# Panel support?



## VampyTink (May 19, 2011)

*I'm planning a halloween party for my daughter this year and plan to construct a haunted maze in our basement. The question I have is how to support the panels. I am planning on using commercial landscaping cloth with 1"x3" frames. each panel will likely be 8'h x 5'w. We'll bolt them together with angle braces at corners and tie into the rafter every 5' or so. Now finally to my question.... The basement floor is concrete and I don't want to drill or glue the panels to the floor, Does anyone have any suggests as to how to stabilize the bottom of the structure without causing a tripping hazard?*

*The party goers will be 13-17 so I'm guessing there will be a bit of horsing around. Although my maze will be mostly static with no actors jumping out, you all know how teenagers can over act around their friends and freakout and jump around even though there is nothing to jump from.*

*Any help would be greatly appreciated.*


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## Hauntiholik (May 17, 2006)

The panels will be hanging from the ceiling then?

How much of a gap will there be between the bottom of the panel and the floor?


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## Ryan Wern (Dec 3, 2009)

I also have a concrete floor in my garage and I rent the house, so anchoring anything to the floor is out of the question. My walls self-support eachother. They are 7' tall and 4' wide and are made from 2x2's covered in 1/4'' plywood. The outside walls are all anchored to the studs in the wall, and all subsequent panels meet eachother at an "L" or a "T" shape, if that makes any sense. I run 2x4 braces across the tops of the walls to help support everything. Once it's all up, it's as solid as can be. Don't know how much that helps. Type "Haunted Maze" or something similar into your search engine, there are tons of examples out there. I borrowed the idea I just mentioned from one of those "Complete Haunted Houses" you can buy online.


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## ouizul1 (May 22, 2010)

If you're worried about the bottoms of the walls shifting if someone bumps them, what about some patches of a non-skid material on the bottom? Something like rubber sheeting or even double-sided tape (such as carpet tape)? It wouldn't have to run the whole length of the bottom, a couple of patches under each panel should be enough. The carpet tape won't put a significant gap under the wall if light leakage is a problem.


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## HaunterAlex (Jun 9, 2011)

The system I have set up in my garage should help. I use posts in strategic locations to anchor panels. You need 2x4 or a 4x4, Large hex bolts, scraps of plywood, and some closed cell foam. Measure the height of the basement. Cut the 2x4 two inches short of this measurement. Drill two holes in the base of the 2x4 and put in two hex bolts. On the opposite end, screw on a piece of plywood measuring 4x8. Affix a 4x8 piece of foam to the top of the plywood. The next step is important. If your ceiling is unfinished and you can see the studs then it makes it so much easier. Other than that, you need a stud finder to find the studs in the ceiling. Once thats done, its just a matter of butting the plywood end against the ceiling and unscrewing the hex bolts until the 2x4 is snug in place. The foam will compress by 1/2 to 3/4. By it's self, the post can be kicked out, but connected to wall panels with bracers makes it very, very immovable. Though I've been haunting for decades, this is my first written tutorial. Hope it helps.


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## ouizul1 (May 22, 2010)

Actually, that's pretty slick.


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## tattman98 (Jun 29, 2011)

Tell you what I do,we have a carpet shop in the area.What I do is take the cardboard carpet rolls and run a jigsaw down one side creating a split, stick the material through this split and let it hang down.The weight of the cardboard keeps the the fabric tight and there is no light that comes through the bottom. Cheap, easy and inexpensive and easy to store after the haunt is over.


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## Victor (Sep 4, 2011)

Years back my family build a maze in the garage we used tarps as walls and fastened the bottom parts to the boards to keep them stable; while allowing them to give a little. I am going to do a maze in my forest this year but I am not going to extend the wall to the ground because it only has to block a persons line of sight. Other than that have you considered industrial double sided tap to hold it in place?


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## kprimm (Mar 14, 2009)

These are all great ideas, and I will put in my 2 cents worth. I ran a hanuted house in a garage for 4 years with a concrete floor. I used the beams attached to the main garage frame at the top and for the bottoms I just cut small wedges of wood shim and pounded it right under the boards. This gave them a very tight fit and I had no issues at all with the walls moving. I also had hundreds of people coming through each night. It worked out pretty good.


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

Since this is indoors rather than outdoors you don't really have to use that much weight to act as ballast for the curtains/walls. You might consider using something like PVC pipe running along the bottom edge of the curtains/walls with the landscape cloth folded around the pipe and duct taped back to itself. The cloth wrapped around the pipe creates a sleeve you can slide the pipe into or out of. Since this is just a maze with no pockets for monsters, etc., you don't really have an issue with light coming from underneath a curtain, so even if the wall sits at 6" off the ground nothing would be given away should light be seen along the bottom. PVC is cheap enough, and depending on the length you use for the pipes you may be able to buy the pipe and then return it for a refund when you are done, though keep in mind that means you can't cut it either. Even if you buy it it wouldn't cost you that much. Trying to have the walls skin tight is a recipe for disaster, especially when you are talking about your crowd (teenagers). There WILL be pushing and horseplay and super tight plastic film walls will either stretch or tear, or they will get pulled from their brackets and supports. Better to let the bottoms stay "floating"/unsecured so that there is some give when they get bumped.


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