Building A Kid’s Rock Climbing Wall!

Yeah buddy, I did it. I built an indoor kid’s rock climbing wall in our basement.

See?

 
 
This was absolutely, no doubt about it, a COVID project. A need for more indoor, at-home activities plus a dash of parental sadness for the things I know my boys are missing out on, with a sprinkling of a personal need to proactively create as a way to stay positive equals rock climbing wall.

This was by far my biggest project in scale, but right at my ability in skill.

My steps for this project were:

  1. Build an exterior frame on top of the interior studs
  2. Construct the rock climbing wall
  3. Fix the climbing wall to the exterior frame

I bought these rock wall grips, which came with hardware too. It gave me a good starting point for everything.

Our basement allowed for a 4ft x 6ft climbing wall, so I had a sheet of furniture-grade plywood (pre-sanded and smooth) cut for me at Home Depot to size, plus a few 2x4s 6ft tall for the exterior frame.

After determining a climbing hold pattern we liked, I drilled the holes, sanded, painted the wall to match our basement wall color, screwed in the holds and the wall itself was done.

We fixed the external studs to the wall and the climbing wall on top of that and she was done.

I’m glossing over a lot of measuring and drawing out the plans ahead of time and full project consideration, but from a get-to-work standpoint it was simple, straightforward and fast. I did everything with a drill, stud finder, level, sandpaper and paint brush.

The climbing wall is extremely sturdy, it doesn’t budge a bit. I’ve dangled off it and I feel secure. We placed extra cushions on the floor below as a landing pad. So far our little climbers aren’t confident going up on their own without us there--which is great as I’m hoping this big toy is one they can grow into and spend years enjoying.

When we’re ready to take this down we’ll unscrew the climbing wall from the external frame, unscrew the 2x4s from the wall, and patch up a few holes.

All in this cost under $115, and boy does it make for an exciting early holiday present for a 3-year-old. :)

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