Building a Bouldering Wall in Your Backyard
You can get as fancy as you want with homemade bouldering walls, but it gets complicated and expensive. This brief guide is not that. It’s basic, bulky, heavy, but durable and functional. It’s a set-up for a neglected backyard where you don’t mind an eyesore and you’re content to sit with some fine hoppy ale with friends for a day of housebound climbing. When you can’t afford gas to get to the crags or your buddy at the climbing gym can’t sneak you in for free, that’s when this monstrosity comes in handy.
Borrow, scavenge, or, if you must, purchase the following materials and tools:
2 4-foot by 8-foot sheets of plywood – preferably ¾” thick
4 2-inch-by-6-inch-by-12-foot studs
8 2-inch-by-6-inch-by-8-foot studs
1 box of nails
1 box of screws
Hammer
Drill
4 structural bolts
Adjustable wrench
Tape measure
Level
T-Nuts and Climbing holds
Build the outer frame
Lay down two of the 12-foot studs skinny side down, so that they are eight feet apart and parallel to each other. Place one of the 8-foot studs perpendicular to, and in between the two 12-footers, six inches below the top of the 12-footers. Tack it in with nails. At this point you’ll have essentially what resembles an “H” if the connecter were near the top rather than center. Measure eight feet below that first cross stud, and tack in another eight-foot stud. Now you have the outer frame. The 12-foot pieces should extend six inches on the top and 3 ½ feet at the bottom. Check for squareness by measuring diagonally from opposite corners. Adjust the frame until all sides are equal and square, and then use a drill and screws to hold the frame together.
Complete the frame
Measure and mark the locations for the inner studs. They should be either 16” or 24” apart from one another – the choice is yours. Either way this thing will end up sturdy as a yack and heavier than hell. Anyways, tack in the inner studs with nails. Also, check to make sure they’re lined up evenly on both top and bottom. Complete the assembly using screws.
Drill T-nut holes
Place your pieces of plywood on top of two sawhorses with the climbing side of the plywood up. Use a pencil or chalk line to mark a grid of parallel lines on the plywood eight inches apart, beginning four inches from the edge. Where the lines cross, use a 7/16-inch bit and drill through both pieces of plywood. This is where you will attach your climbing holds with the T-nuts.
Install the plywood
Lay down the plywood above your frame and make sure there are no gaps between the two pieces – tack them in with nails. When you are sure they are square, screw the sheets in place.
Finish the wall and stand it up
Place the two remaining 12-foot studs immediately against the first two, one on either side of the frame. Tack them together with a nail only at the top where the studs extend beyond the frame six inches. Use the 7/16-inch bit again to make one hole near the top, going through both 12-foot studs. Insert and tighten down one structural bolt.
Have some friends help you lift the wall to rest it against a house or a shed. Don’t rest on anything you care about though, it may obliterate it if it’s weak. With only one bolt holding the two 12-foot studs together at the top on either side, you can swivel the outer stud to form a base like a triangle. This makes it so the climbing surface is a touch beyond vertical. Once you have the angle exactly how you want it for climbing, drill another hole at the top of the 12-foot studs. The second structural bolt will secure the studs so that the angle cannot widen while you are climbing.
The last step is adding climbing holds and securing them with T-nuts. When the holds are secured, it’s beer-cracking and backyard bouldering time. Careful though, entirely free climbing is an addictive hobby. Don’t forget that the crags will always top a plywood pile in the backyard.
