UKC

Morning,

I'm building a small training wall in my house. It's actually fairly near completion now, but I'm not sure whether to paint the plywood before installation or afterwards.  What would UKC recommend?

I'm also now looking for holds. Does anyone have any recommendations for where to buy them? Looking for a mix of handholds and i've seen some pretty cool wooden balls which look good.

Cheers! 

Paint it in the position that makes most sense for you. If you can lie everything flat with space to work and and leave it like that while it dries you'll probably make less mess and not have to work from a ladder. If you lack space then paint it once it's up. Personally I'd not bother, save the paint and the hassle.

jk

Is there any particular reason you want to paint it?  If not then I wouldn't bother.

As for holds I think you tend to get what you pay for.  When I built a wall it was quite big and I needed a lot of holds, so I got a load from customholds.com - their garage set seemed quite good value and, with a few extra large holds added on was a cheap way to get a good selection of jugs to get started and create a few warm-up loops.  It's also worth trying your local wall to see if they're getting rid of old holds.

It'd probably also be worth getting a few sets of crimps/pockets/slopers/finger jugs from someone like Core, Bleaustone, Metolius etc. as they will probably be kinder on your skin and better designed (in general) than cheaper holds.

Consider what footholds you want to use.  Core do a good set of screw-on footholds for this purpose.

If you have the time then you can make nice hardwood holds fairly easily (even I succeeded at this and I am hopeless at DIY stuff!).  Find a joinery workshop and buy or beg a load of hardwood offcuts (don't bother with pine as it will splinter and break more).  Get busy with a saw, grinder/flap disc, drill and sandpaper to make your own.  Give them a quick blast with a blowtorch to burn off the splinters when you are finished.

Here's the wall I made in our garage/barn.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vu92YR7C7QVMhAbZfKbXirCFYJG9LPPiYw/view?us...

We painted it after finishing construction and just before putting holds on. Was a pretty easy job to paint and (for me at least) the way it looks makes a definite difference to how easy it is to motivate to use it.

If you're building a board then consider Hardwood Holds: 

https://www.hardwoodholds.co.uk/ 

They have a really nice range and the quality is excellent. Far, far superior to train on in terms of skin, and the lack of friction leads to better development of contact strength IMO because you can't rely on skin plasticity as much. 

Agreed, I much prefer wooden holds.  When I was looking for holds, wooden ones seemed to be eye-wateringly expensive (hence making my own) but those ones look to be a bit more reasonable.

Yeah the pricing is great for the quality of what is on offer. They're top of my list for when I build a board! 

Thanks for the replies. Those two sites are just what I was looking for. 

The wife has only let me to build it if I promise to paint it afterwards    I'll paint it after construction though, i think that will make less mess and I'll be able to use it whilst I wait for paint.  

If it's all the same colour - then whichever is easiest. If you're thinking of a pattern/design then definitely wait until it's all in one place.

Holdz.co.uk do good value volumes (and holds) to spice things up some too

I’ve a 30 degree system board which is mostly Hardwoodholds.co.uk plus a selection from Beastmaker. I use the hardwood holds dome footholds too.

Crusher Holds do some excellent basic crimps and pinches. Euroholds do some really interesting shapes, search by material. All wood.

That is exactly what I'm making - 30 degrees, and in Sheffield too!  I only have 2.6m of height to use and 1.7m of width, how big is yours? Any pictures about? 

theres a pic of Mrs Paul in Sheffield training on the system board at

https://www.instagram.com/p/BueUwFZh46g/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igsh...

the board is 3 full size plywood boards, so 2.4m wide and 3.6m high, at 32 degrees with a 200mm high kick board at the bottom so it’s close to a Moonboard but not as steep. 

I found it really challenging at the start, but am getting the hang of it now. I’m 60 in just over a year and have set myself some targets.

ps don’t forget the house rules...no turning in, no Egyptians or drop knees, no straight arms

That looks great! My only house rule is "don't swear loud enough for the baby to hear". Already broken during construction of course. 

only other advice is good lighting and the means to make it warm. It has to be somewhere you want to go!

I've got that covered - it's in our dining room! 

https://twitter.com/JRDubya_uk/status/1105166877582680065

Commercial walls often sell their old holds cheap (I got all mine from Alien Rock and The Foundry).  Because they're cheap, you can buy lots, which gives you scope to change problems regularly.  They are nicely worn in - so you can train for yonks without your skin giving out.  And they have a bit of 'history ' behind them.

Show off! 

I can't help with when to paint it, but if you do paint it make sure you leave plenty of time for the paint to set. A wall I used to work at didn't wait enough and so we pulled lots of the paint off the walls the first time we stripped some routes. (The wall did wait much longer than the instructions on the paint said, I believe.)

Mehmet

Hi James,

this is my take on home walls

it’s taken 4 walls at various houses to realise that if you want to climb, then pop out to the Works or Stanage Plantation. My previous 3 were mini bouldering walls, and didn’t get used nearly as much as they should have done.

This time round, I read up on progression, set myself some goals (the big 6-0 is only 12 months away), and recreated a Sheffield cellar/Andy P’s Garage (but clean, dry and with heating).

main event is a 30 degree symmetrical system board with wooden holds, there’s also smaller 50 degree and 30 degree boards with bigger resin holds, and a campus board.

It’s captured my imagination, and I’m in there most days even when we go out climbing. It’s identified a severe strength imbalance, which is improving. You simply don’t get to identify and rectify stuff simply by climbing. 

This is obvs a personal take on things. But it was a big move to gut a two-storey double garage, so this was the first time I actually thought about what would make the most benefit and keep my attention. Interesting that my wife, who’s a keen climber, has never trained apart from going to the wall, and is now regularly using the home setup.

Mistakes? Well, I regret not making the main board 40 or 42 degrees. I tried various angles at walls, and concluded that because I’m old and fat I should build at 32 degrees. However, I’ve actually made some improvement on little crimps, so should have taken a longer term view. 

Last thing, I used bouldering mats in there for quite a while, but I recently picked up some second hand 300mm thick mats off UKC. They make a huge difference.

again, just a personal view, but hope it helps.