Advice on Hanging and Hinged Climbing Wall in Garage

Hey everyone,

I'm looking to build a simple little training/ home wall. I have really limited space to work with at our house and I'd like it to be hinged at the bottom so it can fold against the wall in the garage. I'm planning on a simple 4*8(ish) wall for starters, then may expand later if it proves succesful.

If similar posts exists let me know. Didn't find anything super specific to what I'm looking for but probably user error.

couple of questions:

1. Would the base need to be anchored to the ground? Or would the weight of the wall, on a base be sufficient to hold the bottom in place?

   1. I'm thinking I'd attach the base to some heavy duty hinges and then nail a 2*4 into the concrete to attach the hinges from there if I secure it.

2. What would be better for keeping the wall supported at the correct angle? Two legs that extend down from either side or ropes/ chains that are attached to the ceiling where the wall would suspend from?

3. With that, how many support points would be recommended if I screwed in hooks to studs above and attached rope/ chains to those studs to hold up the wall?

In the beginning stages of planning this as I'm not a seasoned woodworker. Thought it'd be a fun project to try.

Not to poo poo your idea but The fundamental issue is that you don’t want it to wiggle really at all. Like at all, it will make you hesitate. Adjustable boards have this problem so people end up with them semi adjustable when it would just be better for it to be fixed.  You’ll also feel pretty restricted on a 4x8 wall, go to the gym and give yourself a 4x8 section of spray wall and see how long that makes you happy.

The weight of the wall would make a sufficient base anchor without a complicated hinge system. maybe jammed up against a ribbon so as not to fuck up your sheetrock. Solid brace or suspension at the top is more important. Good point about the the wiggle factor. I think a 4x8 wall would wiggle but a 12x8 wall not so much?

I built an adjustable 12x8 tension board and I agree with the wiggle problems. chains aren’t gonna cut it. You need a a way to tension since your wall will be small and light (relatively).

Mine has hinges on the bottom over a 4x12 anchored to the wall. Two unistrut arms attached by brackets and bolts to the supporting wall higher up attach to the climbing wall at the top just using thru bolts, fender washers and wingnuts (easily removed).

I then have a pulley system with steel cable attached to both walls in the back with a hand winch on the side  

So to change the angle:

I take off the wingnuts and drop down the unistrut arms so they’re hanging.

Change the angle of the board with the hand winch.

Lift the unistrut back up and slide onto the bolts. This is where the unistrut design comes in handy, as the holes are wider than a circle, giving a margin of error. Put the wingnuts and fenders back on.

Then, and this is the part you can’t ignore, I have to use the winch to tighten up the whole system. Even at lower angles, the weight of the climbing wall (and it is extremely heavy) isn’t enough for the wall to stay solid when you’re throwing a body around on it. Any movement is sketch.

This picture you can’t see the pulleys but you get the idea. The chain on the side is just a redundancy because I don’t want anyone to die by this thing falling  

Honestly the only reason I made mine adjustable and deal with the hassle is I have multiple people with varying skill levels climbing on it. If I was doing for just myself I would probably rebuild it at 20 degrees and call it a day.

Also my brother is a general contractor and he helped me build it/ looks over changes I make/ inspects it every few months. I’m not sure I would ever trust anyone else to climb it if I didn’t get his approval. 

Abbott Abbott wrote:

I built an adjustable 12x8 tension board and I agree with the wiggle problems. chains aren’t gonna cut it. You need a a way to tension since your wall will be small and light (relatively).

Mine has hinges on the bottom over a 4x12 anchored to the wall. Two unistrut arms attached by brackets and bolts to the supporting wall higher up attach to the climbing wall at the top just using thru bolts, fender washers and wingnuts (easily removed).

I then have a pulley system with steel cable attached to both walls in the back with a hand winch on the side  

So to change the angle:

I take off the wingnuts and drop down the unistrut arms so they’re hanging.

Change the angle of the board with the hand winch.

Lift the unistrut back up and slide onto the bolts. This is where the unistrut design comes in handy, as the holes are wider than a circle, giving a margin of error. Put the wingnuts and fenders back on.

Then, and this is the part you can’t ignore, I have to use the winch to tighten up the whole system. Even at lower angles, the weight of the climbing wall (and it is extremely heavy) isn’t enough for the wall to stay solid when you’re throwing a body around on it. Any movement is sketch.

This picture you can’t see the pulleys but you get the idea. The chain on the side is just a redundancy because I don’t want anyone to die by this thing falling  

Honestly the only reason I made mine adjustable and deal with the hassle is I have multiple people with varying skill levels climbing on it. If I was doing for just myself I would probably rebuild it at 20 degrees and call it a day.

Also my brother is a general contractor and he helped me build it/ looks over changes I make/ inspects it every few months. I’m not sure I would ever trust anyone else to climb it if I didn’t get his approval. 

haha I was thinking 8 high 12 wide. 12 high 8 wide maybe exacerbates the wiggle. giggle. you can also buy plywood in sheets 4wx10h.

DANC wrote:

haha I was thinking 8 high 12 wide. 12 high 8 wide maybe exacerbates the wiggle. giggle. you can also buy plywood in sheets 4wx10h.

wiggle. giggle... roflmfao...

Abbott Abbott wrote:

I built an adjustable 12x8 tension board and I agree with the wiggle problems. chains aren’t gonna cut it. You need a a way to tension since your wall will be small and light (relatively).

Mine has hinges on the bottom over a 4x12 anchored to the wall. Two unistrut arms attached by brackets and bolts to the supporting wall higher up attach to the climbing wall at the top just using thru bolts, fender washers and wingnuts (easily removed).

I then have a pulley system with steel cable attached to both walls in the back with a hand winch on the side  

So to change the angle:

I take off the wingnuts and drop down the unistrut arms so they’re hanging.

Change the angle of the board with the hand winch.

Lift the unistrut back up and slide onto the bolts. This is where the unistrut design comes in handy, as the holes are wider than a circle, giving a margin of error. Put the wingnuts and fenders back on.

Then, and this is the part you can’t ignore, I have to use the winch to tighten up the whole system. Even at lower angles, the weight of the climbing wall (and it is extremely heavy) isn’t enough for the wall to stay solid when you’re throwing a body around on it. Any movement is sketch.

This picture you can’t see the pulleys but you get the idea. The chain on the side is just a redundancy because I don’t want anyone to die by this thing falling  

Honestly the only reason I made mine adjustable and deal with the hassle is I have multiple people with varying skill levels climbing on it. If I was doing for just myself I would probably rebuild it at 20 degrees and call it a day.

Also my brother is a general contractor and he helped me build it/ looks over changes I make/ inspects it every few months. I’m not sure I would ever trust anyone else to climb it if I didn’t get his approval. 

This is really good to know. Honestly the only reason for adjustability is because I was going to put this in my small, one-car garage where space is pretty limited. So my thought was that I would have it hinged just so I can also continue to park the car in there and just leave the car outside when I plan to use it. However, this does seem like it would be a pretty intense project to undertake. At least for the first go around of a home wall. I was concerned about wiggle as well, but this makes me realize that most systems I might consider would be pretty  tricky to implement.

This gets me thinking that maybe I could use the space underneath my deck as a place to build. There it would be easier to make it fixed. And I'd have wider spacing to work with and a decent built-in cover from the deck already in place.

Thanks for the input. I'll do some more research and see if putting this outside might not be a better option in my case.

Princess Puppy Lovr wrote:

Not to poo poo your idea but The fundamental issue is that you don’t want it to wiggle really at all. Like at all, it will make you hesitate. Adjustable boards have this problem so people end up with them semi adjustable when it would just be better for it to be fixed.  You’ll also feel pretty restricted on a 4x8 wall, go to the gym and give yourself a 4x8 section of spray wall and see how long that makes you happy.

Yeah trust me. 4x8 is not ideal. But something is better than nothing. I'm still going to be climbing outside plenty so this is mostly to be a training tool. But I may look at a fixed wall option outside under my deck instead (deck is on the second floor with stairs). I don't want to go more than 20 degrees anyways.

Thanks.

I don't know how i got here, but hell i watched the whole 40 minutes  and loved it. Great build!