What does your Woody look like???

I do have a crash pad underneath. You just can't see it in the video. 

My wife chose the color against my recommendations. I would have done a gray-ish color. The yellow color shows dark smears from shoes. She now regrets her decision and I get something to throw in her face   . I am neutral with the paint/texture. The texture is just behr paint with this mixed in. It doesn't look bad but doesn't provide that even spread of texture that I was hoping for. Just think of the old style ceilings with the popcorn texture except with areas of varying densities.It does, however, achieve it's goal by making it possible to use smearing techniques. To answer your question, I would texture again but would opt for a finer texture next time

Plasterers sand. I mix in into the paint and also throw handsfull at the wet wall in spots. Works wonders, has been on the walls for 5 years, still gritty.

I bought a used wall off craigslist.  17 plywood boards,  t-nuts installed about every 4", give or take 84/board, ~1,450 total; 300+ holds and bolts, and more foam than I need.  Scored a good deal, I'm stoked, going to begin framing soon.

The boards are older and used, with chalk outlines and black toe skuffs everywhere.  I'm planning to spot sand rough spots, but wondering about painting.  Is there anyway to paint a board with t-nuts already installed?  My wife thinks I should just tape over every little hole, because 1,450 tiny tape holes sounds like a great project for me.  I disagree...but am wondering if anyone has experience painting with t-nuts already in.

Also, chalkboard paint people - how's that holding up?  Would you do it again?

I painted 12 panels with t-nuts. Just put the bolts into the nuts, paint and remove. A lot faster if you have a power tool to place and remove

:-)

I started sanding last night.  Besides removing splinters, it's also really cleaning them up.  Sanding over the bolts is chewing up the sandpaper quick though.  I got a 5-pack of 60 grit and, 2 boards have already eaten 3 papers!  It's time-consuming but probably quicker than drilling and installing all the t-nuts on a new boards.

Nice wall. and videos.

Hi all, new in MP. want to build a tall wall in my back yard. 

how do I secure the bolts to the plywood so they can take a fall?

How do I protect the plywood against the weather? 

I want the wall high, like around 37 ft. (10 sheets of ply) first 3 flat, then an incline of 20 deg. (4 sheets), then an incline of 10 deg. 3 sheets. 

How do i build the structure that holds the wall with out showing it in the front  (or sides) to hold it?. i just want the wall in the corner of the backyard (the sides will be covered in time with more climbing walls) so it looks like a pillar.

Alexa 37ft sounds a bit ambitious based on the other questions you are asking.  At that height the city building department is going to want it permitted.  Outside not protected well from the elements it will degrade pretty quickly.  Maybe scale it down to something more manageable?

Chris Michalowski wrote:

Alexa 37ft sounds a bit ambitious based on the other questions you are asking.  At that height the city building department is going to want it permitted.  Outside not protected well from the elements it will degrade pretty quickly.  Maybe scale it down to something more manageable?

Yeah, Chris is right. 37 ft. adds in some complications. You need to have an understanding of proper construction to build something like and use it safely. Not to mention building codes and permits. Your question makes me feel like you don't know what you're doing. So maybe start with a bouldering wall. 

ALEXAOUTDOOR Alexa smit wrote:

Hi all, new in MP. want to build a tall wall in my back yard. 

how do I secure the bolts to the plywood so they can take a fall?

How do I protect the plywood against the weather? 

I want the wall high, like around 37 ft. (10 sheets of ply) first 3 flat, then an incline of 20 deg. (4 sheets), then an incline of 10 deg. 3 sheets. 

How do i build the structure that holds the wall with out showing it in the front  (or sides) to hold it?. i just want the wall in the corner of the backyard (the sides will be covered in time with more climbing walls) so it looks like a pillar.

Not trying to discourage you here as that sounds like it would be an awesome wall, but here are a few things to consider:

How to secure the bolts to the plywood so they can take a fall:  Right here you are showing that you aren't qualified to be designing/building this wall on your own.  You don't secure the bolts to the plywood, the bolts are secured to the supporting structure behind the plywood that has been engineered to take the loads of a fall.  You will need to hire a structural engineer to design the supporting structure for a wall this size and it's not going to be cheap.

How to protect the plywood against the weather:  you can obviously get weather sealing products, but this is going to be a tough one to handle and will require quite a bit of maintenance over the years.  If you keep up on weathersealing/painting you could have it last many years, but it doesn't take too much time to deteriorate if you don't keep up with it.  Also just remember that each time you need to seal/paint you will have to completely strip the wall of holds, then reset.  This can be great for changing up the routes and not getting board, but it will take a lot of time.

Wall Height:  This has already been said up thread, but a wall that height will certainly attract attention which means that you will need permits, engineering, approval and various other hoops that you will need to jump through if they even allow it in your city.  

Structure:  As above, this is not something that can be answered on a MP thread, you will need to hire an actual structural engineer to design the wall and it will be expensive.

Good luck, the wall sounds like it will be awesome if you can get it done.

ALEXAOUTDOOR Alexa smit wrote:

Hi all, new in MP. want to build a tall wall in my back yard. 

how do I secure the bolts to the plywood so they can take a fall?

How do I protect the plywood against the weather? 

I want the wall high, like around 37 ft. (10 sheets of ply) first 3 flat, then an incline of 20 deg. (4 sheets), then an incline of 10 deg. 3 sheets. 

How do i build the structure that holds the wall with out showing it in the front  (or sides) to hold it?. i just want the wall in the corner of the backyard (the sides will be covered in time with more climbing walls) so it looks like a pillar.

Like everyone else, I want to support whatever effort to built a climbing wall. 

But unless you are already very skilled at building projects I would highly recommend you seek professional help for the kind of wall you want to build. At the very least, advisers.

Good luck!

37 Feet sounds pretty ambitious, certainly if you are able to get away with it in your neighborhood permit wise, it sounds like a place I want to visit. Something that high would require a concrete base and a metal structure for sure. Any bolts I would recommend securing to the framework for sure. Are you sure you wouldn't want to just go to a reputable gym? Sounds a lot cheaper than a structure of this size. Like a previous poster said, maybe start with a bouldering wall and see how it goes?

I'm not trying to discourage you, and if you do build it please post pic's, I'd love to see it, but its going to be a huge undertaking to make that size of structure safe.

All the best.

I'm planning to build a wall in the basement of my house.  The walls and floor are poured concrete, and the ceiling joists are exposed and easy to access.  There's a steel I-beam running across part of this alcove, so I'm limited in the angles I can do. The basic design is a 33 degree section on the left and a 47 degree section on the right. Once that design was done I figured I'd add an 8 degree section to the right of it; I know it's not great for me to train on, but the wife can't do stuff that overhung yet. Besides, I could set up some fun traverses all the way across. There is a small crack section in the middle of the 47 degree portion - the dimensions of this part of the basement didn't really work, so I had a few extra inches, and figured why not?

Planning to construct the framing using 2x6s; I've seen mixed things on this for overhung stuff - is this enough, or are 2x8s necessary?

Any specific advice for how to mount the headers to the wall/floor? Tapcon screws, drop in anchors, both?

Anything I'm missing?

I would go for drop ins. put sika on them also. there is going to be lots of pulling and you can dismount in case you need to fix stuff. for the flat wall Tapcon screws would be fine

If your walls are only 8' tall then 2x6 are probably OK. I prefer 2x8 for all walls over 30 degrees for both strength and quality of framing materials and the price difference is minimal.

Drop in anchors have very poor pull out strength. Better to use 3/8x5" redhead wedge bolts, generally staggered top to bottom(2" from either) every 2' with 2 bolts at each end of the ledger. For walls framed from the slab you can space this out a bit, especially if the bottom plate is braced against a wall. 

With basement walls you want to pull your level/plumb lines from your ceiling ledger. Generally your foundation walls are not plumb and basement slabs are not very level.   Good job with your design and best of luck on your wall. 

If budget is a real issue you could actually get away with 2x4's. I have 12' woodies (plural) up to 45º  in which i used 2x4 16" O.C. No wiggle.  Use good screws to attach the ply to whatever you use. Do you own the house? (Asks the landlord). How thick is the slab? If it is only 3" (typical) you might want to go with glue ins for the base.

And a bolt every 4 feet is overkill. You are not resisting uplift, only 'drift'. Once the wall is attached to the header/ceiling you would be hard pressed to move it if there were no bolts. It's wedged in. Are you attaching to the steel header? Attachment at the head is more important than at the base. 

Just saying.

Thanks for the advice! I'll definitely look into those redhead wedge bolts. I'm not positive how thick my foundation is, so 5" might be more than I'm comfortable with. They look pretty bomber regardless of length though.  I changed the overhung walls to 2x8, and am keeping the nearly vertical one at 2x6. I hadn't even considered the higher quality usually found in 2x8!

Budget isn't a huge issue, but of course I don't want to blow money unnecessarily either. I do own the house, but haven't been there long, and I'm not sure about the slab thickness.  But since the floor headers are up against the wall, I think Tapcon screws will be fine for that section.

I wasn't planning on attaching to the steel I-beam, mostly because I couldn't think of a good way to do it.  It will be hidden behind the walls once they're built, and there's some ducting along it at one section, so there's no really good way. I'm pretty much just avoiding it.

5" Redheads only give you 3" of concrete penetration where 2" is usually minimum penetration to reach spec holding power. 

4' OC is pretty standard wall framing anchoring into concrete. Mostly to keep the pressure treated plate from moving as it dries. I drill these with a 12" bit to penetrate through the 4" (standard) slab. That way you can just hammer the bolt flush with the concrete when you take the wall down.   Tapcons are probably fine, but it ends up being cheaper to buy a few extra 3/8" bolts and a single bit then 2 bits and different fasteners. Also Tapcons tend to make a mess of. the concrete and you end up needing to patch it when you take down the wall. 

This thread is so depressing to look at... only because how awesome some of the home walls are, and how much my little hangboard stand sucks in comparison.