Building a Bouldering Wall

It’s really not that hard.

Here are the key ingredients for an indoor kids wall.

• 3/4″ plywood
• secure wall framing. This is highly variable depending on your structure, skills and wall complexity.
• t-nuts
• socket cap bolts and socket flat head bolts
• climbing holds
• padding

The wood and framing are easy to procure. Just head to your local big box/warehouse lumber store and they’ve got what you need. There are different grades of plywood to choose from. You can get the most basic (rough and knotty) to perfectly sanded. I usually get something in between. Once you have the plywood, you have to drill it for t-nuts. Not difficult, but a bit time consuming. A single sheet of 4’x8′ plywood will need roughly between 66 – 75 t-nuts.  Luckily there are plenty of online resources (example1, example2) to help with proper bolt patterns/layouts.

The hardware (bolts and t-nuts) is generally offered by the climbing hold vendors, but I’ve found an online source at BoltDepot.com for really great bulk prices. This latest expansion is going to start with 500 t-nuts and a few hundred 1″ – 2″ socket cap bolts. Buying in bulk is the only way to go.

The last two items are the most difficult/expensive parts of the whole equation.

Generally climbing holds can average anywhere from $5 – $20 a hold. That gets expensive in a hurry when you’re building out a wall for little kids – because of their extra short reach, they need lots and lots of holds.

It’s taken some time, but I’ve finally got a “method” in place to help with this matter.

At first I started by looking for used holds – holds on ebay or Craig’s list. That quickly proved futile. They were still too expensive. Then I found Rocky Mountain Climbing Gear with really great priced new holds. They aren’t like conventional climbing holds, but I found them to be more true to outdoor rock and you can’t beat their per hold price.

The next revolution in finding good cheap holds was cosmetic seconds. A friend at the rock gym introduced me to a climbing hold vendor who periodically offered cosmetic seconds at a discounted rate – $2 a hold. What you got was a random selection, but it could include holds normally $20 – $40 in value. The only catch was you had to have a facebook account to get the updates or check their web page daily for offers. Since I don’t have a facebook account, I opted to put my programming skills to work and wrote an HTML page scraper to check their web page every hour of every day, then text me when cosmetic seconds were available. It works so well, I’ve been able to order before my friend gets notified via facebook.

This was the first order from that vendor. Sorry. I’m keeping their name a secret, because I like them so much and the competition to get their cosmetic seconds is brutal. The big blue sloper in the middle is Abigail’s foe.

This was my second order 8 weeks later.

Once I discovered anyone at all offered cosmetic seconds, I began searching and searching for additional vendors. Sure enough they’re out there and generally offer/sell them randomly when their stock piles up. Knowing this expansion project was coming, I started buying small sample sizes (5 lbs – they’re sold by the pound) to see which products from which vendors I liked best.

The first such sample was from Element Climbing.

They’re ok, but obviously not my favorite. I think their deal was $8/lb.

Then I found another company and ordered from them.

And yes, they’re a favorite. I will be ordering more from them. Their size variety was good. Texture was awesome and at $7/lb a great per hold price.

At this point I feel like I have the hold sourcing pretty well under control and won’t break the bank building out adequate climbing options for the girls. I might have to space out my purchases by 6 – 8 weeks, but that’s perfect timing to introduce new options/routes/holds for the girls to try and get exited about.

The last piece to the project is padding. Obviously when you’re hanging 8′ off the ground or upside down you want something soft to land on in case you fall. With our original wall, we had enough of our own crash pads to offer sufficient protection. Now that everything is expanding, we need more. So far padding has proven to be just as expensive as holds (if not more). The old school option was old thrown out mattresses, but with the uprising of bed bugs I’m leery of going that route.

I’ve looked at gymnastic pads, but they’re price prohibitive. The only viable option at this point is used crash pads from Craig’s List or climbing gear consignment stores. If the girls were old enough (i.e. responsible), I would teach them to protect each other moving the pads where they’re needed, but we’re a few years away from that. In the meantime, it’s constant checking my sources and hoping for a holiday bonus.

– b

ps. if you really want to know my favorite cosmetic seconds holds vendors, contact me offline.