A rough guestamate

[Mr. Haunt]

I am still not sure on the size of my building space yet, but I thought I would ask this question with a hypothetical number. If my building is 6,000sqft. What dollar amount would make a average haunt, I am looking at maybe $10,000 for all building materials and prop's? Does this make sence for a first time attraction? I sat last night trying to figure the numbers, but I thought I would get your opinion's.

[Duke of Darkness]

There really is no magic number. There are lots of different styles of haunts , building methods, and props.

Here is an exercise for you. Get some graph paper (or do this on a computer) and draw a square 80 X 75. Each block = 1'. Now draw yourself a sample maze. Don't worry, you won't be tied to it. You can now count 1 wall every 4' and that will give you an approximate build cost. Now add 20%.

Now give some thought to how you want to decorate it and what you want to do for props. Go on line and find them. Draft a budget for props.

Don't forget costumes. You can find those online too.

Now estimate your costs for insurance, security, electricity, telephone, website, advertising and you will begin to get an idea for what this is going to cost. Keep in mind that your estimate at this point is probably too low, but it should give you a rough idea of what you are looking at.

This will give you a much more realistic idea than any number thrown out on this board based on your question without any more information. It will also give you a little more insight into just what this process entails.

Have fun and good luck.

Dave

[Ken Spriggs]

Dude run.....run as fast as you can and never look back.

But if you really want to put #'s to a square foot rule....not going to happen. We spent over $30,000 revamping 1 section in our house last year. It would equal MAYBE 2000 square feet.

So don't think money = size

You can open a 10,000 sqft house and spend 10,000 to 100,000.00
I think our first year...we spent 50,000 and have built the heck out of it since then.

Start small....don't go and buy a bunch of someone elses haunted houses and think you are going to make a fortune....it doesn't work.

It will take many years of doing this before you look yourself in the mirror (grey hair, wrinkled, feeling old) and wonder what the hell did I do that for?

[jason]

Start small....don't go and buy a bunch of someone elses haunted houses and think you are going to make a fortune....it doesn't work.

It will take many years of doing this before you look yourself in the mirror (grey hair, wrinkled, feeling old) and wonder what the hell did I do that for?[/quote]

that's some good advice

[Speculo]

Another thing to consider as well... do you have any special resources? Having access to something extraordinary, be it a crew with great building skills, or amazing artists who can build you unique monsters, or a theater troupe who will jump start your acting and make-up, or a unique or terrifing location, etc. are all good reasons to haunt, and the sorts of things that can make doing a haunt, especially in the early years, more affordable.

I would say that unless you plan to bring something new and different to your market, just building walls and such probably won't bring success.

Haunt success is a long a difficult road under any circumstances but unless the product is really amazing in on way or another, just wanting to haunt and scare people most likely isn't enough.

What you are doing is great...find out all the hard facts and cold equations. But make sure you also discover the all important hook that will let your event thrive.

Thanks!

Ben Armstrong
NETHERWORLD

[Mr. Haunt]

Thanks for the info and keep it comeing. I know to start small and keep it basic. But If it gets to basic the people will not come back next year, RIGHT? I know this is going to cost a bunch. I do have some talented people and a good network for the other things. I am thinking about building all my walls with my dad. He is pretty handy. Money is going to be my bigest problem. I know that there is many options for this and I have been thinking about them all. I have read Kellys book, and Ihave taken a couple of free classes. One from www.sba.com and one on marketing from Trump University.

[xxxdirk]

ah yes, crunching the numbers... This is my 2 cents. Each 4x8 wall you build will be about $25-$30. Figure $10 per 4x8 sheet of plywood, 2 sheets per wall, $2 for each 2x3 stud for framing, 4 studs needed per wall. Then you will need screws or nails, tools, and also dont forget paint and brushes. So you build about 300 walls, you are looking at about $9000 for the walls alone without paint or FIREPROOFING. Wow, no wonder so many haunters are broke!

[Hell American Freak]

Keep the attraction simple and start out with good actors and strong advertising... After you make some revenue and clear your overhead then you can start making the changes to accommodate your wants and needs. Simply clearing your starting overhead the first year is going to be just about your biggest priority.

[Kevin Dells]

These guys gave you some pretty good advice with the #'s i would say add 20$ per panel to Ron's guesstamate for the paint and fireproofing.

A huge factor that you must consider is Make up and artists, they just don't walk off the street.

Figure you have 1 really good make up artist, thats not going to cut it for more than ten actors and thats really pushing it! Figure a half hour per actor in the chair at 6 people thats 3 hours alone. Thats i a good organized make up room, hauling butt with no distractions.


A really good make up job with a prosthetic included i would give an hour.
Your patrons will love good make up and charcaters which will make a smaller not to detailed haunt rock.

So if you got one good artist and you plan on opening this year, you need to get that person training others so your ready.

Nobody mentioned the cost of make up in their estimates. Make yourself a list of products your going to need and multiply that a few times because your going to go through it fast.

You can't have a bunch of masks, maybe a couple but again costumers will complain about an all mask show. So experience with make up,costumes, character building and general actor training are a real big time consuming project.

[Jim Warfield]

Or build 4 walls, one half as high as the rest, screw them together to make a box, come up with something very unusual, scary, funny, entertaining ,to happen to people when they look into this box. There. You are done, for WAY under $100,000!
Impossible? No I did this once, the kids enjoyed it, laughed alot, the adults were too nervous to even give it a try!