# Column entryway w/Fire



## hfed (Oct 13, 2015)

10/5/2021 - FINISHED PICS UPDATED! Scroll through the thread!

10/19/2016 - UPDATED

This year I wanted to make a grand entry into the yard. I've seen a lot of column designs and whatnot, but wanted to go big...REALLY BIG!

It started about a month ago with pretty detailed plans I made in Google SketchUp:









This past weekend I started construction.

The frames were built from a combination of 2x6 and 2x4 lumber. The original plan was to build the frame, covered in plywood, using plaster to create details,and foam in specific areas.

So these were built with that plan in mind. Took about 3-4 hours or so.









The next day I set out to cover in plywood. I got this far, the entire top encased, when I realized I had made a massive miss-calculation. Weight. I knew it'd be heavy, and I wanted it heavy for sturdiness and safety reasons (having the fire and all,) but at this point it was completely un-manageable. I could barely move it (notice the hand truck) and nearly killed myself in the process.









I needed a re-design, and fast.
I decided to go with only foam, the standard 2" pink insulation.

But going with foam, meant I had to rebuild the top parts of my columns. The foam comes sold in 2' wide sections and my columns were slightly bigger than that, and because of the cost involved I wanted to be able to use the natural width of the foam.

Basically like this:









So I tore down all the plywood and the top half of both columns, and rebuilt it smaller, and to utilize furring strips as support for the foam. You'll see the differences if you compare the first design to this design.


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## hfed (Oct 13, 2015)

Here it is covered in the foam (I started carving the corners to appear more "natural")









Mocking up the stone grout joints, and a big crack I cut out









I scoured around my local Sears and found a router bit that makes a pretty good grout line.









This is where I'm currently at. This week I hope to finish covering both in foam, top and bottom, and next week I plan to do all the carving.

I was going to simply prime, paint, etc. But now I'm thinking of first covering it all in this "Foam Coat" stuff. Any thoughts on that?


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## hfed (Oct 13, 2015)

Well about 2 hours with my router, covering my driveway in pink dust.
An hour with the hot knife to knock off the sharp edges left by the router, and another hour of so with the heat gun to texturize the surface, I'm done with the stone carving portion.










9/14/2016
Finished up the tops of both columns, the 'trim work' if you will. Also finally got all the parts for my torches; burners, fittings, hoses, etc.
Here's some pics and videos of some torch tests and how it'll be put together. Enjoy!


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## hfed (Oct 13, 2015)

9/26/2016 - Minor progress. Finished covering both bases in their first later and traced out my pattern for the second layer.
Oh and the completed torch (well, 1 of them)



















10/3/2016
All 3 sides on both columns done; just have to do the base and glue on the center section, then we're READY FOR PAINT!!AAHHH









10/19/2016
Construction is done!!! Finished the monograms, and got 1 coat of drylok on so far. Hoping to spray the next color and do some detail over the next few days
For whatever reason I didn't take a pic of them after I finished distressing the bottom half, so this pic is missing cracks\etc...


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## hfed (Oct 13, 2015)

FINISHED PICS!

fyi; most of these are just the days leading up when not everything is up and running.










The laser swamp walking through the columns.










When you turn all 3 massive fog machines to 11, you fog out an entire neighborhood....


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Beautiful work so far! This is going to be an impressive entryway.


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## beelce (Jul 21, 2007)

Loving it......!!


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## Hairazor (Mar 13, 2012)

Can't wait to see the progress


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## hfed (Oct 13, 2015)

Updated the progress. Finished carving the stone portion of the columns.


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## hfed (Oct 13, 2015)

progress update; column tops finished, fire tested and torches mostly constructed.


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## Pixlewitch (Sep 26, 2016)

Holy Moly this is fantastic! All we ever had were silk flames! woweee! Fantastic job! Looking forward to seeing the final product in action.


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## hfed (Oct 13, 2015)

Progress bump!


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## Pedagog (Oct 23, 2016)

Brilliant.


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## bobzilla (Nov 13, 2008)

Awesome!


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## hfed (Oct 13, 2015)

DONE!! I'll post up some more progress pics but here's one of the final columns today.


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## hfed (Oct 13, 2015)

the camera really doesn't capture the detail and how it looks. I even impressed myself! lol
It completely looks like old broken stone.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Very impressive! Now all you need is a huge graveyard to go with them:jol:


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## bobzilla (Nov 13, 2008)

Really beautiful work!


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## hfed (Oct 13, 2015)

fire was a success. over 7-8 hours and worked like a charm!!!

hope you guys can see this, a quick glimpse



__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10157686319465652


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## Ghoulbadan (Dec 28, 2015)

*Flames in action*

I'd love to know more about the flaming urns! The Facebook link doesn't seem to work. Do you have an alternative?

Thanks for the great post, by the way.


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## Bazlightbeer (Jul 22, 2016)

very impressive, btw what type of foam is that


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## Pumpkin5 (Aug 8, 2010)

:jol:Missed this post earlier, but WOW! Incredibly detailed columns (Yay you!) and I'd love to know more about the fire urns. I only saw one picture of the flames and they are incredibly realistic looking. Could I see more pictures of the flaming urns?


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## hfed (Oct 13, 2015)

Let me see what I can do for the flame videos.

They look "real" because they are real! lol


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## hfed (Oct 13, 2015)

I always like to bump and check in every year. Columns are being setup and rolled out tonight!

Wow, also realized I never posted "Finished" pictures....posted them back on page 1 here:








Column entryway w/Fire


10/5/2021 - FINISHED PICS UPDATED! Scroll through the thread! 10/19/2016 - UPDATED This year I wanted to make a grand entry into the yard. I've seen a lot of column designs and whatnot, but wanted to go big...REALLY BIG! It started about a month ago with pretty detailed plans I made in...




www.hauntforum.com


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