Thread: Creepyhomemaker's haunted house plans.

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O.K. so here's the plans to my haunt the x's are for actors/props. The stack of lines just to the right of center is cell door. The diagonal lines are actual doors. The black dots inside the walls on the inside are where the secret passages are and the dotted line thing on the outside is part of a fence. The entrance was on the driveway side. Just as soon as I get it final I will show the image of this years plans. It will have some exterior add ons and a confusing twist. Can't wait.

Wow! That's a lot of square footage to play with. I really like the winding maze-like path you have set up. Lots of hallways entering into some great scene rooms.

What fun!!

Wow! CHM soooo many questions and what a wonderful floor plan. I love the twist and turns and the secret passages.
So, am I correct in saying that you set the floor plan up differently each year?
Do you theme is out every year differently or do you just have a standard that you
change up?
How many live actors do you have? Friends or family?
You said this is private . party, for neighborhood only, special invite?
Wow.....color me green like a envious frog.

Yes the flow of the haunt changes every year. The walls and halls are in 4 ft. sectrions so that I can remove a section from one place and add it somewhere else. I just have to make sure it makes since on the plan first. Then it changes the directions completely. It has never been the same way twice and right after we shift it even we get lost. The only people who have it memorized as it is is me, my husband, and my son. The actors never seemed to do to well at keeping up with where they are. Because when you turn the regular lights off and turn the haunt lighting strobes, blacklights, colored lights. etc it is very disorienting. In a few places the walls basically have to stay the same for support reasons but I just work around them.

It doesn't look very long but it takes at least 15 min. for people to get through it if there are no search and rescue missions. By that I mean sometimes they never come out and I have to lead them out, they will be huddled in a corner.

I do try to theme it mostly but it's usually 3 themes at once because it takes a lot of props to fill it. I make alot of my props myself and my husband bought me 9 rolls of some mat finish plastic that is 40 ft tall by 600 ft. long at a factory wholesale auction. I staple that onto the walls and paint it to look like whatever I want. I also can wallpaper it. Those rolls weigh almost 250 lbs. apiece so the only hard part is cutting off the size you need. But he bought them all for like 10 bucks cause no one could move them. He had them loaded onto a trailer with a fork lift then he backed into the garage and we rolled them off at the back. There they have stayed.

Last year I had 10 actors not including the door keeper. I am usually the door keeper but last year I decided to be an actor. But the lady I had to be the door keeper didn't do quite as well as I wanted so I will do that again. For the first couple of groups she didn't give the actors time to get back to there places. We only send 5 through at a time and unlike a pro haunt we wait till they completely go through before sending more. It is scarier that way because they cant hear anyone else. and No clogs. We spend the whole night doing it. But it goes by so fast. My actors are family and friends or friends of friends. I have been looking for a couple of children cause I think kids are scary in that setting but I tried a couple of years ago and they were scared to stay in their area alone.

Sounds pretty good.

I'm the owner of a non-profit haunted maze. We configure it differently & do different things each year. With my haunt: we keep it as dark as possible, have lots of dead ends & hidden doors to other passages. We like to challenge our guests to figure things out & let them get lost, some have up to 30 - 40 minutes. Our space is in a Quanza metal domed machine shed that measures 37x82x25, with double doors on each end. Crowd control is always an issue but, so is the flow of patrons through it. We only allow groups of 2's, 3's, & 4's, to go through at a time. Keeping the numbers smaller adds to the scare factor & is safer for everyone. (less chance of tripping & getting hurt) Remember the old saying "Safety in numbers"? If you had a indicator at the half way mark to the door person, that would help with flow & patrons would still have the same experience. Doing this could potentially have more people enjoy your haunt & also raise more funds for it.

I don't charge and the halfway point thing wouldn't work in this one because halfway through they would probably be near each other the way it winds around. It works great the way it is. Plus with the secret passages the actors get to improvise alot which makes it much scarier and fun for us. This year it is going to be different with 2 alternate endings ...sorta. More than one group wouldn't work this year for sure. If I were doing this for money I'd go broke

That's awsome. So basicly the building is an open floor plan except for the supporting walls? You mention about 4' walls. Are they only 4' high or are they in 4' for sections that you just stack to make 8' walls? My husband wants to build a 25' x 30' garage soon. I'm thinking of talking him into letting me use it as a haunt during halloween, with the removeable walls that you use I think it might just be possible.

The walls are 4 ft. wide and 8 ft. tall. The size of a standard sheet of plywood. It's just easier that way. 16 in centers still. They then can just be attached together and when you have that many attached together and then to the supported walls they are very sturdy. Basically like a big giant set of Legos. Like if I want a bookshelf it will be 4 x 8 and then replace a wall unit. One side bookcase other side wall. It works very well and people wonder how we change it so easily but if you look at the layout you see that if you add one here take one away there you can change everything. But I would recommend doing it on paper first.

What I did the first year was print a maze off the internet (a simple one) with even sections. Then we built the walls and I would point and click basically. I would tell my husband something like "o.k. 3 this way and then there will be one come out this way" And slowly it turned into a maze. We started in the middle so we could expand more in the following years.

We still have a little room but this year it's going out. I want some adjoining rooms that are uncovered (exterior) They will only be temporary. I don't care what anyone says nothing NOTHING scares teenagers like the chainsaw guy. I want him to have his own section but it has to be uncovered. Luckily my brother-in-law is the chainsaw guy he is very enthusiatic and is very cardiovascularly fit because he chases everyone all the way back to the house, in the woods, in the dark, wearing a mask, and with a chainsaw. He takes his role very seriously.

Wow. That is some serious space! How long did it take you to make it?

About a year for the most of it. We worked on it so much for the first year it was mostly just a wierd dark maze. But since then we have had time to add the good stuff.