How To Make Your Own Bouldering Wall

If primary walls face each other, turn corners, or bridge doors, windows, or other structures, the secondary walls may need to be more complex in shape. If you’re familiar with basic construction techniques, building your own wall will be a snap. Then you can hire a carpenter to handle the actual construction. Depending on the wall you are making these cuts may be simple or very difficult. If you are using a Miter saw, cuts are easy to set up and hammer out quickly.

Building a climbing wall can be an enjoyable and rewarding experience. This book will give you ideas and building tips, along with methods that have worked for many other climbers. While you are getting your ideas together, visit indoor climbing gyms and pay particular attention to the shapes and sizes of the walls. Luckily I had not started the main part of the frame so the changes were easily accommodated.

You must compensate by using wider framing materials and additional bracing. Since my rafters would run parallel to my roof supports. I had to add additional supports running perpendicular to the rafters and the roof supports. The perpendicular supports utilized 5 ft of 2×6 boards with three for both the 35° and 25° sections and 4 for the 45° section. For the ceiling supports I used a 2x12x10’ board in the center for the 45° section and a 2x12x8’ for each ceiling support for the 25° and 35° sections. The best place to start is with the largest variety set you can get.

Install Climbing Holds

Architect and Science Teacher in a previous life, Katherine Betts is now a SAHM of three kids and family lifestyle blogger. She created her twin parenting blog, TwinPickle, to help parents of multiples with the unique challenges they face. Since it’s conception, TwinPickle has grown to include a larger virtual community of twin parents through social media.

Invite some friends over and have them set problems. If you keep it interesting and stick to training, you’ll be ticking off projects left and right when spring hits. Cut some 2x4s short enough to fit vertically underneath your bottom header joist. Start at one end of the header joist and screw a vertical board to each of the studs you find until you’re at the other end.

How To Make Climbing Holds

Instead of the chalk line you can just use a long straightedge to make the T-nut grid. Although the chalk line is sometimes viewed special purpose tool using the straightedge will add a significant amount of time to your T-nut planning. I settled on a flat left wall, for friends kiddos , a 35°, a glorious 12 ft 45° in the middle, and a 25°.

We tried to use 4 screws per joist of the frame , one on each of the edges and two between. You should attempt to attach each board in the same orientation either all lengthwise or all vertical this better aligns your T-nuts. Bolt-on holds are a bit more expensive, but can be changed as many times as needed.

For a free-standing wall, make sure the support holds the full weight of the frame without tipping over. If there is any wobbling, add more weight to the base with extra boards. Cut 2 in × 4 in (5.1 cm × 10.2 cm) boards to your wall’s desired height and width. Cut the longest boards first before working on the shorter boards. Always double-check your measurements before making the final cut in your wood.

Assemble the framework with the high side of the curve facing toward the back side of your wall. Set the studs in place using a framing square to make sure each stud is square to the top and bottom plates. Recheck that the outer framework is square, and screw everything together. Don’t use drywall screws or hardened screws which are brittle and prone to failure in this application. You should also have a pound or two of 16d nails for temporarily tacking framing members and for spots that you can’t access with the screw gun. Depending upon your support structure and configuration, you might need a variety of other materials.

Then tap each t-nut into a hole in the plywood, and screw them into place. ⅜” T-nutsI prefer these ones that are screwed to the back of the plywood, so they don’t loosen over time or fall out. Pre-marking your wall where the studs lie will help eliminate guesswork when installing panels.

Climbing Your Wall

You can build a scale model using cardboard or computer software if you want to visualize the wall in 3D. Outdoor walls need to be weatherproofed or else the holds will not last as long. Check if there are electrical outlets in the space you want to build your wall.

Consult people at climbing gyms, ask to take measurements, and really get a feel for the angles of the walls. Doing this kind of research will allow you to design and a dynamic, interesting, and practical in-home bouldering wall. Framing studs will run vertically every 16 inches behind each wall, as well as at the top and bottom, to form the framework.

In order to fit plenty of routes on the wall, consider keeping the routes close together or even using individual holds for multiple routes. Often commercial climbing gyms will use holds of one color to identify routes. Overall, we were very satisfied with the holds we received, and ordering from two companies meant we got a wider variety of holds. Sometimes it’s possible to request specific hold types you prefer in a factory seconds order, but there’s no guarantee what you’ll get.

After this, fill the center of your board with support beams. These should be evenly spaced throughout your wall so that there are no weak spots in your foundation. When you do this step, it might help to use a tape measure and a pencil to make sure that you’re accurate. The finished product should be a complete framework that you can raise up and attach to your anchor. Before you make your list, you must determine the necessary sizes and types of materials and how each type of material will attach to the others.