wall and ceiling construction need advise

Anywhere there is a doorway into a room or hall is a good place to put an overhead panel that is 18 inches by 4 foot as a super gusset and in appearence is a header panel with decor on it, mainly it is structural gussets and not relying on just over head bracing and standing T shapes.

People tend to grab wall edges and a human adult leg can easily thrust 500 pounds so 6 people can be pushing 3,000 pounds, so you make sure your system wieghs about 4,000 pounds in an over view locally. Plus you try not to create the situation where it is 6 people pushing one of those football sleds in the way you get people to keep moving. Yucky looking things and textures will also make people want to stay off the walls. If there really is a people are going to hit the wall, that can actually be an entirely seperate sled kind of wall that is padded and weighted down but when hit does not take the whole haunt and move it one way or the other.

Savageroad... very good idea on the ceiling. I never thought of that as an alternative. I'll definitely be looking into that!


Greg Chrise.... Wow, tons of info there, so much so I needed to wait a day to process it and read it again. That definitely helps out a lot. If you don't mind I may have further questions about what you wrote once I begin building in the next week or two. There is one question I still have. You mention the whole of the unit should be heavy enough to not anchor into the cement, but if the unit was anchored at the four corners of the haunt and one place in the middle wouldn't that alleviate the probability of people knocking down the walls? Again, I'm not expert...just thinking out loud.

If you don't anchor it, the whole system, with everything tied into the top, will correct itself if a few walls are moved. They will spring back and center themselves. If you anchor the bottom it you may have a place where instead of being able to do slide break dancing and remain all these t shapes it gets bent into permanently screwed up W and M shapes. Then you are forced to rebuild things by disconnecting completely and rebracing instead of just kicking it back and adding a wedge under something.

Over all it depends on how permanent your set up is going to be. Removing things shot into the floor is not fun and ends up destroying the anchored wall. More repairs that can be avoided by not doing something. Even permanent haunts change 3 or 4 rooms completely per year. Even if it has the same maze lay out, sometimes it is best to take things to another area to make a mess or dust in the off season.

Even if you put one tag in the middle the stressed out structure will be some place else far away and take maybe a whole row of walls off center with it. Too many heading into a lean, and they start ripping all the fastners to each other. Not only customers but you have actors beating on walls chewing away at structures like beavers. You never know about it until things begin to walk. You don't go more than about 3 panels with some other wall at a perpendicular or a triangle. It might be on the other side in an opposite room but avoid long running walls unless they can be tied into a side wall, even then it is also at the top, not at the floor level. No trip hazards and all the structure in the over head bracing system of strange crazy triangles and cross ties that are also using the top of the wall as a matrix.

There all of a sudden you are in the matrix.

Tons of information. More than a ton per 1,000 SF. 50 to 60 panels, maybe 2500 pounds for single sided walls. Also when moving this crap, don't overload truck rear axles and trailer axles. You can get 6,000 pounds on a 4,000 pound trailer pretty easy or load up a pickup truck and also put a trailer on it and be doing an axle rebuild on Saturday night instead of haunting. Of course not everyone knows how to rebuild a rear end and press new bearings. It is better if you just know the rules of physics and don't violate them just because you can fix anything. It costs more to bend the rules of physics.

That makes a lot of sense Greg. Is a building permit still required if it isn't anchored? I know when I used to build closets for a living it required a permit if it was anchored, but did not require a permit if it wasn't. Will it pass code unanchored?

We just finished getting our walls up, using the same methods outlined in a couple of different postings I have found. Basically using the "tongue and groove" approach to our walls, but modifying the materials slightly. I did use OSB despite the weight factor for one reason - the strength of OSB is actually higher than plywood because of how it is constructed. When you have 4x8 sheets, front and back of each panel, they do weigh a lot and you'll be sore after lugging these things around for a few days but I am hoping the extra strength and weight will work to our advantage.

I substituted 2x4 with 1x3 and saved about $400 in cost. This also reduced the weight some. I dont see any issues in durability and tested several of the walls myself (I am 275 pds, and they didnt budge under my weight). We did anchor the tops to increase strength and stability.

I didnt do anything with the concrete floor. It doesnt appear we are going to need to after putting these things up. I think again the weight of the OSB worked in our favor.

BTW, the OSB here in NC/VA was cheaper than plywood by about .30 - not a lot but when you are buying 110 sheets of the stuff it adds up quick!

Forgot one more thing about OSB - there are two sides to teh sheets. One side is smooth and the other is textured and rough. If you paint the smooth side it paints real well, and doesnt look like OSB. The smooth side also uses less paint for some reason (this comes from my painter who paints for a living).

I don't know the codes in Florida. You aren't building anything, you are assembing a temporary modular wall system. If similar to anything conventional is more like do you need a building permit to assemble cubes in an office building. It is not a permanent structure unless you build it like a conventional building interior walls with no panel joints. If it is continuous anchored walls, you are into building something. Then they will say it needs to be metal studs and drywall and pre approved layout and there is no alternative to the codes or the wiring that is supposed to be inside the walls instead of just run along the top.

You are just doing it like everyone else does it in the rest of the country. The codes are federal in base but local in enforcement. If there is a problem with that, move to where people are smarter and are not just making up rules as they go to sound important.

Alas a modular wall system is designed to move or be in any shape necessary or be modified in layout to comply to access standards. It can move across the floor or across the State or accross the country.

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Originally Posted by savageroad

This year we are using the material for our ceilings that you would find on the bottom of your sofa or chair. We found a local upholstery shop that gets the stuff they use for under the seats in small airplanes. It is flame retardant, lets air and water through but keeps out a lot of the light. We get a 36" x 300' roll for about $60 bucks. We should be able to do most of the rooms in our 8,000 sq ft haunt with about 3-4 rolls.

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Does it rip easily or anything? I've never thought of using this... just out of curiousity have you tried lighting a small piece on fire to see how it reacts? Also have you experimented with fog machines with it yet?

Sorry so many questions I'm just very interested in this idea. :D

Ryan

The stuff is called cambric and it lets just enough overhead light in so when your house lights are on you can see but it keeps most other light in or out of the room. When you light it on fire it shrivels up but does not ignite. Just to be safe we are spraying it with flame retardant. It does not rip easy (it is like landscape fabric) and it will keep the fog in your room for the most part and still lets air in and out.