Welcome to Thunderdome

Aka: What I did for 4th of July.

I built the kids a vertical 8x8' wall at the start of quarantine. Then built a ceiling-mounted 8x3 to go with it. Since things kept dragging on, decided to build an inclined (more useful) wall. I'd been avoiding it, because drilling + filling 256 holes (in wood) isn't fun. BUT, the gym we are all members of sold us 5 5'x5' panels, pre-drilled, t-nuts installed, pre-finished (textured paint), etc. Professionally made panels for $50 each.

I ordered a bunch of 2x6x10' and waited for the weekend.

I removed the foot-molding, and pulled up the spike strips for the carpet, first.

The area is a 5' vertical wall with a 4' 45 degree wall, so it works out to around a 27 degree wall for a single face.

I attached a footer board to the vertical wall, and a header board to the ceiling, hitting as many joists as I could.

Then I measure where to put the wall joists (measure against the pre-fabricated wall pieces to ensure I did not cover any hold holes), and started hanging joists. Cutting these was a bitch for me, and I ruined the first two. I kept getting the measurements a little off, and they were not snug against, or they were not snug against the footboard.

More joists. I did most of the work myself, so I used the ladder to hold joists in position while I attached them.

Next was blocking. I put them in the middleish, where the top and bottom of the panels would attach later. I'm not good at cutting and placing blocking.

It was warm in the room, so I had the ceiling fans on. Saturday morning I said to myself "I should turn those off, since I'm working on the ceiling."

I did not turn them off.

First panel attached. It was 80 lbs. Carrying it up the stairs sucked. I put a bunch of 2x4s together to lift the panel on to, and then shift it into place.

The 2x4s for mounting.

The top panel was a mere "70lbs" but hard to lift, I leaned it against the ladder, then positioned it on the lower wall segment, and flipped it up. I held it while my wife drilled the first few screws. It was heavy.



Then used a bunch of 3" screws to attach the segments to the joists. End of Saturday.

Sunday was finishing up the 33" section on the right hand side. Basically just a repeat of the prior 2 days, but smaller. The panels at this size were just over 40lbs, and MUCH more manageable.



Finished. Wife for scale.

I hate the small gap between the 33" panels, but I messed up thinking I was cutting the top, but instead cut the bottom, so ooops. Couldn't reverse the panel without covering a bunch of bolt-holes.

A picture showing all 3 surfaces

I don't build stuff, so this was quite a project for me.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Nice job. The "measure twice/cut once" gets better, the more you do it. But even after all the years, I still cut a piece of trim an inch too short, the other day.

Why didn't you just follow the contour of that wall/roof? Still a challenge.

GORDON wrote: Why didn't you just follow the contour of that wall/roof? Still a challenge.

That's what my wife envisioned as well. Because a single face is easier for setting up routes and provides more flexibility. Also, more routes are in the 20-35 degrees of steep than 45 degrees of steep. Also, I would have had to make a lot more cuts of wood, I think.

We can vary the difficulty just by changing the size/spacing/angle of holds

Also, this way I can fix things if they need adjustments in the back.

Word.

GORDON wrote: Word.

Oh, also, it means I can use the electrical outlets behind it. And/or use the storage, or use the back of the wall for storage.

The first and second ones are built against the wall. And about 4 t-nuts have gone bad already. But I cannot access the back, so they cannot be replaced easily

GORDON wrote: The "measure twice/cut once" gets better, the more you do it.

I figured I'd mess up the first, so that was fine. The 2nd, I didn't mess up the measurements, but the last trim bit I cut backwards. (I needed to lower the rear about 1/8", lowered the front instead).

It was fine, I used those two boards to make the blocking.

Project paid off a while ago as the kids used it, but today our oldest qualified 7th in the region (SC and NC) in her age group to qualify for divisiionals (same states plus FL and GA).

(Our youngest quit climbing for swimming cu her favorite coaches quit in the pandemic)

I did not know competitive rock climbing was a thing.