# Haunted House Hallway Width Question, practical???



## mister cal (Aug 4, 2014)

Hello All,

I am designing our Haunted House fundraiser and was looking at my initial diagram and thought, wouldn't it be great to build in a "tight Squeeze spot" within the maze. I was thinking of reducing the hallway size from the standard 4 feet to a forced 2 foot wide labyrinth hallway for about 18 feet...other than a slight congestion problem (controllable)...does any one see a problem with that, or have experience and results from a past similar experience in their haunted house /maze??


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## Screaming Demons (Sep 15, 2008)

Everyone always says four feet, but we only let one group in at a time and I think four feet is too wide.


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## jdubbya (Oct 4, 2003)

We did a corn maze using pallets last year and the walkway was less than three feet. It made for a tight squeeze but allowed people to move through in a single file line. This year we are constructing a walkthrough where the halls will be 30-32 inches wide. It is going to be quite claustrophobic but workable. Personally, 2 feet might be a bit too lean. I think you'll have some patrons that will have to go through sideways and some large people may not be able to fit at all.Our 30-32 inch path is a squeeze but that's all the room we have to work with given the layout of the maze. It will certainly take some people out of their comfort zone! If you mark off a two foot width and see how narrow it really is, you'll get an idea of how difficult it will be for a lot of folks.


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## screamqueen2012 (Aug 2, 2012)

our hallways were three feet, standard for a hall in a house....i set my maze up on a 3, 6, 9 foot grid when i cut my framework and seven feet tall, it went under a 25 foot square tent, maze was 24 x 24.....six rooms and hallways winding, this way every year i could rearrange my pattern was never the same. i also decorated the hallways.............my rooms were 6x 6.............we were not commercial, but private at home haunt. mine also was heavy decor themed, no chasing with lawn blowers or chain saws, so that said i think your size would depend on what you do in the haunt.............the size we used encouraged slow going, no running, we did do scares with flap doors we could go in and out around the perimeter of the outside while people went through it. easy to work...id only let small groups go through at a time and only two or three in at once. you can do a squeeze hallway with alot of different things, drapes, set up a air blow pillow system, make them duck below decor...i did this in two halls, one was a spider/spider web hall, another was a snake hallway made with burlap netting and snakes hanging down they had to duck under i loved this one......also we did a pool noodle hallway with a clown prop or two hidden in them in corners, that went into a chaos clown room...........again, sense of claustrophobia...use different music to your themes of the rooms too.....................making your structure tight imo, if someones larger, is a safety issue. do it with different gimicks. i love hanging things as obstacles people have to walk under or through to distract or sensory overload, turn them alot, make them duck down, go through confusion, close your space with your decor. no one ever broke anything either or knocked over anything


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## screamqueen2012 (Aug 2, 2012)

its funny while i am thinking on this, we went to a rather big commerical haunt last year, they have hundreds go through it a nite, its huge. their maze to me wasnt safe. they had several entrances you had to get down and literally crawl through a hole or crawl through then slide down a slide...now i older, not ancient yet, and i actually hurt myself...it wasnt really safe for everyone not a small kid. they also have a closed building and had so much fog going you couldnt breathe, i thought was going to have to turn around in the maze and get out my chest got so tight as did all of us with me.....their halls were really wide, four feet, i felt it lost some of the effect of the scare of confinement but the groups they let go through also were big in number, so there you go.... i think depending on the number of who comes to you to go through it will matter how you decorate and set up.


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## screamqueen2012 (Aug 2, 2012)

oh. and if you are taking in money, you will also have to meet codes, possibly get inspected.....check your local codes for that, you dont want the fire department showing up closing you down....i just saw you r running a fund raiser....thats a different story.


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## mister cal (Aug 4, 2014)

We also like four feet, to allow ample room for the folks to recoil from the scare; it is extra wide...but I am wondering if 2 feet is too small. How wide are your hallways?


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## mister cal (Aug 4, 2014)

I see your point. Maybe a 36" width might be better. I forgot about the "larger patron" factor...and 2 feet is awfully narrow. Thanks for the input.


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## mister cal (Aug 4, 2014)

That's a good idea. I like the idea of the reduction in height...had not thought of that. I appreciate the info.


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## screamqueen2012 (Aug 2, 2012)

hope these pics arent too huge thought i would show you the spider hall, a mummy is at the end, then the snakes, thats only <4 feet high in height, then i threw in a creepy mask glow in black light with moving eyes and those dolls swung at chest face level............then the noodle hall with the killer clown.. the white hall was material draped low like a balloon and we did the roaches in runs, that was in black lighting also


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## mister cal (Aug 4, 2014)

Like it! That has given me some more ideas! Thanks a bunch.


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## mister cal (Aug 4, 2014)

Thanks Scream Queen. Gives me some more ideas!


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## UnOrthodOx (Apr 24, 2007)

mister cal said:


> Hello All,
> 
> I am designing our Haunted House fundraiser and was looking at my initial diagram and thought, wouldn't it be great to build in a "tight Squeeze spot" within the maze. I was thinking of reducing the hallway size from the standard 4 feet to a forced 2 foot wide labyrinth hallway for about 18 feet...other than a slight congestion problem (controllable)...does any one see a problem with that, or have experience and results from a past similar experience in their haunted house /maze??


Fundraiser. 

I'm afraid the person you're going to have to ask this question to is whoever is going to be inspecting your haunt to your local fire code. As soon as you throw money into the situation, you have to build to your local code to get all the licenses and whatnot you need.


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## screamqueen2012 (Aug 2, 2012)

yep...if its free you should be ok but soon as you take any kind of compensation....here comes the trouble... i was always so paranoid over safety


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## diggerc (Sep 29, 2005)

One word. Wheelchair.


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## halloweenscreamqueen (Jul 23, 2007)

You will have an issue if you have a child (or an adult) with a disability who wants to go thru... The minimum width required by the Americans with Disabilities Act and most local codes is 44 to 48 inches to allow enough room to maneuver a wheelchair. How about if you creep out a section by poking pool noodles or some other flexible objects thru the walls?


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## halloweenfan5 (Jun 29, 2011)

halloweenscreamqueen said:


> The minimum width required by the Americans with Disabilities Act and most local codes is 44 to 48 inches to allow enough room to maneuver a wheelchair.


Backing up Scream Queen on this one - we did ours as a fundraiser and had the state on NY swoop in days before we opened. Thankfully everything went fine and we passed their inspections with some reluctance but because we were only open for 2 nights they cut us a little slack. ADA code requires 4 foot hallways so we made ours all 4 ft. It does make it feel huge but thankfully our theme was a haunted mansion, so it kind of worked for an old grand manor feel. Also be sure you plan in several emergency exit points throughout your house and have them lit with portable exit lights or exit sings lit by battery lanterns and have fire extinguishers in every scene and an actor in charge of its use (heaven forbid). Plan for the worst, expect the best. Cheers. PM me if you need any help jumping through the hoops and I will give any advice I have.

Not doing our fundraiser haunt this year after all the shake-up we got last year. Doing a party at our new house and building a small maze in the garage for our guests.


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