[Manola]

Hello -
I am a new member and very glad I found this forum! I was thinking of setting up a graveyard display but the only available area I have is a cement area. I have a few props in mind, a couple of animated rising graves, a coffin, and I would like to fence it off. The props require that you stake them in the ground/dirt as well as the fence. Has anyone done this and come up with any creative solutions to making this work on cement? Any thoughts or ideas are welcome.

Thanks -
Manola

 

[ducdukgoose68]

Welcome Manola. Does not sound like staking is going to work. I don't know the props or fence you have, but I would consider using plywood as a base and attaching everything to it. Depending on what you're working with, you could use construction adhesive, drywall screws or cable ties to attach the props/fence to the plywood. It may be useful to insert any rods on the props/fence into a block of 2x4 and then attach the block to the plywood.

You could cover the plywood up with dirt, leaves, burlap, black sheets, trash bags, etc.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

Welcome Manola. I'm fairly new here as well. Great group to learn from! As for a cemetery on cement it can be done. Check out the haunt done by NecroBones. He's done up a great cemetery display on his driveway. Actually his whole display is nothing short of amazing.

NecroBones - Halloween Haunting - Home

 

[Otaku]

I have the same problem - tiny yard, big cement driveway. I use mostly wooden cross grave markers in the cemetery. I attach a 3" angle bracket to the bottom of the crosses and attach those to a 12" X 12" particle board base. For the fences, I use the same size base with a ~2' 1 X 2 wood strip nailed to one edge, sticking straight up. I use the 2' tall wire-and-picket fencing and use cable ties to attach the supports to the fence where needed. I cover the bases with dead leaves - no one sees them in the dark. In this pic, none of the fencing is anchored to the dirt. This year I'll be using jute ground cover along with the leaves - hopefully less cleanup time.

 

[Brimstonewitch]

I will be using part of my garage this year as well as the driveway and yard. My yard is not concrete but may as well be since it's covered in pea gravel and the ground is hard as concrete from our lack of precipitation. These ideas will help me as well so thank you!

 

[Yorkshire Ghost]

i am biulding most of my haunt on concrete, so this is what i am doing.

as listed above, ost things are fixed to plywood - you can then cover the plywood with dist or leaves, or bricks etc first if you need to weigh them down (depends if it is windy)

i have about 10 gravestones made out of insulation board, and for these i made a timber plinth oout of 6"x2" which the gravestone can slot into, and painted this the same colour.

you could also drill and sngle fix into your concrete, but you may not want to do that

 

[confucius101]

Don't know if this will help you but last years
I made a few out of plywood and a 2x4's
they free standing and i think only fell over once

 

[Stinkerbell n Frog Prince]

When we ran into having to free stand a short fence on a sidewalk our first thought was a couple of large coffee cans filled with concrete. Our fence was made of 2x2s and PVC pipe. It was easy enough to stand up, in the center of the coffee can, a slightly larger diameter piece of pipe. Then pour in the concrete into the can and around the piece of pipe. We could then slip one the the PVC pipes in the fence into the larger pipe now secured by concrete in the coffee can. We made enough of these coffee cans to have 2 per section of fence. Worked pretty well.

 

[Si-cotik]

Everyone's ideas are great already. I can add a few if you care to listen. You can make faux cracks in the cement to make it look like they popped up through the cracks much like weeds. Or you could even add some fake moss...especially if you use the ply wood base idea....to make it look like there is grass there. Just my 2 pennies for what ever they are worth. Not much I know.

And Welcome to the forum!

 

[Manola]

Thank you!

First I want to say thank you to everyone for all of your suggestions, pictures and links! I was so excited to read your reply's that I 'snuck' out during work for a shopping spree to buy all the supplies needed to put this together. And I just got back from Spirit Halloween!

Now, I just need time and patience to put everything together. Again many thanks for your expertise.

Manola

 

[confucius101]

Be sure to post up some pictures

 

[LordCalvert]

I do graveyard scenes & have lots of gravel/ xeriscape. I decided few years ago to go the low lying fog route for ground cover. I keep buying fog machines and building chillers every year. Last year you couldn't see the ground just the tombstones and it flowed into the streets so you didn't know if I had grass, cement, rocks, etc..

 

[confucius101]

cool last year i played with fog for the first time LOL

i think i'm going to try making the chillers this year
I have got a hold of a Neutron xs hazer I'm going to try and get working

I would love to see a clip of your yrad last year

 

[Brimstonewitch]

Ok, I think I'm a little confused or lost....what's the difference between fogger and chiller?

 

[confucius101]

in short a chiller basically cools the fog and gets it to stay low to the ground for a very very cool effect

 

[Otaku]

Ok, I think I'm a little confused or lost....what's the difference between fogger and chiller?

There's a LOT of designs for fog chillers, but here's a good place to start:

Fog Machines - Your Guide to using Fog Machines for Halloween

 

[LordCalvert]

Gotfog is where I started too. I went a little overboard for about a year trying different configurations. It can get addictive/ cause wife to throw things at you when she comes home one afternoon in May to a house that has about a foot of fog in every room and pouring out of the front door...

 

[Brimstonewitch]

LOL that's funny LordCalvert....

I've bookmarked those "how-to's" for next year. It's more than I can get involved with for now. I have a fogger I bought last year and never used. Once I got it put together and read the directions, it was WAY more involved than I wanted to be. Required ice, fog juice and only worked after it "built up", you released it then repeat cycle. I got other things to do besides babysit the fog machine on Halloween.

 

[Otaku]

That sounds odd, newgirlinaz. Are you sure that the instructions weren't referring to the fogger having to "heat up" rather than "build up"? If it's one of the foggers with the built-in ice chamber to chill the fog, then you probably will need to refill it a few times during the night as they don't hold a lot of ice. If it has a timer remote, you can set it to run for a few secs every couple of minutes without supervision. Just make sure that you keep juice in the tank - a dry pump can be a disaster.

 

[Brimstonewitch]

Yea, I'm fairly certain I read the instructions right but I will have to double check this year just to make sure. I know when I got done reading them last year I was SO frustrated with the requirements that I didn't even use it. Big waste of about $45-50 at this point.