Thread: Is your haunt carpeted?

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For those of you who do walk-through haunts or more elaborate haunted houses: Are they carpeted? I was thinking about the pros and cons of carpeting my haunt this year and wanted some opinions. I know that it would be good to hide any mat switches, and it prevents the bare concrete from getting slick if it rains again, but are there other positives? How about negatives?

Are you talking about inside of a garage or outside on a walkway or driveway ?

I do a haunted garage and use really dark gray almost black indoor/outdoor capeting. It's super low pile and almost a wool or burbur like material. Got it from a Homedepot or Lowes when they were almost giving it away. Then I use black duct tape to keep it down on the sides an such. Yes, I could run some of my cords and this year a sensor mat to trip my axe killer door.

If it's outside and depending on the area being used, yes, someone could trip on the edges if not properly secured ar it could move around if not the same.

One positive I can think of is that it helps keep the bottoms of wall panels from sliding or getting knocked out of place. Certain sections of my haunt is carpeted, and I have no trouble keeping top braced panels in place in those sections.

I would want to keep the outside part of my haunt uncarpeted, but maybe carpet the inside part. I realized that i have a bunch of different carpet left over from various recarpetings and that I could maybe use that to my advantage. It would be nice to maybe just carpet where people walk if only to A)designate the path, and B) keep the floor from getting slippery.

Does anybody have any thoughts on dying or spray painting a carpet to make it black?

Indoor / Outdoor carpeting always works well. My parties happen in the house and outside. This year, my wife reminded me to add more to our project plan. I had several areas (deck steps and such) that got wet during the day, and became incredibly slippery. The outdoor nature of the material allows us to just hose it off if something nasty gets on it.

I wouldn't worry too much about painting it black unless it is really white and you need to use it in a dark maze area. I love to add as much detail as i can to my haunt, and I have often painted floors to match a scene, but it usually goes completely unnoticed by most. For some reason, in a haunted house environment, people's attention hovers between about 2 feet off the floor up to about 6 or 7 feet. They don't look completely down or completely up. Unless you have something loud or moving frantically above or below those levels then they don't notice it.

Pros:
- Adding different textures to the floor (carpet, no carpet, different carpet heights, plastic bubble wrap, corn stalk leaves, hay) can disorient visitors, especially when it's dark and the floor is not visible.

Cons:
- Carpet (and other floor materials) can be flammable.
- Carpet can slip or cause visitors to trip if not secured properly.
- Depending on the size of the confined area containing the carpet, the carpet may act as a sound dampener, which could ruin audio effects.
- Uncontrollable bladder incidents from terrified ToTs will add unwanted aroma to carpet. (I assume it's unwanted, but it may add to the haunt.)

If you're going to paint the carpet, use an upholstery spray paint.

Well said, Haunter. The only drawback I was thinking of, is that it could be a trip hazzard. I hadn't even considered the flammable part. The safety of our guests ALWAYS comes first! Especially since the recent thread about being sued. Our walkthrough is in our garage, so we don't use any carpet. We have, however, painted the cement floor to enhance the set decoration.