Building A Home Wall

I'm wondering if anyone has a home gym that they built or are working on? Inside or outside. I have seen a few walls in people's basements but I would love to build a free-standing boulder in my back yard. Or a 3-sided wall out back. Can anyone share any information on what they have done? what they used? how big/tall it is? I'm curious.

Similarly, I am looking for info regarding making a free-standing campus board. Anyone?

I built mine outside against a huge tree. Tied it back with 2x6's to the trunk and limbs (some limbs were two feet in diameter). It even had a 5 foot roof at 14 feet up - which just followed out one of the main limbs. Then I stained the plywood 3 coats and painted it with that Metolius paint - plus used all stainless steel bolts and t nuts. It worked great. email with specifics if ya need em'

B

If someone wants the basic structure for a campus board and is willing to come haul it out of my Boulder County (CO) basement, write me and ask. You can have the 4*8 edge-framed piece I have and some lumber to stand it with.

I built a pretty decent basement wall a few years back and it's still working great. I imagine the same technique could be made to stand freely.

Get a bunch of 3/4" plywood (4'x8'). It might cost more than thinner stuff, but you'll like the beef. Also get a bunch of 2x4's. I framed each piece of plywood on 16" centers. That's 4 vertical 2x4's with a horizontal header and footer. I did everything with deck screws to allow for complete un-assembly. Once each piece is framed, I drilled and installed the T-nuts. For one part of my wall, I used 4 panels.

Next I used some LARGE bolts create a large (16'long x 8' high) panel from the 4 framed plywood pieces. I drilled 3 holes through the edge 2x4's on adjacent panels. Through the holes went the long bolts with washers and nuts. Crank those nuts tight and you have one large panel.

For my basement wall, this large panel was then attached to the ceiling with chains and hooks. This allows the wall angle to be adjusted.

For a free standing wall, you could pick some angle (overhanding, vertical, or easy). Then get install some vertical posts to support the whole thing. You could frame the back into a kids playhouse. Or you could make a cave by making a roof for these. It would hold itself up and still work in the rain!

There's some info on the web, too.

For a freestanding wall skip the 2x4's and use at least 2x6's. Also don't mean to diss on your idea, but I have seen some outdoor walls and they never get used after the break-in period is over. That's here in Colorado though, don't know where you are. Hard to get your buddies over for a woodie session when it is prime climbing time. I have built 4 different walls over the years, and none of them got used as much as I had thought they would. Have one right now in a buddies garage that we hit when it's raining on bouldering day or occasionally in the Winter. Considering the thousands (yes thousands) of dollars you will spend to buy the materials and get some decent holds, if I had to do it again I would probably just buy a membership to a kick ass bouldering club. Or go for a Co-op deal where 5-6 people all pitch in to build a really cool wall in a big garage or someones attic.

The key to sucess is having ALOT of different holds, and some motivated route setters. One way to cut costs is to buy the screw in jibs then add bigger more expensive holds later. You can also make wooden holds pretty easy, but they are time consuming. It is easy to find some nice sandstone slopers around here in CO, but you need a drill press to get the holes in. Expect 1/2 of the stone holds to break when you drill or tighten them. Anyways good luck with the wall, I did always want to build a full freestanding wooden boulder, so if you live in the Denver area send me an email and I will see if I can drop by and help you plan it out.

Later

Chris Mack, check out Flash Training by Eric Horst. It has the designs for a freestanding campus board in the back.

Thanks dude I will check it out.

Getting holds are not a problem at all. Our gym it trying to get rid of our plastic holds and we make our own clay holds and we are converting on whole gym to that. Clay holds are the way to go, pretty much any day.

Interesting, most of the clay holds I made broke after moving/retightening 2-3 times. Yop must have a better clay formula than I was using. Worn out plastic gym holds are a good way to get wicked strong. I wonder if a diluted Hydrochloric acid solution could be used to get the gum/rubber/skum out and renew the texture.

Home walls are definitely worth building but keep in mind what you are building it for and realize that it will cost more than you think it will. Also, it won't replace a gym membership if you want to climb routes.

I have a small home wall down one size of my garage that I use for quick fixes during the cooler months (The garage is heated and insulated). Most of the framing is 2 x 6 and a lot of wood was used. I first built a model out of cardboard to figure out angles and materials listings etc and then built it over a couple of weeks. I brought most of the holds from WildernessExchangeUnlimited out of their Metolius seconds bin. The other holds are from CheapHolds.com. It cost about 400 dollars.

A lot of days when I get home from work burnt out, I just don't have the motivation to drive to a gym and deal with the noise etc. So, hence a 20 or 30 minute session on the woody is perfect. That's what I built it for. The picture is taken with a wide angle lens so its actually a big distorted and in real life it is bigger than it looks!

?Link to picture of wall?

this is some sweet history.