In January of 2021 I found out that I would be fully online for the upcoming spring semester which was a bit of a let-down. This prompted me to take on a project that I could use and enjoy while I was stuck at home.
I decided on the home bouldering wall in my attic because I love to climb but do not live near any climbing gyms. The process for building my wall started with a fair amount of research into how climbing walls are built and looking at other DIY jobs. I started by purchasing four pieces of 3/4" ACX plywood and after power-sanding each piece on both sides to reduce the risk of splinters, I cut them to size.
space in attic where bouldering wall will go
Figuring out what size to cut them too was more difficult than I had originally expected as I discovered that the rafters in my attic were not equal distances apart or parallel (fun quirks of a very old house). After cutting to size I painted each piece with a textured exterior floor paint. This gave the wall a nice grippy feel. Next, I started the very time consuming step of drilling holes for the t-nuts (these are what the climbing holds get screwed into). And then, by far the most labor intensive part, hammering the t-nuts (almost 300 of them) into the back of the boards.
The only thing left to do was to attach the finished boards to the rafters with the help of my father. This again was harder than anticipated as plywood is very heavy and to install, one person had to hold up the board at a 45 degree angle as the other went around drilling holes and driving long deck screw into place. The first attempt was unsuccessful and my father didn't think it could be done. I put on my thinking cap and had an idea. By screwing a small 2x4 onto the rafters below where the plywood would sit, we were able to rest a good amount of its weight on that. This allowed us to install the two full size pieces of plywood with relative ease . This project took about two weeks from concept to finished project.
wall after boards mounted (left); finished bouldering wall with holds (right)
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