# How to design a haunted garage???



## propboy (Sep 23, 2006)

OK,
I know this is vague and depends on tons of factors. What I'm looking for is a haunted garage walk though. YES I have been building for many, many years. But I have always had a yard haunt.
*I want to take it to the next level.*
I have access to tons of pallets I thought that would be great FREE walls/dividers covered in plastic and cardboard.

THEME: torture chamber???

Some questions I have and know the answers to but looking for input from my fellow haunters

Building materials?
Layout?
how many rooms? (I know it depends on the room)
Scrim wall a must?
How wide should the paths/rooms be?

Things I have:
Spill your guts illusion prop
many pneumatic props
skeletons
decorations
2-5 actors
Any other tips/pointers you want to add. I'll try to post up a diagram of dimensions.
-PB


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## Ugly Joe (Jan 13, 2004)

Is this going to be a continuation of any kind of yard haunt you already have, or do you wish to make the garage become THE haunt (outside of some decorations and props in the yard)?

My thought would be: have the complicated / big illusion scenes be within the garage - only a room or two, so you can really make best use of your talents where you can control things the best, and then have an extension into the driveway / yard that leads into the "big scene"...set them up, as it were, for the big fall.

Some props in the yard for atmosphere...an entryway with a hallway leading to the garage - perhaps an actor or two in that hallway, giving a good scare as they proceed. Build the atmosphere in the hallway, either widening it, or narrowing it, to build towards your big scare in the garage.

Animitronics, and your illusions, could then be set up where you have power, cover, attachment points above, below and to the sides of your props and illusions to give better control.

Make a good exit hallway for your victims to run out of...perhaps a scare on the way out, or something...

This will also give you the luxury of time - setting up the garage early in the season, perfecting things, and then you'll be able to set up your yard and other parts of the haunt at the last minute, without worrying if your "big scare" is going to be done on time, or correctly.


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## moonstarling61 (Aug 13, 2003)

Well we are closing in the carport to scare the kiddies..hopefully So I love this thread. 

MAn I don't have any animatronics really.  I am not great at building. I do hope you post pics a long the way


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## propboy (Sep 23, 2006)

*Just a taste*

Here are a few items I have to work with NOT ALL just some I found pics of:


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## mementomori (Aug 19, 2009)

I do a haunted garage but it's not a walkthrough. I would say though to make it a maze and screen it off in sections with whatever screening material you are using, either keep it single file or wide enough for 2 to walk together . I would keep the top open though.


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## propboy (Sep 23, 2006)

mementomori said:


> either keep it single file or wide enough for 2 to walk together . I would keep the top open though.


I was thinking 2 wide as people would hold on to each other  provided I can make it scarry enough.
Why the top open??? I figured it would be darker, easier to hide things, light it the way I want to, etc....The garage is just rafters no drywall ceiling.

All good thoughts keep them coming
-PB


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## Bubbels (Nov 30, 2008)

I am going the weed guard route for walls. Picked up a bunch of 3' X 50' rolls from big lots for $2.50 each, on clearance. I will be adding eyelets to the fabric doubled up. Twine tied to the rafters and 2 x 4's place along the bottom to hold it down.

I havn't exactly figured out how everything will go or even the pathway, other than they will end up going out the back door to continue the walk through around the house.

I will be using a big scream TV setup inside the garage. I also picked up one of those skeleton coachman from Michaels. He will make an excellent greeter at the entrance.


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## mementomori (Aug 19, 2009)

people will feel more secure with the top open, i was thinking that if it was all enclosed someone might freak out and tear though the walls. But if it was enclosed on top i heard you can put threads hanging down. in the dark they would feel like spiderwebs.
Hey propboy, i just noticed your spider victim picture, that pic was my inspiration for last year!


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## propboy (Sep 23, 2006)

Sweet but wasn't my pic I couldn't find the pics of mine so I "borrowed" someone 
but yes they are very sweet.

I was thinking of having an actor in a suspension harness wrapped in webbing hanging off the ground in a room with several other spider victims. Then when the ToT'ers walk in they see the fake then the actor gets them










-PB


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## Spookilicious mama (Feb 27, 2008)

*I have a haunted walkthrough everyyear that goes all around my house. It has a maze and different sections to go through. The entire thing is enclosed even the top and so far I havent had any problems with people freaking out. I figure if they know its all enclosed and have some type of claustrophobia problem they probably shouldnt be going through to begin with Please post pics and you have quite a few props to start with. Very nice*


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## moonstarling61 (Aug 13, 2003)

you have some pretty cool props... and I LIKE the idea better of *NOT* making it a walk through --just having a screen up 

My neighborhood is nice, but the overflow from the apartment complex a couple of streets over, not so much....


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## OpenTrackRacer (Sep 12, 2008)

I'm working on this very thing right now. I was first going to hang landscape plastic from PVC "curtain rods" but the more I thought about it the less I liked it. I've used pipe canopies before at swap meets and that's the way I'll be going. It's an inexpensive and very solid way to go for the framework. 3/4" 10' EMT conduit sections are about $3.50 each from Home Depot and the connectors can be bought for a great price from Yuma Bargain Warehouse...

Canopy Parts and Tarps Everything you need to build your Canopy.

I was looking at tarps but I think I'm going to stick with the thick landscape plastic. A 10' x 100' roll is something like $50 from Lowes. I have some camo netting that I'll use for the roof.

I was going to go pipe canopy style with no bottoms until I happened across this older how-to from Wil at Creep Crafters...

Tent Wall System -Creep Crafters .Com-

Putting on the bottom connectors and pipes makes a lot of sense. It adds rigidity and allows for much easier securing of the wall panels. He used tarps but getting black tarps in the right sizes looks to be expensive. I'm going to take the landscape plastic and fold it over the tops and bottoms and then make a pocket at the right tension with gaffers tape. I think it will work out well and I should only need one roll. I'm going to run some extra pipes across the top on sliding elbows for holding lights.

This subject came up recently on threads here and on Haunt Forum...

http://www.halloweenforum.com/general-halloween/80341-how-haunt-apartment-tennis-court.html

700 square foot garage - HauntForum.com

My wife made a 3D diagram of our setup yesterday that I can post tomorrow. Ours will be pretty simple... a hallway and one room. I'm making the hallway narrow (2') to save space and stress people out. I'm looking forward to being able to have all the fancy props setup well ahead of time in a weather protected environment (while my Corvette sits outside for two months.... I really am nuts).

Spookilicious mama... could you share how you made your walkthrough?


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## hurricanegame (Oct 13, 2006)

Wow some good garage ideas in here..we need more pictures soon..I think I need to utilize the garage this year as well..


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## hurricanegame (Oct 13, 2006)

OpenTrackRacer said:


> I'm working on this very thing right now. I was first going to hang landscape plastic from PVC "curtain rods" but the more I thought about it the less I liked it. I've used pipe canopies before at swap meets and that's the way I'll be going. It's an inexpensive and very solid way to go for the framework. 3/4" 10' EMT conduit sections are about $3.50 each from Home Depot and the connectors can be bought for a great price from Yuma Bargain Warehouse...
> 
> Canopy Parts and Tarps Everything you need to build your Canopy.
> 
> ...



Keep it up man..good ideas..


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## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

This year, I've changed up my garage. I've made 1" x 2" wood frames and stretched weed fabric over it and they are held in place with Velcro. Jute rope is attached to the top and they will be hung from the ceiling. Here's what they look like _(this is a one-sided one):_














Here's the layout for the garage this year and shows you how the wall panels will be laid out:


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## OpenTrackRacer (Sep 12, 2008)

That looks really good Terra. It sure makes attaching the fabric/plastic easy. Are your panels going to go all the way to the floor? From your layout, it seems like you could attach the panels to each other instead of hanging them if desired. I see you have a major supply of panels back there ready to go! I guess storage is one other consideration for people to think about. If you have space these wood and fabric panels really do look excellent and are probably going to cost less than the pipe canopy system (although I expect they'll take longer to make, setup and take down). The pipe canopy does break down pretty small.

Here's a drawing of our planned setup...










I just made a cost estimate. I'm looking at about $250 total for the conduit, connectors and landscape plastic. Definitely more expensive than other systems but still not excessive. One nice thing is that it can be extended outside the garage if desired by adding pipe and changing connectors. One downside (especially when compared to Terra's) is that to make changes you need different connectors and probably more conduit.

Lots of great info here!


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## mementomori (Aug 19, 2009)

Wow, there are so many good ideas here!


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## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

Yeah, your way is very intriguing to me. I was already halfway through the building of the walls so I couldn't go back. But, if I have problems with mine this year, I'm gonna take a good look at yours. 

The panels will go up 8 feet from the floor and they are 6' wide. The neat part of using the Velcro panels is that I can change them out. Most of these will be painted with 3D images so I can tear off a panel and paint a new one to keep things changing year to year.


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## murtisha (Aug 9, 2005)

I don't know if I'd want to have people walking into the garage. They might steal stuff.


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## OpenTrackRacer (Sep 12, 2008)

That's a valid concern murtisha. That's one of the reasons the walls get screened and guest are only able to go where you want them to.


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## rickdilorenzo (Oct 7, 2008)

I do a haunted Garage every year and have learned a few things, I've expanded it by using Gazebo's and building out into the driveway..

Basically have a 20x20 size garage = 400 sq feet. Then in the drive way I have 3 10x10 Gazebo's so an extra 300 sqft to give me 700 sqf in total.

Both Garage doors are open...You have to make the gazebos & garage all link together seamlessly so while walking through the maze it feels like all one-big-building.

I use either black cloth, or black tablecover rolls (the kinds you can be in large rolls cheap at Party Stores) for the walls. The gazebo's are also all walled in black so from looking at the outside you just see one large 'building' extending out from the garage.

I usually staple-gun the wall-fabric to the walls and ceiling of the garage to create the rooms/hallways.. While i duct-tape it to the gazebo and hang it from the gazebo roofs.

In the past I've used the large styrofoam insulation you can buy at places like home-depot..you know the ones like 2 inches think and like 5 x 8 feet..and then just paint it black (using special paint that doesn't react to styrofoam). But I've found that black cloth/material works much better because it can be quickly/easily repairs with a staple gun in a few minutes.

What happens is you have 2 or 3 teenage girls or others who get scared by something and are screaming and grabbing on to things or running into your walls and they get quickly damaged. So any walls you build you have to think about how to do very-quick repairs during your haunt night.

I usually make the hallways wide enough so 2 big people going side-by-side could fit through. I also attach the black fabric to the garage ceiling (staple-gunned up there) so the ceiling is all black too. On the ceiling though I usually use a mesh-type fabric, that's sorta loosely attached so it hangs/bubbles on places, and then leave some spiders, small rats, snakes, etc up there in the mesh fabric.

I buy the really cheap gazebos usually cause they don't last that long, and usually buy them around sept-oct when I find people selling their used ones cheap on craigslist. Cause they usually rust/bend and only last a couple years each.

One important thing is lighting... i.e. where to place lights to activate any motion censored props you have. I usually have small maglight type pin-point spotlights aimed the the motion sensors so they get triggered as people walk through breaking the light beam. But you have to be ready with replacement lights as the batteries run out. Or with some props I use larger lights. The light on the sensor has to be bright enough to trigger the prop at the right time, but not do bright as to spoil the spookiness.

Also be careful of where you put your foggers in the garage as you don't want the fog inadvertantly causing some of your animated motion-sensing props going off at the wrong time.

Real-live actors are usually good, but I don't always have enough 'good' actors for my haunt so the motion-type animated props help.

Also remember to always scare people "towards" the exit or further into your maze. I.e. when building your hallways and rooms and placing your scare-points (either actors or props) remember what direction you are scaring the people into. Because sometimes if you place it wrong you scare people to run into your walls or run the wrong way.

Try to make it look as much as possible as a "house" with corridors and walls. In the dim light black fabric works great for this, even better when it's loose and folded, don't make it taunt/tight. Make it more drappy. Also doesn't have to be all black. In some places some deep red or dark violet fabrics work well as accents.

Last year actually I had one "spot" room.... The room had the walls, ceiling, and floors all lined with a bright-white-thick fabric, which was a stark contrast from the rest of the haunt which was all done in black. Then I bout 2-inch wide red, blue, green, yellow round stickers and randomly placed them all over the walls, ceiling floor. The room was brightly-lit with black-lights (not normal lights). Against one wall I had a actor dressed all in the same white-fabric with the same 2 inch wide round colored spot stickers stuck all over him. So when he was facing the wall, even though the room was brightly let he'd "blend" into the room and you couldn't see him. When people walked in all he had to do was turn-around and he'd scare the be-jesus out of them (he had a scare clown mask on under his hood). There was also some misdirection by having a small teddy bear on the floor (done in the same white fabric/spots) and a very small table also drapped in the same fabric. So people would look around the room and then look at the teddy bear before getting shocked by the actor who would scare them 'towards' the exit which they'd usually run to very fast. The picture below has 'normal' lighting so I could snap a photo, but during the haunt-night we used a lot of blacklighting to illuminate the room brightly which gave it a different type of eerie glow since it made the light seem to come out of the walls.


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## propboy (Sep 23, 2006)

rickdilorenzo said:


> What happens is you have 2 or 3 teenage girls or others who get scared by something and are screaming and grabbing on to things or running into your walls and they get quickly damaged. So any walls you build you have to think about how to do very-quick repairs during your haunt night.


Good point I am thinking all black plastic this year and it can easily be repaired with packaging tape. I also have access to tons of pallets so I was thinking of using these as the STRONG structure behind the plastic



rickdilorenzo said:


> Also remember to always scare people "towards" the exit or further into your maze. I.e. when building your hallways and rooms and placing your scare-points (either actors or props) remember what direction you are scaring the people into. Because sometimes if you place it wrong you scare people to run into your walls or run the wrong way.


I never would have thought of this GREAT POINT, I am also building in a area for actors to sit in waiting. Drive them in deeper excellent point!!!!



rickdilorenzo said:


> Try to make it look as much as possible as a "house" with corridors and walls. In the dim light black fabric works great for this, even better when it's loose and folded, don't make it taunt/tight. Make it more drappy. Also doesn't have to be all black. In some places some deep red or dark violet fabrics work well as accents.


I may try burlap on some walls over the plastic but we will see how much $$$ I actually have to play with

Great advice and being the 1st year I"m sure things will come along I'll want to change/enhance/remove after the 1st year.
-PB


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## spooky in CO (Aug 29, 2008)

I've always thought it'd be a good idea to put a fog chiller on top of the open garage door. That way the fog would drop off the door and onto the ground... making it necessary for your guests to walk through a wall of fog to enter the garage. I plan on doing this next year.


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## propboy (Sep 23, 2006)

WOW sweeett idea I may try that

-PB


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## Guest (Sep 2, 2009)

Hey, love the idea spooky...never though about that but it's an awesome one for sure. The garage is where I keep going back to and rethinking things...everything else is pretty solid and planned out, but the garage.....and it's a big one, 2 car, detached, older home. My 15 yr old daughter wants us to fit in the stygian witches at some point...and I've toyed with the idea of a real pagan ritual scene, the garage would be the ideal spot for such a thing conjoined with a peppers ghost effect perhaps. 

There is a second floor to the structure, on one side anyway...and I definately want to utilze the walkway that leads to the back stairs, though I'd never let anyone up there for obvious reasons, there is a small basement as well which truly resembles a boiler room...(one, two, fre.....nah....too dangerous) which I plan to have blocked off, fog filled and a track ghost/spectre/whatever climbing out of and back into. All in all a wonderful space that I have to utilize but am having trouble nailing down. details details details....


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## spooky in CO (Aug 29, 2008)

Fog running down a flight of stairs is even cooler that coming off the garage door


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## OpenTrackRacer (Sep 12, 2008)

I received my canopy connectors today from Yuma Bargain Warehouse. They're excellent... no different than what you'd get from any other vendor at a much lower price. Highly recommended!


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## tinafromidaho (May 8, 2008)

I simply put grommets in 4 mil sheets of black plastic and have put the grommets through hooks I screwed into my ceiling. On a side note, is it normal for garages to be 10 feet tall??


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## propboy (Sep 23, 2006)

I'm just gonna staple mine fast-n-dirty 

My joists are 10' from ground to top and I think this is pretty standard.

-PB


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## tinafromidaho (May 8, 2008)

PB - that works fine too, I have done that to. but then I get lazy and just rip it off after halloween. Hopefully this will keep me from ripping it. Good luck to us all.


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## propboy (Sep 23, 2006)

*Oohhhhhh no !!!!!*

I may be scraping my haunted garage this year 

After 15+ years of haunting, nephews all at college, my kids getting older & wanting to be with their friends. I"m very low on actors!!!!!

Not sure what this year will bring 

-PB


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## OpenTrackRacer (Sep 12, 2008)

I forgot to take pictures of the frame when I was putting everything up. Here's a view inside the completed room...










I'm very happy with the way everything worked but putting the plastic on and getting it all set was a pain.

Mike


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## propboy (Sep 23, 2006)

WOW that is a sweeet display!!!!!

-PB


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## Mike272 (Oct 14, 2009)

Great ideas all! I'm definitely going to be using some of this info in my carport haunt this Halloween. First time, so I'll have to see how it goes...


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## hauntedyardofdoom (Nov 6, 2008)

Wow I love it!


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## ChrisW (Sep 19, 2006)

OTR - beautiful set up! Any mad doctor would be proud to conduct his fiendish experiments in such a fine establishment!
Rickdilorenzo - great advice on setting up a garage haunt! I was planning a walk-through maze but time was against me so I opted for just revamping my mad dr lab - but plan on printing out your advice and using it for direction next year.


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## aero4ever (Oct 19, 2009)

Several years ago I decided to move my display to the garage. It made it nice cause I could work on it and not have to worry about stuff getting stolen in the middle of the night. I don't do a walkthrough cause I don't have enough room by the time I put plastic around (I have shelves and a workbench on one side that can't be removed. Here's some pics from last year. This year I'll be doing it a bit different. The graveyard will be on one side and the other will be like an asylum. I've got 2 scene setters (the bottom has skulls the top one looks like rock) and I'll have the life sized Freddy and Jason together along with other displays of body parts and crazy looking creatures. On that side I'm using fence slats to make a floor. On the graveyard side, I use about 10 bags of topsoil.


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## Screaming Demons (Sep 15, 2008)

Mike

That's a great setup you have there. Nice lighting. Often the lighting makes all the difference and you did a good job with it.

What kind of sounds are you using with it?

aero, I like yours too. If you can find something to put over the lights I think it would look even better. This would keep people from seeing them directly and taking away from the setting, while shining up onto your props and giving them an eerie glow.


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## OpenTrackRacer (Sep 12, 2008)

Thanks for the kind comments! Lighting is indeed very important and I put a lot of effort into getting it right. It actually looks better than this picture shows. I took this shot for publication in a local paper so it couldn't be too dark. The soundtrack is a long story. Hallowindow will be running in the other part of the garage which will provide a nice background soundtrack. The original plan was to have Dr. Shivers and the other head (a hacked Gemmy Crystal Ball) talking to each other but since my Dr. Shivers expired last night I now have to change that. I'm working in a new script for just the head right now.


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## aero4ever (Oct 19, 2009)

Screaming Demons said:


> aero, I like yours too. If you can find something to put over the lights I think it would look even better. This would keep people from seeing them directly and taking away from the setting, while shining up onto your props and giving them an eerie glow.



Those pics were taken in daylight so you could see. It's actually all lit by candles (far enough back not to catch someones costume on fire) and low type lighting.


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## MX245 (Oct 20, 2009)

This is my first year staying at home and handing out candy after taking the kids out the past 14 years. I stumbled onto this site just a few days ago after looking for ideas. It's been a fun resource. Then I found this thread yesterday and it caught my eye because I decided to do a haunted house or rather Gruesome Garage.

I gutted my garage on 10/10 and have been working on it ever since. I have most of it done and ready but continue to add little things here and there every day (hard to stop). I will have 5 actors (including myself) in the garage and then a 7' Grim Reaper at the beginning of the drive way to lure them down to the garage. My brother in law is 6'7" without shoes on so he's menacing as is.

I used mostly the landscape fabric for the walls and then decided to put in some old branches to replicate a tree to help separate the two stalls. I added corn stalk to help with the walls.

I used white spray paint to freehand some 8' faces on two of the back walls and painted some eyes and nose on cardboard for one of them. 

I also wanted lots of visuals and a spooky ambience so I have two video displays, one will be looping key scenes from The Ring with my daughter playing Samara in the first corner, right when they walk in. Then another section will be looping a 45 minute "Best of Horror" movie segment with the scariest scenes from a selection of 16 classic movies. Then I have an eerie soundtrack playing througout the entire garage.

I'll have my son and his friend roaming and shuffling around in the garage all dressed up to provide the live action. I'll be doing the same and possibly handing out the candy at the exit.

I created an online invitation/information site for our family and friends to tell them about the garage and the party afterward. I posted the newest pics two nights ago.

I can't post the link yet since this is my first post but I'll post soon after.


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