for different seasons, or unsoldered joints (mine are almost all soldered).

I have never had this problem. what causes it, I have had my layout in damp basements, the dehumidifier running 24 hours a day everyday , and the water bucket always had to be emptied, never any warpage from that. I guess i was lucky

Stuart, as far as I can see, a combination of temperature and humidity is the reason behind the track warping in my case. It gets dryer and warmer in the basement during the winter, causing the benchwork to shrink and the rails to expand (double whammy!). A second problem that has resulted is block short-circuiting, where the expanding rails pinch out the rubber spacer on the joints between blocks (It took me some time to figure this problem out, which was the source of some major operational difficulties). This is the first year that this has been a problem, probably because I relaid all the track in the fall and soldered most of the joints. In a couple of places, I've cut the track (leaving a 1/16" gap) and wired the rails together to allow for expansion and contraction.