Mounting a climbing wall

missanxious

I want to mount a climbing wall in my playroom. The room has been dry lined. Is it safe to mount the climbing holds to the internal insulation panels?

Safehands

missanxious wrote: »

I want to mount a climbing wall in my playroom. The room has been dry lined. Is it safe to mount the climbing holds to the internal insulation panels?

I would not think so. These will be subjected to quite a lot of pressure and plasterboard panels are not designed for that purpose. I suggest you contact an engineer or the manufacturer of these climbing holds.

newbie2013

Just make sure to make the floor rubber for when the kids pull that wall down lol.

cgarrad

Just to be clear: No Way ;-)

ShiverinEskimo

Get longer rawl bolts and go fully through the platerboard into the block wall behind. I mounted my TV this way through 63mm insulated plasterboard.

I used 180mm rawl bolts like the below. Any fixings/builders suppliers/proper hardware shop should have them in abundance. Be sure to check/avoid electricial and plumbing runs obviously.

con1982

A tv is a static load. Kids on a climbing wall is different. Variable force directions in combination with the mechanical anchor, fixed to what i am assuming is a hollow block external wall or cavity wall, is a bad idea

See if you can buy a climbing wall with integrated frame.

Gasherbraun

You could try asking the question in climbing.ie or ukclimbing.com. Both have forums and the UKC is one of the biggest in the world so there will be people who can offer practical advice in view of the dynamic loads.

ShiverinEskimo

con1982 wrote: »

A tv is a static load. Kids on a climbing wall is different. Variable force directions in combination with the mechanical anchor, fixed to what i am assuming is a hollow block external wall or cavity wall, is a bad idea

See if you can buy a climbing wall with integrated frame.

The bolts I suggested above are actually more commonly used for fixing satellite dishes and such to external walls.

If it can anchor a dish against high wind, it can handle a kid. They are solid to the point it was probably overkill for the TV.

Safehands

ShiverinEskimo wrote: »

The bolts I suggested above are actually more commonly used for fixing satellite dishes and such to external walls.

If it can anchor a dish against high wind, it can handle a kid. They are solid to the point it was probably overkill for the TV.

The bolts you suggest are quite large. I suspect that they may be too large, in diameter, to fit through the climbing holds. You would need to know the layout of the wall before recommending anything. If the wall is made of hollow block they will not work. With a satellite dish there would be more than one bolt anchoring it in place and even then it would not work on a hollow wall. Be careful giving advise on this one.

One possible solution would be to extend brackets into the ceiling and attach them to the joists, thus securing the top of the frame.

antiskeptic

missanxious wrote: »

I want to mount a climbing wall in my playroom. The room has been dry lined. Is it safe to mount the climbing holds to the internal insulation panels?

As most have said, probably best avoid, unless you're talking very young kids in which case you might take a punt if using a plywood spreader under each climb hold and the right kind of plasterboard fixing.

-

Otherwise.

Assuming there is a cavity block/brick wall behind the intended climbing wall you could 'mushroom' fix sheets of 1/2" plywood over the entire wall in question and then screw the climbing holds direct to the plywood. Mushroom fixings are normally used to fix plasterboard/insulated panels to walls but they would be more than adequate for this task. I take it that it's kids at play rather than the local climbing club...

If the plywood was slightly counter bored at each fixing point then the mushroom head would sit slightly below the surface of the wood when hammered home. It would be a relatively easy job to fill the fixing points with plaster and paper the plywood wall whenever you wanted to reinstate it, once having removed the climb holds.

The advantage of plying the whole wall is that the hand holds can be easily changed around in position - which I gather would be a core necessity if the wall is to be kept an ongoing challenge.

You'd need someone a bit handy to do it. PM me if you want me add a bit more detail of what would be involved.

gctest50

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http://thecraftingchicks.com/2012/01/indoor-climbing-wall.html


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Carawaystick

Like what Gctest50 posted, I'd use bolts to attach heavy plywood to the wall and then bolt climbing holds to the plywood.
I would *not* bolt holds to the plasterboard. Even bolting through to the solid wall, the gypsum will give under load and the holds will become loose and damage the wall worse next time they're loaded.

Climbing can generate large dynamic loads, either from jumping off low holds or catching onto higher holds, which will be several (5,10)multiples of the weight of the climber.