Has there ever been a home climbing wall failure?

The home climbing wall thread that has since been locked got me thinking. It was suggested in that thread it would be good to used treated wood on the wall where it is in contact with the concrete floor of a garage or basement. I didn‘t do that and I also didn’t use stainless expansion bolts where I attached it to the floor. Not to mention, I’m not super confident that my construction was super robust...probably fine, but really I just followed things I learned online.

So, given all that, has anyone ever heard of a home wall failing in any way? Any injuries? I imagine a total wall failure would cause serious injury or death.

I used to have a three panel roughly 50 degree 8x12 wall in my garage. Mattresses on the floor but a couple hundred pounds of wood hanging over me and me hanging on it. If it had ever fallen on me I would have gotten hurt for sure. It now hangs overhead at Momentum Millcreek in the bouldering area where hopefully it will never fall. The original "Slab House" woody.

Haven’t heard of any failed climbing walls, but since you’re concerned could you share the specifics of how you constructed yours?

I’m not super concerned. But I’ll admit I’m pretty clueless When it comes to building stuff. Here‘s the framing on the wall. The bottom is bolted with Redhead expansion bolts to the concrete. I certainly never considered that they might get exposed to ground moisture or that the wood on the floor could too. Probably not a concern for quit some time. I think the joist hangers on top are pretty solid, but I did have to a few improvised things to tie some beams together that ended up not aligning right,.  This design is pretty similar to lots of others I’ve seen. I do know this thing weighs a metric shit ton, so if it ever did come down, I’d probably die.

For your wall to fail enough to hurt you, your sleepers across the roof would need to fail. This is pretty unlikely spot to rot so it’s probably gonna be fine provided it’s attached correctly.

If the floor board fails your wall would wanna swing out from the bottom which would then be met with resistance from the ground so those boards are not concerning.

For the joists behind the board if anyone were to fail you would only notice more flex in your wall.

So the wood failing isn’t likely. The most likely failure would probably be from you thinking things are attached. This would be poor toe nailing or screws attached to the drywall and not the studs. If your wall has stood this long it’s probably attached correctly.

Also I think metioulous recommends against treated wood in their manual. As far as I understand framing lumber is what I would use unless things specifically call for treated lumber like decks, wood in dirt, or wood exposed to significant amounts of rain.

This forum thread goes into detail as to why untreated wood should not come into contact with concrete. forum.nachi.org/t/can-someo…

Your build looks very robust. Like Trevor Taylor says, your fasteners are probably the weak link, but honestly this is really unlikely. For these kinds of forces: if it looks and feels strong enough, it probably is. 

Yes you will get some moisture through the sill plates. But it will take a very long time for that to have an appreciably negative effect. And even if that sill plate rots away, your upper connection is good and the base will just push out against the exterior walls. The reason we don't use untreated wood for sill plates is because you close it up and can never examine it or repair it. With a home wall, you can see it whenever you want and it's not imperative to life safety. Basically: don't worry about it. 

If you still can't sleep easy, you can add a strut where I've marked below. Your walls are (almost) internally stable. With this strut it will stable even if any of your ceiling runners fail. 

source: i work in this field