Pitch Black-Help!

[screamforadream]

Hello All,

I am asking for advice on a pitch black haunt I am designing for April 30/May 1st. I need to come up with an affordable design, with easy cleanup/breakdown as we will be building it in no more than 10 hours on site at my school's Relay for Life. Last year our haunt was the biggest and best it's ever been, and it's the largest on-site fundraiser at the event, this year we are trying to increase the size and decrease the cost. My idea is to use PVC Pipe for a frame, and essentially wrap the entire thing in black plastic, and designing a maze pattern within by hanging the plastic wrap down to form walls (lined with PVC for support).

So my question to you guys are,
1) Do you think it's safe? (Last year we used 2x4 frames, and stapled on paper room rolls and no one went flying through them...)

2) What are some possible room ideas? (i.e, bottomless pit, jason mask room etc.)

3) Ways to improve time on building or save on cost?

4) Anybody want to help sponsor? We have a tax ID number!

Thanks and sorry for any and all hassle, we are re-theming the entire haunt to help increase the amount of people to go through it, so I'm up for as many suggestions and tips as possible.

My contact info is in my signature, feel free to email me, PM me or send over an owl...we have a few months.

[gadget-evilusions]

I would not consider pvc frames and black plastic, even if it's fireproof, to be safe for customers to walk thru. Unfortunately I also do not have an answer as to a safe, quality way to quickly build and disassemble a haunt. Sorry.

[screamforadream]

Thanks for the input Brian. Last year we used 2x4 frames that we built a week or so beforehand, and then we put them up on-site from 8am-4pm and then we stapled on the walls and added props from 4-8pm and it was sturdy as heck! It took longer to take apart than it did to put it together. We braced it properly and to test it, I hung from all the frames and I could not get the things to budge. It was a huge success! So I know it can be done safely, we even passed inspection. I was just curious to see if there were better ways out there. I appreciate your concern but with any amount of determination, there is always a way.

[Mr. Haunt]

I'm not sure what you have for a budget or if this haunted house is indoors??? There are a few things to consider, but you need to talk with the Fire Department on safety concerns before you go buying anything.

You can buy fire rated black plastic from Menards. Not sure if I'm for PVC pipe, might be cheaper in the end to go back to 2x4s.

Did you keep these 2x4s from last year??? Frame up the walls from last year and spend the money on plywood instead of starting from scratch. Then your walls will be more stable and you can use them year after year. Just remember, if this is an indoor haunt, you WILL need to treat them with fire rated chemicals and use water based paints.

Hope this helps??? See if any of your local haunts want to partner with you and put something together???

Mr. Haunt

[screamforadream]

Thanks Mr. Haunt! This is actually on a college campus, and we submit our plans in a digital 3-D layout (similar to the ones presented to customers of professional haunted attraction designers, that we make our own.) I thought I posted the picture of last years...maybe it didn't go through? It is an outdoor haunt, and we get approval from the fire marshal. It is located next to the bleachers of a football field at an overnight Relay for Life event.

We used 2x4's last year, it worked really well but it was extremely time consuming, and we had no location to store the 2x4's so we donated them after we were done.

Another option someone suggested was using an inflatable haunt, such as a scAIR structure, but we are not able to afford a scAIR haunt. I'm trying to find a donor, or alternative option. I agree that PVC is not the greatest, as I'm learning. This is why we're starting early!

I would love to reach out to local haunts for help, but there aren't any in my area, which is why this event is such a hit at the Relay for Life. There are no major haunted attraction in our section of Connecticut, and the ones that do exist are all outdoor and do not use any 4x8 walls. They're forest walks, or hayrides through cornfields. It's a little frustrating when you love haunting as much as me, and most of you guys! lol

[Allen H]

Bobby,
I have been looking into Coroplast sheets for walls. Its also called corflute, its the stuff most outdoor signs are printed on. It runs about $9.00 a sheet and comes in a ton of colors. I normally use 2x2 to frame my panels one on each side and three 45" pieces connecting them. That puts your panel at about $18 each. Light weight but supportable with 1x4 bracing across the top.

[Greg Chrise]

I'm thinking that your event is off season for most pro haunts and one might be able to rent you some wooden walls for the two days. I don't know who is in your area. Certainly minor compensation for moving in and out would be a fraction of this building something temporary that has to be disguarded or might incur storage fees.

Chances are this gets you into the pro fire proof catagory. Not only is black plastic a real hazzard in so many ways if something went wrong but if you can nvest in the quality of the event, you would be supprised with the patronage.

[screamforadream]

Thanks Allen, that never crossed my mind. I appreciate the tip!

And Greg, we don't have any pro haunts here that use 4x8 walls. There was Fright Haven (if you checked the CT haunt section) but they went out of business and the owner wants over $100,000 for each haunt. I don't know if it's a great idea to take the risk with his kind of prices. The walk through of the haunt is only about 2 minutes, due to time and space, but the scares are intense and people love it! I'm hoping the new theme can make it seem longer (by being afraid of the dark) and provide the same quality of scares.

Thanks again everyone, I really appreciate your advice! Feel free to keep it coming.

[Mr. Haunt]

Well it sounds like you have options to choose from when it comes to building walls. As you can see from the other haunters, they are against the plastic. I like Allens idea, seems to be affordable anyway.

Let me give you this suggestion; I'm sure that you have sponsors that support your event, right? Why not go to a local storage facilitie and ask them to sponsor your event by donating a space to store your walls??????

My concern for you is this, your haunt does WELL for you every year, and form what you tell me there is an issue with storage? Thus you have to spend money building walls every year??? Or at least thats what I'm thinking, so with that said you need find a way to keep your walls and use them year after year.

I'm pushing the issue on a storage space, because building walls year after year is only going to eat your budget. I'm sure the other haunters would aggree!

Mr. Haunt

[Jim Warfield]

Maybe You Need?

A lumber Yard for a sponser?
My wacky idea: buy 3/4 inch thick plywood (Yes$$$!) but guess what? it will take and make very good use of ONE coat of paint and someday these pieces of substantial wood will still be valuable, you could build a real house with them, unlike flakey boards.
I could see this as actually being cheaper in the long term of things.
"Wood" is cheap right now.
I met a guy who was given an inflatable laser gun game /thing. He set it up near my house one Halloween I guess the owner had alot of $ and got bored owning it.

[screamforadream]

Thanks Mr. Haunt, I really agree with Allen's idea as well. This is the 3rd year of the haunt at the Relay in full blown scale. We emailed a couple storage locations and they offered a couple month storage but no one was able to donate year round storage. The reasons we could not afford to pay for storage was because the school provides us with a small event budget that we only have access too for the preparation and duration of the event. So it doesn't cover storage.

Thanks Jim, I really wish we were able to do that! Once I graduate college and become financially steady enough to go pro, I'll gladly take that advice and apply it to my future attraction.

[Greg Chrise]

If you really are going to go pro, you should keep working on this free storage angle instead of the yearly disposable haunt. No one is going to want PVC pipe and black plastic.

It could be a longer term relationship for the lumber yard where a small but unique banner is placed at the event. Then also the local contractors or builders group, the chamber of commerce and the storage place all offer portions until all the finances are covered.

Perhaps there is some charity that also wants an event in the fall and they can also be made into Christmas panels and some whacky photographer and a theatrical group needs use of some "flats"

There you have a mini college income business when this exceeds the costs of storage and transportation. Being able to secure sponsorship, many small donations to equal one big expense is one of the major skilz. Also finding raw materials on Craigslist under materials.

This whole undertaking could become your college thesis on helping the community.

So, you take Jim's idea. Who needs 100 pieces of 3/4 inch sheets. Some home builder who also happens to want advertising/mention at a charity event, happens to have a small warehouse for his building supplies and can take that raw material and use it as floor underlayment. Instead of buy stuff, input lots of labor and then treat the landfill to some hydrocaron goodness.

If you can demonstrate this cycle of business, you might not need that degree in basket weaving.

[Greg Chrise]

This haunt that wants $100,000? You really need to talk to them instead of just poo poo this idea. Whats the harm, they get to donate a few panels, get them back and can still theoretically sell them for $100,000 which isn't really ever going to happen by the way. By time they sell everything for $2500 is will all be a rotted mess if it isn't already.

What kind of square footage is this maze thingy? How many walls do you think you need? What is the budget for the event. What haunt is it that wants $100,000? What is their phone number? Is there any news articles on your schools participation in the Relay for life? How much has been raised in total last year?

How many participants are there, what is the population of the town you are in?

[screamforadream]

Hey Greg, Sorry I took a while to respond I went away for the weekend with family.

I am not the owner of this haunt, all donations belong to the organization and so turning it into a business is not anything I have power over. I might have a hit on free storage though! One of the freshman in Colleges Against Cancer at my school has family involved in the storage business and he's checking into it for us. It looks really positive.

We already have 90% of the props and costumes, and about 30 walls, which is all I could fit in the basement at my parents house. But hopefully this freshman's storage connection really pays off.

My budget right now is $750 for entertainment, (last year I started with $1000), so we have been sliced a large amount. So I'm working on some fundraisers that can help us bring in some more funds to put the event together.

The maze is about 2,500sq ft. This year we want to bump it up to 3,000. (Mind you this is all built in one day, it's an incredible and inspirational story really.) We need about 50 or so more walls.

The event is one of the largest in our area for college Relay's, and it is a big deal at our school, it gets a ton of press between news and newspaper, and we blow it up on Facebook and other social networking sites to get the word out. We sort of take over for the weekend :-)

Thanks for your input and advice, it's really appreciated!

[Jim Warfield]

Design A Singular Maze.

Instead of 300 4 by 8 wall panels , maybe a singular maze would be much cheaper figuring the cost per/customer by the number of wall panels.
If say 200 customers take 20 minutes to pass through 300 panels in a maze, maybe it would be cheaper to just take those wall panels and make coffins from each 1.5 wall panels. Then these would contain and secure one customer each for 20 minutes.
Then open the coffin, let them run!