For many years people complained that stores were decking the halls for Christmas too early. Christmas trees in September were becoming a common sight. Today, your friendly neighborhood Lowes and Home Depot have giant holiday yard decorations up for sale in July, but these inflatables are not trimmed in red and green. These ooky, spooky manifestations are the harbingers of America’s second favorite holiday, Halloween. 

During the last few decades, Halloween emerged as one of the biggest holidays of the year. True, we still go to work on October 31 if it lands on a weekday, but the dollar amount spent on Halloween has increased dramatically.

 And we’re not spending it all on candy! Haunted houses, factories, hotels, corn mazes, and the like are so popular, it’s no longer enough to take in just one. Car loads of horror lovers will drive from one ghostly manor to the next, hitting three, four, or more in a night. 

Demand is high. People can’t get enough. To borrow a phrase from the late Vincent Price, they want to scream, scream for their lives! 

Avoid the Money Pit.

The challenge for the would-be scarers is finding the right place to set up shop. Old houses and abandoned buildings have built-in curb appeal, but they come with enormous challenges. Your best bet may be to build something new, and we’ve got three good reasons why you should build with steel. 

You can’t beat the ambience of the old house on a hill. The creaky steps, the peeling wallpaper, and the decades of dust provide an atmosphere ready-made for chills. Guess what else might give you chills? Wood rot. Mold. Termites. Busted pipes. Electrical systems that are not up to code. The older the building, the more likely it has issues that may cost a fortune.  

Those issues could triple with an industrial building. Such facilities may have waste that needs to be disposed of, dangerous equipment that is expensive to disassemble and remove, and let’s not forget the “A” word: asbestos! 

Building new skips the challenges that come with renovating an older space. Instead of costly cleanups and upgrades, you can spend your money on a quality structure that is built to last. And as for atmosphere? There’s no shortage of supplies to help you make that new structure feel old and decrepit and creepy. 

Speaking of creepy…

Avoid Unplanned Ghosts!

What’s that? You don’t believe in ghosts? Go ahead and skip this section for number three. 

The rest of you, read on. 

Creating a haunted attraction in a building that may actually be haunted is a great selling point, but paranormal experts will caution you: this is not a good idea! Bringing people into a haunted space where you plan to scare them can actually make the paranormal activity worse. 

I know. This is a steel buildings blog, not a paranormal website. But since we’re talking to people interested in the supernatural, this is actually important. Buildings with paranormal activity are known to become more active, and in some cases dangerous, when people transform them into haunted attractions. 

You want people to go home scared. You don’t want them to leave scarred for life. As long as you’re building in the right place (i.e. not above an old cemetery), a new building will limit the thrills and chills to the ghosts and goblins you intentionally bring into the building. 

Innovate Instead of Improvise.

Using an existing space for your haunted attraction comes with limitations. It can be very difficult, especially with an old house, to map out a path for your haunted attraction. Ideally you want people to move from one room to another, entering door A and leaving by door B, with no backing out of rooms or backtracking. You might be able to knock out a wall or two and create new doors, but if that wall you want to remove is load bearing, you can forget it. 

Building new eliminates this problem completely. A steel structure provides strength for years to come, and the open framing allows you to lay out your haunted attraction anyway you see fit. Use lumber and drywall to map out any route you like, and if you don’t like how it works, you can rip it all out and start fresh the following year. 

Steel buildings offer extras creepy old mansions can’t touch. They’re more fire-resistant than that rickety house on a hill. You can add roll up doors for installing large props and mezzanines for a second floor. An open lean-to with a roof gives your guests a place to stand in line out of the elements on a rainy night. The options are endless, and they are truly at your discretion. 

And don’t forget, when summer comes, you can clear a space inside to set up that fireworks stand. 

Building with steel is the smart decision for many building types, including those that go bump in the night. For attractions of all types, haunted and more, the choice is steel.