I am doing a haunted house in my childs Elementary School. It will be in a classroom. We don't have a huge budget and decided that painters black plastic would make the best walls. We want to make the classroom into a hallway winding back and forth with displays at the ends and some kids sticking their hands through holes in the plastic grabbing the people going through kind of thing. We want to do a grave yard scene, skeleton wedding etc. Should be a lot of fun.
What would you recommend we use to hold up the plastic walls. The ceilings in the school are about 9 to 10 feet high. Ive been racking my brain, but cannot think of what would be a good solution.
I did the same type of walls several times. My best results have been by the following method: You will need: -1. A roll of painters black plastic -2. A box of grommets -3. A roll of clothes line. First unroll the Painters plastic as far as you can. Measure the height you will need all the way down the roll. Be sure it will just touch the ground, so as little ones wont trip on the slack, you can also trim once its hanging. You can either cut it or fold it over, making a double sheet. It should be about 3-6" above the ground, in the dark no one can see the floor anyway. My ceiling was in a warehouse so we did a 15' piece all the way around. Get a set of grommets from a hardware store. They are very easy to pop in and are cheap. Install one every 4' apart, near the top of your sheet. Be sure to put it about 6" from the top edge so it wont tear through. These give the plastic sheet the necessary strength while hanging, as it is VERY heavy once hung (otherwise the ropes will pull right through the plastic). Using a roll of clothes line, cut strips about 3-4' long (one for every grommet). Tie the strips through the grommet holes, then over a beam, or drop ceiling section, or whatever type of overhead you have. Making a loop right through the hole, then over the top is easiest. These strips also allow you to level the plastic if one side is off a bit. Over the years I have done about 13 different haunted houses. This has definately been the most succesful. It will save you money in the end since it easily reusable every year, by just untying it, and folding it away. Until i figured this method out, I was using new rolls of plastic and duct tape evry year, what a waste of money! If this is done corrctly, it should pretty much look like a BIG black shower curtain. Good luck
[}]...Oh, I forgot to mention! To make alcoves, or "rooms" which would hold your scenes, just turn the direction of your plastic. If you're doing this in a school it will be really easy. The drop ceiling tiles can be pushed up and out of their squares, and then you can tie off in any direction. I have two 100' sheets (one on each side of the hallway) and have never had to cut any plastic to make rooms. This is best done in a large room with a lot of negative space that you won't use (such as an empty class room), whereas you can make the actual walkway about 5-6' wide, then make the scene areas push out to whatever size you want, then bring the plastic back in to form the hallway again. If you were to hang the plastic AROUND the room, you would have no partioning. Instead think of an overhead view of a maze that mice run though, these sort of shapes will help you out...
Beelzy:
Way too time-consuming, although "Beelzebub" is an awesome psudonym...."Lord of the Flies".
Past experience has shown that a double strip of duct tape will give you a seam that will hold even if the polythene is compromised. Neither strip of tape can be peeled away, because the partner strip stops any movement.
At the lower edge (floor) of the haunt, lay your membrane flat. Pull a continuous length of Duct Tape along the edge, fixing it to the floor. Fold over and repeat. Lift the membrane up to the ceiling. You will need a minimum of two assistants for this. If the membrane is not already cut to height, do so now. Repeat the procedure that was followed at the floor.
This will give you a cheap, fast and fool-proof wall, but be aware that some effort will be needed to remove it.
Wolfmans idea is good, actually great. Thats what I did for the first 5-6 years of my haunted house. It IS quick and easy. The only problems are that you will pull the paint off the walls when you take your haunt apart, and the tape is so tacky it sticks to EVERYTHING and makes the plastic almost useless next year, unless you cut or fold it over so it doesn't touch anything while in storage. You have to weigh out the odds of which you need more. Time now, or time and money later. If this is a one time event, go with Wolfmans idea. Otherwise try mine. When I put the grommets in I just layed the plastic out and walked down the line popping them in. I eyeballed the measurement, it DOESNT have to be perfect, since the ropes can change size and direction for you. With two adults you can have the grommets in and walls hanging in under 2 hours. Next year will be under 30 minutes, since the grommets will already be installed. PS-HAve the kids cut the rope, they love to have a small job. And the yreally cant mess it up, since they don't have to be a perfect size, just approximate...
We have done the plastic walls for many haunts as well. Currently, we are using lighter weight black plastic for the inner walls and we use a staple gun to attach to the ceiling (of a painted, finished garage, so not the same as at a school). Duct taping the bottom section to the floor keeps each area separated for different lighting effects, which is also easier if the plastic goes to the ceiling. Duct taping the top sections helps keep the staples from pulling through, but this is usually not necessary until after a few years of use. I just double, triple or wad up the top as I staple.
Previously we used duct tape to hold the top up, but this didn't work well in our really cold garage. However, the duct tape sticks to the plastic and to itself well, so sometimes we would make "duct tape ties", from two strips of (about foot long) tape taped to each side of the top and just a little to each other before folding each piece of the tape over on itself and then tieing them over an exposed beam (different garage!). That sounds a lot like the rope method, it's Quick and it's reusable, nothing sticky to wreck your plastic.
Thanks for all the tips. I didnt even think about tying it like that to the metal supports of the cieling. Its a great idea.
I cannot use ducttape anywhere where it will damage anything, as it is the school after all. I am considering running the duct tape along the top of the plastic and then punching holes through rather then using the metal groumet thingies. Will depend on how much groumets are and how many Ill need for the job. Im going to lay it out wiht tape on the floor to give me an idea tomorrow.
Painters Plastic Walls
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