How to Create a Garage Haunted House

October 8, 2019

Halloween is on its way along with all the fun and spooky activities that kids and adults alike love. There's pumpkin carving, trick or treating, costumes, and for the lovers of scary things, haunted houses! Now you could always go to one of the professionally made haunted houses in your city but maybe you don't want to wait in long lines, don't want to make the drive out there, or you have kids that need something a little less scary and a little more fun. If that's the case and you want to make your garage the perfect haunted house for the whole family, even the whole neighborhood to love, then take a look at our checklist below!

1. Clean the garage. Your garage floor collects a lot of dirt and debris, between the foot traffic and what your car brings in from the roads and it is worth taking the time to clean. We recommend sweeping out as much as you can and for good measure, maybe even rinsing the floor to be extra sure that there aren't any dangerous chemicals left on the floors that kids might interact with. This is also the perfect time to empty out the garage to clear up as much space as you can for your haunted house.
2. Cover up your space. You're going to need to blackout everything in the garage so once you've created the space, you can get cheap black tarp, fabric, or plastic covers to put up on the walls, to cover up any storage you can't take out, and, if you want to take it that far, the ceiling to set the foundation for your spooky environment. You don't want the garage to look like a garage when people are in your haunted house.
3. Create your floor plan. The point of a haunted house is that people go through a maze of sorts, navigating through the darkness and plenty of scares. Of course, we know the garage isn't a huge space to work with but if you get creative enough, you can make a smaller version of a haunted house. When creating your floor plan, try to include the usual features like dark hallways, rooms with their own themes, and the infamous blind corners, certain spots for people or objects to jump out when someone least expects it. And remember to save the biggest scare for last, right before they get rewarded by finding the exit to your haunted house. For the actual structure of your haunted house, you can hang up fabric, use PVC pipes, or create an extra sturdy framework with boards of wood. Just be sure everything is well secured so it doesn't all come crashing down if someone jumps, trips, falls, or bumps into your framework.
4. Plan scares from above. You can take advantage of being indoors by hanging scary props from your ceiling, creating scares at random by dropping them down. Props you could get include spiders, witches, monsters, even taking it a step further to set up light, fog, or cold air machines that randomly go off and add extra elements to the haunted house. Here's a tip: Use a fishing line for your dangling scares because it is strong and invisible.
5. Set a scary mood. You can turn an average garage into a scary environment with some black lights, fake candles, spotlights, flicker lights, strobe lights, and a well-placed fog machine or two. Want to get even scarier? You can place noise machines or speakers around the garage and have each of them set up to play scary noises at random, which you can easily program through a smartphone.
6. Use your driveway. Don't forget to use all the extra space your driveway is offering to make your haunted house even bigger. You could save all the biggest scares for inside the garage, taking advantage of a more enclosed space, but can warm-up your visitors with a scary environment. Either way, make sure your front yard and exterior of your house are included in the lighting, decorations, and spooky props for an overall effect. You could create a tunnel on your driveway from the sidewalk to the main event inside your garage or even lead people through your front yard first. All of this will make your haunted house memorable and leave your neighbors and family members asking to make this an annual tradition.
7. Dress up for added scares. Lastly, depending on how scary you want your haunted house to be, you could easily dress up yourself or ask some friends and family who love some Halloween fun to put on some scary costumes, masks, and makeup and become a part of the haunted house by hiding behind corners, jumping out at random, or even welcoming visitors as they enter your haunted house, at their own risk, of course.

We hope this checklist inspires and helps you to make this Halloween a memorable one by turning your garage into an unforgettably spooky haunted house. And from the garage door experts at Precision Door Service of Boise, Happy Halloween!