Viewing 13 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)
  • Anyone one built a climbing wall?
  • WorldClassAccident
    Free Member

    Thinking of getting some climbing grips and bolting them around the outside of th garage walls. The garage is only single story so the climb routes will be mainly horizontally around the walls gecko style. Lots for sale on eBay for varying prices.

    Anyone done similar? Any advice?

    Just thinking about it at the moment so happy for links to sites that might help me plan

    Markie
    Free Member

    Yep, ace plan!

    Consider getting some marine play so you can create some angled / slightly overhanging sections. With big enough holds the kids can still make it round, but it can add a bit of toughness for yourself!

    First photo below is of mine (in garage) about 10 years ago and a different house ago. Once new house up and running it will be heading onto the wall in some form or another…

    Second is of little wall at school!

    Richie_B
    Full Member

    Building it on inside of the garage might give you more oportunity to use it during the winter. I’ve built a few over the years including one in a mates garage with a roof section profiled to allow the car and bikes to be fitted in. It was horribly over specced (4″x2″ timbers and 25mm exterior quality ply with T-bolts throughout so that you could change/adjust the holds).

    If you are going to build off the wall its easiest to do it by bolting a continuous timber pole plate at regular intervals top and bottom to stong points in the construction and building off these.

    Past experience has shown that its best to make the wall much harder than you anticipate because otherwise you will soon have all the moves wired and it won’t get any use. Also if you are using plywood panels hinge the odd one to create accesible storage space in the void behind (if nothing else it deadens the noise from you and your mates repeatedly kicking the ply

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    angusaitken
    Free Member

    Just finished building a moonboard – see the moon website http://www.moonclimbing.com/moonboard/

    The moonboard has a 40 degree overhang and with the moon holds make for a pretty hard wall but gives a good climbing surface for the height of the wall. the great thing about it is that by building to thier specs and using their hold configuration and route you can pit yourself against routes set by some well known climbers.

    qwerty
    Free Member

    Ooooooo – me too!

    Like the look of that wall at a school. I have a outdoor 7.5m long vertical garage wall to use in a similar way.

    As WCA any kits or tips appreciated.

    martinhutch
    Full Member

    If it has to be on the outside, my advice would be to make it out of marine ply mounted on battens, rather than fix holds directly to the wall.

    You can put a grid of t-nuts on the boards, which means you can change around holds when you get bored, and it wouldn’t take much to gently overhang a section to make it more interesting. It’s also easy to add ‘volumes’ to the board – 3D plywood shapes which can also have holds put on them.

    WorldClassAccident
    Free Member

    Batton and wood cladding the back wall of the garage may be an option but this is a detached double garage with the neighbours garage about two feet away down one side so I can’t clad the whole thing.

    Cladding and swappable boards across the back. Fixed between the two garages. Overhang built to get around the up and over door opening and then a variety of routes down the side.

    Sound like a plan?

    I guess you could build different routes with different colours? Red route gives a couple of different lines but only using red grip, same again for blue etc. New people could use any colours and then gradually reduce their choices to make it harder.

    riklegge
    Full Member
    meehaja
    Free Member

    Mine goes up the wall on the stairs to the basement. Never more than a foot off the ground, but small, hard holds make it stupid hard, so its a challenge rather than 30 secs of climbing. I’ve managed it twice. Mine is bolted direct into brick rather than ply and t-nuts. Not as variable, but more aesthetically pleasing. I bought a set of 18 small holds, which once they get easy I can turn to make it hard again! For fitting straight to bricks/blocks you’ll need expanding bolts (12mm drill bit, drill in about an inch, then hit with a punch to expand) 10mm bolts hold the holds on and can then be rotated/swapped as requires,though the position of the holds are fixed! ThT said, my wall is fairly straight forward, for leg arm leg arm etc. With a few randoms chucked in for mad hangs! Can’t remever which site I used, but all in it cost me £40 and looks good as well as being challenging climb! I’ll try and sort a photo later!

    timdavies
    Full Member

    I built an external one on the back of my garage for my kids. 18ft long by 7ft high, used the frame to wall and coated ply with hundreds of bolt positions. The love it, but I built it to hold two adults from any given position on the wall!

    timdavies
    Full Member

    And I hate predictive text

    mattstreet
    Full Member

    Built one in the garage a few years back – based loosely on those Metolius instructions posted above. Pretty easy to do – just apply common sense and screw it together well!

    A house move means I might be up for selling it though – if you’re interested in buying 3 x 8’x4′ ply panels (T-nuts fitted), assorted holds (with bolts), and mostly full tin of Coovar grip paint, post and I’ll send details. Must collect from Hants/Berks border area. 🙂

    WorldClassAccident
    Free Member

    Matt – I will be doing on the outside of the garage as the inside is full of stuff so it is more the grips than the panels I am after. Actually YGM

    [EDIT] no email address in your profile. Please email me with a cost collected if you are interested in selling. If it is much more than the basic sets on eBay you are probably better off selling it yourself as my idea is more of a play thing than a regular use thing. [/EDIT]

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