Lessons learned building and maintaining an outdoor wall

I've had this backyard woodie for a couple years. I thought it might be helpful to share the design for those of you starting this journey, as well as the lessons learned about building AND maintaining this beast. It's freestanding and I think would work in any climate as long as you have about 150-200 sf.

It took awhile to come up with a design that was simple enough for a non-construction guy to build yet solid enough to stay up. And since this is outdoors and relatively big, there are lots more details that generic directions won't address.

First of all, here were my requirements:
1. Outdoors (I'm in SoCal)
2. Free-standing (also theoretically moveable)
3. Good for both adults and little kids
4. Reasonable cost
5. I can build by myself, no 2nd person
6. Not an eye sore (I live in a dense residential area)

The result: A "cave" with 3 main walls. 12' high. About 400 sf of climbing surface.

If you'd like me to provide more detail, I'd be happy to share, but wanted to check on interest before flooding forum space with more unnecessary chatter.

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What type of plywood did you use?

Standard 3/4" sheathing plywood. I believe it is doug fir and goes for about $25-30 for a 4'x8' sheet at the big boxes.

Considered pretreated but decided to paint. So this brings up one lesson... add time and $ for painting... and paint the sheets including the edges before putting them up, for added protection from the elements.

I like the back ladder for access. Nice touch.. My woodie has been outside, exposed to all elements year round in severe weather of Chicago area since 1994. Most boards, not all, were treated plywood. All were painted repeatedly, some have 4 or 5 coats of paint on them by now.,,others with only original paintjob. Only 3 boards have had any serious mid board rot. I am shocked at the many years I've gotten out of this building project without any serious deterioration. All structure anchored 4by4's into concrete 6 ft deep, are solid as a rock yet. This 4 sided 'shed' could be my tornado shelter I believe, after surviving 2 near miss tornados in last 10 years with winds over 80mph. Amazing how sturdy 3/4 plywood can be for a climbing wall. Mine also happens to be boxed in as a 'shed', anchored from all 4 sides as a small out building, so that has helped the strength. But the lack of rot is what amazes me so far.

west face and upper pop up boards on wall

Woodchuck, yes i expect my cave to last for a long time too. I have been monitoring for water damage and general fixes and have no reason to think this wont last thru many winters.

One concern i have is with exposed tnuts though. Some that have been out there for 4 years now are starting to rust. I plan to put in back panels to protect from elements but they are still exposed from the front side. What is your experience and solution with this?

Wow. Nice woodies, both of you. In regards to the t-nuts, couldn't you coat them in something that would protect them from the elements or replace them in their entirety?

As an aside, how did y'all set your routes? With a ladder? How much was the final cost, may I ask? I wish I could make something like this.

Hi,

I'm looking to put up a wall in my yard soon, too. Like you, I plan to paint the plywood before putting it up. Do you recommend this step before or after drilling out holes for the Tnuts?

Chimi wrote:Hi, I'm looking to put up a wall in my yard soon, too. Like you, I plan to paint the plywood before putting it up. Do you recommend this step before or after drilling out holes for the Tnuts?

I haven't made a wall yet, but from the things I've painted, I'd most likely paint before drilling. If you paint the wall first, you'd have to cover the holes with tape or something OR you could possibly paint over them, which wouldn't be good because then it'd take more work..

Matt R wrote: I haven't made a wall yet, but from the things I've painted, I'd most likely paint before drilling. If you paint the wall first, you'd have to cover the holes with tape or something OR you could possibly paint over them, which wouldn't be good because then it'd take more work..

Hey Matt,

thanks for the suggestion. I figured painting before would be easier because of the holes as well -- makes sense. Unfortunately, I don't know much about treating wood at all. Do you know what type of paint or finishing to use that protects the wood from UV and moisture while maintaining the natural look of the wood? I think having a uniformly painted wall would look bland, and my art skills are certainly not up to par to have a mural or something neat.

I'd paint afterwards. I just drilled hundreds of holes into plywood over the weekend for my wall in my garage, and you get little splinters and fragments that pop off (mostly on the opposite end from where you drill, but some on the front too). So you'd probably need to bust out the paint again to fill them in if you paint first.

Chimi wrote: Hey Matt, thanks for the suggestion. I figured painting before would be easier because of the holes as well -- makes sense. Unfortunately, I don't know much about treating wood at all. Do you know what type of paint or finishing to use that protects the wood from UV and moisture while maintaining the natural look of the wood? I think having a uniformly painted wall would look bland, and my art skills are certainly not up to par to have a mural or something neat.

I'm not a paint expert, so no, I do not know what type of paint or finish that would do both. I don't think there is clear paint, so you'd most likely have to go with a brown-ish color? I'd search around for that. And then in terms of finishing and UV-resistant, a quick Google search resulted in this:
michaels.com/Krylon%C2%AE-U…

That goes on post-painting. I'm not sure about the deal with these guys, but the same Google search presented this:
uscoatingsolutions.com/wood…

Stop by your local paint shop, I guess, and ask them..

cstorms wrote:I'd paint afterwards. I just drilled hundreds of holes into plywood over the weekend for my wall in my garage, and you get little splinters and fragments that pop off (mostly on the opposite end from where you drill, but some on the front too). So you'd probably need to bust out the paint again to fill them in if you paint first.

If you paint afterwards, won't it cover the holes you made?

Matt R wrote: If you paint afterwards, won't it cover the holes you made?

probably if you paint with mud or cement

^ lol

Matt R wrote:In regards to the t-nuts, couldn't you coat them in something that would protect them from the elements or replace them in their entirety?

The part of the tnut you have to worry about rusting is the inside thread so obviously you don't want to coat it. Replacing them is theoretically easy but some are glued and/or I'd have to take off a back panel to access them. So it'd be a little more involved than just "pop it off and plug another in".

Speaking of tnuts, some lessons learned:

1. Add in A LOT of time for installing tnuts. This is mind-numbing work but it has to be done before installing a backside wall. This is one task that is well worth the pizza and beer to get a friend to help with. You can hammer much of it in but still need to screw in the last bit to set it snugly in place... so it helps to have one person on each side of the wall.

2. Tnuts can and do fall out so it helps to dab some glue before tightening them in...

3. But this makes them a pain to replace in the future should they rust or get damaged...

4. So I opted for gluing on vertical walls but not on overhanging walls where gravity holds the tnuts in place a little better.

5. If cost were no option, there are stainless steel tnuts that will resist rust better. I don't have them nor did I cost them out but if I had to do it all over, I would def consider.

Matt R wrote:As an aside, how did y'all set your routes? With a ladder?

If you're asking about how I decided on the moves, I guess you could call it a ground-up ascent :) If you're just asking how I put the holds on near the top, then yes, sometimes I used a ladder, but other times I did install on "lead".

Matt R wrote:How much was the final cost, may I ask?

Roughly $1,500 for:
- Lumber
- Screws
- Tnuts
- Waterproofing materials (eg, stain, flashing, caulk, pavers for foundation)
- Pea gravel for landing area (to be added)

On top of that you need to add costs for:
- Tools you don't already have
- Holds ($$$)
- Stainless steel bolts (adds a little extra compared to standard bolts)

I can share more details if anyone wants to do a realistic cost analysis before dumping hard earned money into this project.

Chimi wrote:I plan to paint the plywood before putting it up. Do you recommend this step before or after drilling out holes for the Tnuts?

I'd suggest painting AFTER drilling the holes (splintering) but before putting in the tnuts. I painted after installing the tnuts and the paint seeped into the threads and made things a little messy. And if you paint the boards before putting them up, it wouldn't be hard to paint the sides of the boards for extra water protection.

Chimi wrote:Do you know what type of paint or finishing to use that protects the wood from UV and moisture while maintaining the natural look of the wood?

I used deck stain for the climbing side. You can see my wall has different colors because I just bought whatever discounted stains were available (the ones returned by other people) at the big box. I know it's not aesthetically the best but I was willing to cut costs in that area since it would get repainted later anyway.

would you recommend buying a start set of holds, if so what brand, or just buying individual holds?

i really like the holds at my local climbing gym and went to the website to piece together holds so I could set very similar routes but theoretically the holds I picked out would be $700+

Wilson On The Drums wrote:would you recommend buying a start set of holds, if so what brand, or just buying individual holds? i really like the holds at my local climbing gym and went to the website to piece together holds so I could set very similar routes but theoretically the holds I picked out would be $700+

What I underestimated most was the cost of holds, rather the number of holds needed. I still feel like I need more, especially the big expensive ones that make routes so much more interesting. Before you start down this road, I'd suggest going to your gym and estimating the MINIMUM # of holds you can live with... and then you'll have a reality check on the cost.

Anyway, I think the answer to your question depends on what's important to you... cost, shapes, brand, urgency, etc.

If you're focused on a particular type of route, then you're just gonna have to search for those shapes (instead of a starter set) and may need to pay a premium. If you're in no rush, I've had good luck getting deals on used "lots" on ebay. I've gotten medium to large holds for about $3-4 per.

I have holds from Atomik, Metolius, Element, Asana, and a few others... I prefer Element because they have retained their grippiness better and just feel higher quality... it comes at a price, but once you're on their list you can get some good deals during holidays.

If saving $ is most important, a starter set is prob the way to go. I believe Atomik is one of the best values and I find them "good enough". Even if you don't truly love these, it'll be helpful to have fillers when you are ready to expand. I have a set of cheap no-name holds and they're still useful as sit start types of footholds.

Holds are like crack, hard to stop once you start!

Jawon wrote:Holds are like crack, hard to stop once you start!

Holy moly is this true! I find myself looking around online a lot, going "Oh, if I had this tufa/giant sloper/big feature/donut/volume I'd be able to really set some cool routes...!" I get by with what I have, but having a variety of holds is great. Plus, a lot of my holds have screws in them to help prevent spinning, so I'm a bit less willing to relocate them constantly.