5 TIPS on BUILDING a HOMEWALL (learn from my MISTAKES)
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- Опубликовано: 26 июн 2024
- Do you want to build a Climbing Wall so you can always train at home? I built one in my garden 8 years ago, and I've made a lot of changes over the years. So, in this video, I give you some tips on building one and show you some mistakes I made while building mine.
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00:00 Intro
00:50 Tip #1 Wall angle
02:35 Tip #2 The Kickboard
03:20 Tip #3 Landing
04:15 Tip #4 The Mistake
05:33 Tip #5 Holds & Setting
06:55 Have you already built a climbing wall? 
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Some personal opinions and feedback about mixed angle walls. My wall is made of 4 sheets of 4' x 8' plywood (1.2m x 2.4m) at increasing angles.
4 feet at vertical
4 feet at 15 degrees
4 feet at 45 degrees
4 feet at 80 degrees
Pros:
- Having a mostly vertical section low means the effective space the wall takes up is very minimal. When not in use the pads fold up and get squashed up to the wall and it takes up a tiny corner of our workshop garage. Not even a full meter of depth away from the wall is needed. If I had a wall the same overall height at 45 degrees we'd need to dedicate that entire corner to it, permanently.
- Assuming the wall itself is large enough, having a variety of angles makes it possible to train almost any possible move. With only a few low cost volumes I can get close to what would be essentially a slab or nearly vertical wall. I know most people say this just doesn't happen in practice and it's something that only looks good on paper, and I disagree. I think the difference is again that each section has to be large enough. You could of course build multiple walls with one angle each instead of transitions, and that's probably better, but it will cost much more wall space.
- Build it high. Whatever height you were planning, you'll regret not making it higher if you could have. Even if you don't expect to have a spotter most of the time and as such want to stay lower, having the option available when you get an opportunity to make a longer climb is always a win. When planning my wall there was a thought to have it just be 2 panels and I am extremely happy we made it twice that size instead.
- Build it wide. Basically same reasoning as above. Both are limited by your available real estate naturally, but if you want to train chaining together big moves you should really shoot for it to be at least as wide as you are tall. Mine at 8 ft/2.4m is just about the minimum I think I'd be satisfied with. Any less and it wouldn't be enough to practice much horizontal movement at all.
Cons:
- The first vertical section of my wall essentially serves as a very large kickboard and I think that's bad. Like you said in the video if I were to start again, I would use maybe a third of that size. Enough for a row of feet and that's it. While as I said above it's nice that it ends up taking less overall space in the garage this way, the lowest portion being flat tends to result in either shorter climbs or an overabundance of sit starts with awkward and cramped positions. Sometimes that's good, but I can't help but feel I'd get about ~20% more effective climbing space if the wall transitioned to a 15 degree incline much, much lower than it does.
- The ceiling piece won't get used as much as you think. Moves tend to be smaller the more horizontal you are, so you'd think 4 feet of roof would be plenty to practice cave stuff but it's just not. Since you're coming from the angled portion below it's often one or two moves at the final panel and you're done. Additionally for safety and fall protection, the horizontal surface should be at a lower panel rather than the highest. While this wasn't possible for the same space considerations that have already been mentioned, it means the top panel gets used even less often than I'd like if I'm training alone and a big explosive move just seems too risky. If I had infinite space and started over, I'd build an entire ceiling at ~75 degrees or more at around 2.5m so I wouldn't hit the ground while swinging.
- These two points taken together: the bulk of my training occurs in the middle two panels. I imagine this is likely going to be the case on most shapes/angles for walls but I think it's more so for mixed angle walls like mine. Just keep it in mind that whatever you're building, most of your practice time is going to be spent in the middle so don't pick an angle you'll be disappointed with for that area, if you do build a mixed angle wall.
Side point/hot take not related to wall shapes:
- I highly recommend not skimping on pads. Buy big and buy quality. If it comes down to a limited budget, I'd rather have large, quality pads I feel safe and comfortable crashing on over world-class climbing holds. Your skin will recover from bad holds, your joints/skull may not after a bad fall. Also if you're hesitant to climb hard because you know a bad fall can be sketchy, you won't be utilizing the full potential of those ultra expensive holds you chose instead anyway.
Last thing I want to say is that if you're considering building a wall, do it. Even if it's small and even if it's not that good. I use mine multiple times a week and if I didn't have it I might end up climbing only once or twice a year. Only way you can beat this type of accessibility is if you work at a climbing gym or live in a campground.
Really good points👍🏼 I would love to try a wall like this to see what it's like. It wouldn't work with my wall, though, since it is not that high and I haven't got that much space, but otherwise, it's a very interesting idea.
Thanks for the detailed comment🙏
The new one looks great. The introverts dream!
Yeah😎 I think a wall like this is every climbers dream. I feel so lucky to have this in my garden.
I have built 2 home walls now. I think the biggest thing is understanding how big of a commitment they are. Especially if you have a bigger one its a lot of work to put one up/ take them down
Quality content, great image quality and edition. Subscribed
Thanks 🙏🏼
Love your wall! I have built 5 homewalls of my own and probably helped 5 friends with theirs.
Nice👍🏼 Thanks🙏
Im planning mine now, the space I have is my roof attic where the ceiling is already entirely at a 35 degree angle so ill just follow that! Thanks for the tips about kickboard and crash pads. Really good video!
Thanks🙏 That's really nice👍🏼
A video on foot follow sounds great!
This video came at a great time for me. I started off just chucking climbing holds on a vert wall in my garage. Very quickly realized that I was mostly just improving sit starts, then cruising the rest of my climb because of the wall angle + hold selection. I planned to add a 35 degree wall to the vert wall, but I might re-evaluate after seeing this video. The problem is I still want to be able to fit cars in the garage, which either leads to a really large kickboard or a vert wall + angled wall.
Nice👍🏼 Yeah, I know the problem when you still need space for other things. If the kickboard is not too big, it's a great idea. Otherwise, I would stick with the 35-degree and use smaller/worse holds.
Thank you for these tips! I am working out the plan for a home wall in a small barn/shelter my dad has on his land. I have a lot of room to work with and the ceilings are 14 feet in height so multiangle was being discussed. I appreciate you taking the time to lay things out. Take care!
I‘m glad the video was helpful. Have fun with building the wall :)
Appreciate the insights! I'm planning on building myself a home-wall next year. Current plan is an adjustable wall using an electric winch and going with the Tension Board 2 holds/lights. My garage ceiling is just over 9' tall so the lowest angle will be between 32-35 degrees (10' wall + 6" kickboard) but adjustable down as low as you want to go.
Very nice🔥 I wish I had the space for an adjustable wall🥲
My advice is collect any bits of hardwood from old furniture or anything and make your own holds. It’s pretty easy and there are loads of tutorials all over RUclips. Holds are really expensive so buy some good big jugs to create some good circuits and then infill with home made woodies. I use off cuts of ply for small crimps, just round em off and screw em on. Bingo, a ply crimp circuit. I also used an IKEA table I found in a skip. The wood was all good, you can get maybe 50 crimps out of a table!
Another Great Video Felix! I've got a vertical home wall, I went for vertical as I didn't have any space for a 45 board. to keep the intensity up on it its mainly covered with screw on footholds, or competition dual tex footholds, for both hands and feet, maybe like 6-12mm I think.
Thanks 🙏🏼 That’s also nice. Vertical doesn’t mean the boulders have to be easy👍🏻
Nice video, great editing.
It would be really interesting with a video about feet follow hands and footholds.
Thanks🙏🏼 It‘s already in planning😊
I've built and climbed lots of walls, for 15 years. I'm currently training on my homewall, pretty compact. Here's what i think about homeboards :
Don't build one if you are both intemediary climber (lets say, font 6C or lower, french 7b and lower) and can access easily to a well suited gym.
If you are "only" into one of those two categories, give it a real thought before building it. It might still not be worth it.
Now, if you do think this climbing wall may be beneficial ;
Mats/Pads
Landing is important. Only pads SUCKS, unless you've got enough of them to have two layers, at every landing spot. That can be a lot of pads. I prefer to use recycled mats from ski protection for pylones, old gymnastic mats than can be negotiated with the local gymnastic club, or in the worse case scenario, old mattresses. Then, on top of that, you use pads like your would outdoors, moving them around depending on the boulder you're doing. Cheap, effective, and even eco-friendly !
Surface and size
If you can't build at least 3 meters (that's about 10ft for you imperials) in climbing height, abort. It's not worth it, you'll end up doing boulders of 2 or 3 moves, it is super boring. More than 4.2m (13 feet) is pushing it for landing area, you'll need to get professionnal here.
Remember that the bigger it is, the more expensive it gets. And the bigger, not the better. So in width, i think that a good starting point is your wingspan+10cm (4 inches). This way, you are able to set boulders at your maximum wingspan, and that's it.
Angle
The best angle is the angle you climb the most in. In my opinion, it is generally a lot lower than 40 or 45. At this angle, putting on bad holds and using them is hard. I actually advocate for anything between 15 to 30 degrees. Much closer to your actual climbing, and you'll be able to use even tiny crimps on that. Bonus to that, a kick board isn't required at 25 or lower, which can save a lot of climbing space.
Holds
I advise your not to use T-nuts. You can drill additionnal holes into "big holds" with a drill, and so use them as screw ons. Why ? You save money from buying T-nuts. You can place anyhold anywhere, not following the matrix of t-nuts. You don't have to buy a lot of big screws, with different lengths, only 2 length of woodens screws will be sufficient. Density will be higher.
I also advise you to try to build your own holds. Crimps and edges a really, really easy to make with :
-leftover wood from pretty much anything
-a random chisel that you can steal from your grandpa's barn that no one ever cleaned. Just sharpen it really well. If a mad person actually did found the time to clean the grandpa's garage, it's cheap to buy.
-sand paper
-a hand saw
Pinches are a bit harder to make, but perfectly doable. Slopers are a nightmare, avoid building them if you can (but you can try for fun). Jugs are relatively easy too.
Doing all the basic holds from scratch is way, way, way cheaper than buying them. You can divide by 10 the total cost of your wall with this method, and just offer yourself some pretty slopers at christmas.
Evolution
If possible, you can think and build your wall to be extendable. Because you may only have the money to build 3.5m by 1.8 meter wall for now, but who knows in the future ? You will maybe add, 2 years later, another meter of width. Same with the holds : start with own built holds and a couple of nice slopers, and increase the density month by month depending on budget or time available for making holds.
With everything i've said, you can start a project with about 200/300 € ONLY. And you get something useful and climbable.
Lastly, if you don't have enough money, enough space, or something else, you can still think about building a campus board. It's a lot cheaper, a lot simpler. And it might be extended in a climbing wall later ;)
Thanks for your comment🙏🏼 It’s true that you can save a lot of money with making the holds yourself but I would say other than crimps, holds are not that easy to make and if you are not that experienced in making holds it can take a lot of time and they probably still don’t turn out that good (depends on your skills) So then the question is if you use this time to earn some more money you can get more high quality holds. Here in Germany I don‘t think you can build a board for just 200-300€ because the wooden panels alone for a small board will probably cost that much.
But thanks for the comment it‘s nice to have different opinions on this topic so everyone can make his own.
@@felijocki Hey neighbour !: I'm french so i dont think costs are so different. Here's how i did it for such a cheap price (wall is 3.3 by 1.7 so 5.6m²) :
-panels are reclaimed wood sold by a local non profit organization that sells recycled materials from the movie and show industries. It's jaw dropping how much stuff is thrown away after a play, a scene, or anything else. I get it that its very specific, but my point is to use reclaimed wood, or second hand wood. I'm sure there is in every country a version of a website like ebay, marketplace, etc. Just try to find panels with the same thickness (18mm or 24mm), not necessary the exact same material. I think i managed the panels for about 120€
-beams, studs, etc. Same thing here. I used as much reclaimed wood as i could, only buying one "big" beam that i couldn't find second hand. My wall is under a wooden carport so i used as much the existing structure, but i think i did the whole structure for about 140€
-t-nuts and bolt-on screws : none.
-holds : 95% homemade. It's not THAT hard, but i've been working with wood for about 20 years as an amateur. Really, crimps and edges are not only easy to do, but can be done rapidly and with a profesionnal finish. Can send you photos if you're interested, saves a ton of money. 0€ on those holds, i just used leftovers from other stuff (end of studs, this one piece of wood that you kept for 3 years because "who knows") The quality varies from "not so great" to "exactly the same as a commercial one". Plus, i don't feel super bothered by it, it's a training tool, not a climbing gym. I even prefer wooden holds overall because they're way gentler on skin.
-holds 2 : other types of holds can be bought secondhand ;
--local gyms do sell their old holds really, really cheap. Like 1 or 2€ per hold. Or even like 5€ per kilogramm of holds.
--marketplace, ebay or whatever can find you good deals
I've spent about 10 € for plastic holds this way (10 holds), to buy nasty slopers and some jugs for the kids.
My homewall design is adjustable angle
Nice👍🏼
When height is limited I'd recommend a very small or no kicker at all. Length is more important.
Hello Felix! Lovely video - I am planning to install a wall similar to the one that you have at my school (for the rock climbing club) and we are needing to think about the durability of the different types of holds.
Will the wooden holds that you recommend last a long time? Do they seem to work well in custom (home) made sockets?
Thank you so much!!!
Thanks 🙏🏼 Yes the wooden holds last a long time. Especially if you don‘t use them as footholds (but that‘s just my opinion). What do you mean with custom made sockets?
@@felijocki oh, just the t-nut sockets drilled into plywood - the same as what I believe you have. And thank you so much! Your editing and color-grading eye is superb! Cheers from California
Yes, it works well with the t-nut sockets👍🏼 Thanks, I try my best at editing these videos☺️
Could you do a video climbing in the wall 🙏
I will definitely do that👍🏼 I wanted to put some climbing shots in this video, but I was sick the week before and had to rest