How To Build A Haunted House On A Budget Part 2

Posted by haunt educator on Feb 26, 2010 in Construction | 2 comments

Continuing on with our 4 part series on building a haunted house on a budget we dive into want ad type sites and the big one out there is Craigslist. In the first part of this series on How To Build A Haunted House On A Budget we gave an overview of some of the things encountered when you are in the beginning stages of building a haunt. Now we dive in to how to save money with one of many useful resources everyone has access to.

This past year we started with a internet favorite Craigslist and posted that we were a local haunt and were looking for building materials and listed it all off. We posted everything we were looking for and passed the word onto friends and family. Trust me, it is amazing what people do for local events, and many of the future listed items can be pulled forward into the more professional style haunting.

From just this listing we got swarmed by people wanting to help build it run it and every other possible request, we event had a DJ offer his services, still working on ideas for that one too kept his information. In the end we ended upwith about 6 sheets of 3/4″ plywood which here runs for atleast $18.00 a sheet, we got a ton of 2×4 material, we used recycled solar pool heating panels for wall material, we got a 50 pound box of screws and a local contractor dropped off several rolls of chicken wire used but still totally usable along with the plywood from a old garage door that was replaced. I even had a family drop off a bag of various colored cans of spray paint. I know its not suppose to be used due to its flammability but we even got a large roll of the black construction tarp that we used not in the haunt this past year but did use it as tarp material for the rains to keep everything dry.

So as you can see a simple little listing brought about a large supply of materials and thats what lead us to start to search this site regularly for local bargins and free materials. I got a 2ft diameter 20 foot long hard cardboard tube for $20 delivered from a gutter company. There is a wealth of materials out there for this industry and if your looking to start somewhere just go search the freebie section and see what comes up, you will be amazed at what people are giving away.

One of several resources we will cover craigslist is very useful but far from the only useful place to get materials free or on the cheap. In Part 3 of How to Build a Haunted House on a Budget we will cover a rare but smelly gem. Your local refuse disposal site and recycle center. If your local site is at all up to date with technology they probably recycle everything and resell a ton of materials so check out our next part in this series How to Build a Haunted House on a Budget Part 3.