[DIY] Self-Standing Home Climbing Wall

  A key requirement for my in-house climbing wall was to use a self-standing structure that did not require making holes in the walls. I was neither comfortable with the idea of potentially screwing things up, nor did I want to have to do any repair or retouching work the day the wall is taken down.

 This way, once disassembled, there will be no trace that a climbing wall had ever been in that room. Something that home owners or renters can probably appreciate.

  Everything in the picture above just relies on an inverted U structure. It sits on two 2x6 plates at the bottom of each wall, on top of the carpet:

Self standing structure & bottom plate - left side (vertical)

Right side (overhanging)

  The whole structure was built with 2x4s. To spice things up one wall is slightly overhanging. It makes the build a bit more complex, but climbing is more varied and fun. Some notable construction details from the 2 pics above:

• Only wood and screws were used, no specialized hardware, even for joining elements
• The horizontal rafters are installed on top of the vertical studs, and secured with a short 2x4 piece screwed on the side, holding the 2x4s together
  
• All studs & rafters are installed with a ~1/4" gap to the house walls & ceiling,and backed with a foam weatherstrip to avoid scratching the drywall paint & texture
• Even the baseboards stayed in place. The vertical studs butt horizontally against them and go up. That leaves the gap mentioned above, filled with thick foam weatherstrips. That helps prevent the whole structure from moving wall to wall (left to right in the pics)

  Now, before embarking on DIY projects with structures above the ground, remember: Safety first !

 😂😂😂

  Any horizontal structure made of long 11' skinny 2x4 wood beams will sag over time, and won't fare well when a climber hangs from the ceiling. To prevent this, I installed "fins" made of 1x8 single planks: 1 on each side of the ceiling structure, and 1 in the middle.

 Hard wood is best, like the oak fin at the back of the following picture. Once screwed into its adjacent 2x4, each fin prevents the structure from sagging:

Details of the back "fin" and its 2x4

 

 Note: my ceiling is stepped, with 8' at the back, and 9' in the front. So the middle fin is 1x16. Which makes the whole ceiling structure even more resistant to sagging.

 After that it was just a matter of screwing in the plywood sheets to finish the wall. Of course I am skipping here the 4 days spent drilling them, installing 100s of T nuts for the climbing holds, and painting the whole thing. Not the most fun part... 😅

  Finally, before closing the structure, lights were installed on each side, tapping into the electrical circuit from the original ceiling light fixture that was removed.

 Once done, add as many accessories, climbing ramps, campus boards and toys as you can (see 1st pic). And congratulate yourself on a job well done.

 Time to enjoy your well deserved own climbing training place. Boop !