I am still having some problem's understanding wall's

[Mr. Haunt]

I have asked about walls before, and I have drew up pictures. But I am still having a problem to create ways to connect them together. Some of you said that you use screws, Would'nt this damage the wood after a while, with new holes being added each year?

I was trying to figure a way on how to bolt them together, rather then using screw's.

Am I missing something, If so explain, drawings, pictures, what ever. Anything will work.

[Nightmaretony]

Simpson strong ties and deck screws.

Get the JBCorn books, they explain in greater detail.

[brad]

If you use a bolt system, this will work because you really only need to bore out only one whole for esch peice of wood, but the larger your haunt gets, the much more expensive these bolts will get, when your buying a couple hundred peices to put it alll together. On a small budget, I'd say just go with screws and you can literally mark your wall panels where the screws were at the end of the year, and just try to drill you screws into the same spot on your plywood each time.

[campdoc]

"Head Bolts"
This is what i use! on 2x4 walls.(and pallets)
First' find a local Import Auto repair shop in your area.
Ask them,to save you,all the old head bolts they remove.
"they can not reuse them" most end up in the trash.
Most head bolts are 4-5 inchs long. 24-30 bolts per car too.
Most shop's will give them to you,if you ask..
all you'll need now is the nut's. Ace hardware is the place..
.05 to .15 cents each.
Hope this helps.

[brad]

Yeah, that's a really good idea. And those head bolt a very strong too- they wont break on you.

[Mr. Haunt]

Thanks for the information

Head bolts, good idea, Brad I like your tips as well. Building new walls after a few years of use is a good idea.

[Greg Chrise]

Using the Simpson Strong tie method, you use 1 7/8 inch drywall screws. Not deck screws which fit the hole but are larger in diameter. you use drywall screws. The small diameter once extracted doesn not leave a gapping hole and has proven in the real world that the same lumber if properly stored can last almost 30 years and counting.

The 2x4s are in this style laid flat on the sheet of plywood. They could be made into the interlocking style of panels for more square designs. Recently somewhere on the trading post, someone is selling walls, I think Fright props. Look at how high they are stacked. Then imagine if the air was let out by the lumber being placed flat instead of like conventional construction, it would take up half the space to store.

You can also place the lumber that an assembly is an 8 foot by 8 foot panel so that long straight runs are stiffer. Bolting is good too. I generally only use this on big heavy facades that will be outdoor and in the wind. The problem is having every panel identical with a pattern that actually lines up properly and what you have to do if they don't.

Storage comes dowm to how big of a trailer you will need or ultimately how many trailers if you get into lots of panels that are thick. However most haunts I see do it with conventional style on end lumber. This as well can be screwed on the fly together in any weird angle where bolting limits you to a square design.

The specific Simpson Strong tie # is A-21, a 90 that you would hand bend to any angle you need and I have found an TP15 that is much cheaper that is as yet unbent. In the JB Corn or Godfather method, you would have 4 such clips one at ancle and one above the head on each side of a joint. Each is rated for 175 pounds, 4 becomes 700 pounds of donkey prop hanging power per joint.

These clips have gotten a little expensive though. A-21s were 31 cents and all of a sudent they are 78 cents to 98 cents each. The tp15 is 40 cents and looks like it could make two of these if you desired to. The new price after tax is now $3.37 per joint which gets expensive. However in the bigger picture, no one is going to just rush out there and be like you if if is kind of expensive and specialized. A customer or wanna be when they start figuring that you have a thousands dollars in clips and misc hardware for exit doors and such will stand back a bit.

Using bolts you have sometime times several panels floating above an irregular floor and have to put wedges under to support at joint edges. Having to force things square especially with lumber means tearing it apart. The clip mathod conforms to what ever surface, can even intentially be set to tilt a bit and stay together once assembled. With the clip or hrricane tie method it doesn't matter what kind of gap you have or the panels can be made to even over lap to make up for or loose a floor dimension.

[Nightmaretony]

Reason for deck screws, rust issues. For mine since it would be outdoor, I would be using deck screws, period. I am also to use the strong tie over the bolts since the ground is hilly and irregular out here...

[Greg Chrise]

I've been considering using some kind of hex head screws if I can find them so air tools can be used instead of electric or battery powered. The idea being quicker?

The deck screws did leave a hole whereas the dry wall screws do not but your rust thing is correct, the deck scres do have more meat to them as well but I also like how a whole box can do two haunts for $60 The deck screws are a bit more and are then considered semi precious.

[GhoulKraft]

deck screws are all you need. bolts are a waste of time and money. when its time to tear down you don't want to be messing with bolts and sockets. the walls in the haunt I help build are 2x2's and one sided with luan and some are sided with 1/4 OSB. each wall is screwed into the next wall with three screws down the side and one in the floor. most times you can use the same hole from year to year but we are only talking about tiny holes anyway, no need to rebuild new walls every couple of years.

[Jim Warfield]

One of the reasons some walls need fewer supports or can get by with less thick materials that I don't think I have ever heard mentioned before is the distance of space a customer can use to swing or run at a wall to break it.
Reduce the "run-up", reduce the power of an impact.
If there is a portion of a wall that people will be impacting , usually from an adjoining tremendous scare, 2 by 4's with a 3/4 thick plywood wall, maybe even bolted together is what may be needed.