Outdoor metal climbing wall

coldatom wrote:Use a nicer grade of plywood. Forget Home Depot. Go to a lumber yard or specialty plywood shop and tell them what you want from it. This is what I did. 4 years of harsh New England weather, it still looks brand new. Keep a tarp over it if you're really concerned. For texture, use a sand-like additive to your paint. You pretty much need it to keep big holds from spinning anyway. Paint it correctly so it doesn't come off. That's one reason not to use pressure treated plywood. Make sure you use hardware that can survive the elements without rusting.

Clay based kitty litter is often the texture for the monument signs in all those ugly office park/warehouse complexes. Build a sheet metal box, slap "textured" paint on, add some cheap plastic letters, done.

When first designing my outdoor bouldering wall, i thought of a similar concept. Turns out, metal is more expensive, heavier to work with, and does not really have much benefit.

I ended up just building the frame/structure out of pressure treated wood.