UKC

I'm at the stage of buying holds for a home bouldering wall (20 square metres, 30 degrees) and after a quick google revealed that there are literally dozens of companies offering thousands of holds, I felt completely overwhelmed!

It's been a long time since I climbed regularly at a wall, let alone worked at one, so appealing to UKC for some guidance. What I'm looking for to start out with is:

- Basic shapes that are friendly on the hands (this doesn't mean they can't be small). I shy away from rock imitation of fancy weird stuff at least for now.

- Some big jugs for a warmup circuit.

- Some medium holds that might yield a variety of font 6s problems.

- Some screw-ons that might work well on small volumes.

- No giant mega holds - too expensive and take up too much space.

- I don't mind paying a bit more than budget rate for the medium and screw-on holds to get something with a bit more ergonomics worked in.

- My initial foray suggested it might be Holdz that offer the cheapest holds, are there other budget manufacturers I might look at for the basic big jugs at least?

- I'm aware of the wooden holds for extra training duration but for my initial batch, I'd like to see how I get on with resin/plastic holds first, can always buy wood ones later.

Holds definitely seem the cheapest to me and deliver quickly. I also got some blue pill holds from alpine trek.co.uk, I can’t remember if they were on offer but there seemed relatively inexpensive. Both sets are reasonably fine grained so relatively skin friendly but not in this weather. 
I’d like some footholds all the same shape but I think I’ll need to go to Core for these who are more expensive 

As an aside I’ve screwed my holds on rather than using Tnuts and this has worked well

I bought a box of holds from Euroholds when I built my wall. They're ok, clearly not super premium but do the job, and importantly for me had a great selection of screw ons (wooden and plastic) as I didn't t-nut mine. They stopped selling to the UK for a while but have started again.  

One thing to consider when buying holds is how conditions on the board might vary with the weather. My board is out in a wooden shed and the resin holds are very quick to condense when it's warming up after a cold spell and there's high humidity, however the wooden holds all stay totally fine. If I just had resin holds there would be quite few occasions over the winter when I wouldn't get anything done. I'd suggest having a mix of wooden and resin. 

I've ordered from Holdz, and was very happy with them.

I've also ordered from Custom Holds - these were very good value to fill up the wall but a bit of a mixed bag, some of them were great but the jugs were a bit pointy and uncomfortable.

If you want budget option or holds that won’t destroy your skin then eBay/ Facebook marketplace can be a good source - often cheap sets of second hand resin holds going. I reckon wooden holds are the way to go thouhh, they just feel so much nicer to climb on especially if you’re using the board a fair amount. If you get around to wanting some I’d recommend Rick Ginn at strongholds, he’s a really nice bloke and his holds are genuinely beautiful craftsmanship. 

Another thing to do, is ask your local wall what they do with old climbing holds as they get warn out. I did this at my old wall in Oxford, and came back with a variety of resign holds, that weighed 120kg/three full ikea bags. All well warn (good for the skin, and harder on the feet) for free. 

Then with your free holds, you'll get an idea of setting/what is missing and then you can fill that in as you learn more. 

Edit: I did then compliment these with a set of wooden holds from beastmaker

I'd encourage having a go at making your own out of wood. It's good fun and a lot cheaper, if you have some basic tools. 

Thanks. I watched the Dave Mac video on that. I could certainly do it and I even have some nice bits of hardwood lying around but I don't have the time at this stage. Maybe in a year or two.

Thanks, I'll check out alpine trek too.

I think I'll do a mixture, I'd like to be able to change things around a lot without ending up with plywood getting shredded from so many screws and certainly for any jugs I'm fat enough that screws + leverage might have unpleasant consequences.

Thanks for the info. My shed is now pretty well insulated and it has a 6 square meter doorway that faces away from the prevailing weather so I hope I should be relatively ok on the condensation front, especially as I leave the door open quite a lot while doing other things. Also, at least for now, the board is mainly for spring/summer training as I travel during the winter.

Thanks for the suggestions, I will check them out.

Thanks, I'll ask a couple of walls about old holds but one of the disadvantages of being in the North is that there aren't a lot of walls nearby.

I kitted my wall out with nearly all Holdz holds... they have a good range and they're decent quality.

I love the wooden holds from https://sillygoatholds.co.uk/shop/

Reducing the amount of plastic we're putting into the world is a bonus. 

Holdz and Euroholds have been my go to for a number of home wall builds for a long time for resin holds. Just moved and am building another wall and looking through my boxes of holds, there’s a much higher proportion of wooden holds which i’ve collected over the years. Mostly from Hardwood Holds and Beastmaker, and an honourable mention to Paul Crusher and Crusher Holds which are a great price and focused on the job in hand.

I think it’s worth mentioning that the wooden holds are kinder on skin and allow longer sessions. 

I bought 100s of holds 2nd hand from various sellers for less than £1 each which gave me enough variety to set pretty much everything I wanted. They're varying quality but for a home wall it doesn't matter much. Id estimate I saved around £800 over buying new.

I've got a bunch of crusher holds for fairly simple crimps/edges/pinches, and some euroholds pockets (and a few of their big dinner plate jugs), and then some homemade edges/jugs/flatties (2 inch timber with an angle cut into it and some sanding and radius-ing). Happy with all of them.

I got quite a few Holdz sets and they’ve been very good. The only thing to be careful of when getting general sets is not ending up with lots of samey holds, I did to an extent at first, and have too many straightforward positive ones.  Then I realised, and supplemented them with other interesting stuff.

Likewise... the edges and crimps sets are very good complements... 

Louis Parkinson did a video a while back where we went through the brands and holds of everything on his homewall. He uses resin and wooden holds. Might be good to check out  youtube.com/watch?v=j5G_6NE1UgA&

Thanks. Interesting to see all the different types of holds they have in that variety. It certainly looks like quite a few of them are real premium expensive ones but good to see the holdz and euroholds ones there in the mix. Though holds these guys have are also basically all too small or slopey for what I'd be capable of

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

I've asked around a couple of walls about old holds but there doesn't seem to be much available. If anyone happens to read this and has a big box of old holds, please pm me.

It looks like Holdz and Euroholds might be good starting points with more to be added later. I still think that muscle fatigue and joint pain will likely be the limiting factor rather than skin loss for me personally, for a few months at least.

Worth trying Core too:

https://coreclimbing.co.uk/

I've bought a few sets from them in the past and have always been impressed by the selection available.

Just to echo others - Holdz are solid, and well priced, especially their larger ones.

One thing to mention though is new holds are really rough. Great for friction, but they're much more aggressive on skin than well-worn ones at the gym.

If possible, I'd get second-hand ones - either from a wall, or FB Marketplace, eBay etc., they'll be much kinder on your skin and you'll get more for your money too.