UKC

I would like to put a drytooling wall in my garage (roughly 240cm width and 210cm height). Does anyone have any advice on how to fix it to the wall?

I want to put it on hinges at the base so that I can change the angle and put it up against the garage wall to get my car in. The garage is made from breeze blocks and is well built.

I was thinking of attaching wood onto the breeze blocks then the hinges onto the wood, to move the wall away from the garage wall a bit and thought it might be stronger...?

Any advice on how to have a strong attatchment onto the breeze block wall would be great.

(I was going to have 2 attatchments at the top and 2 chains from the garage wall to the wall to change the angle)

Thanks Dave

In reply to David Buckett:
Hi David.

Do you mean breeze blocks or 'proper' concrete blocks? Breeze blocks are pretty soft and you'll struggle to get a really good anchor in them without a fair bit of work. You can dig through them with a spoon

When fixing the chains at the top don't fix into the top course of blocks unless they are well tied together and absolutely bombproof or you'll pull them out of the wall. I'd use glue in fixings rather than expansion bolts and if you are really worried about the solidity of it then through bolt the wall and put a spreader behind.

In reply to Reach>Talent: Hi, yeah they are proper concrete blocks. Would you use a screw and glue, rather than something that would bite into the blocks, reccomendations on lengh? Thanks

m kean has a fetish for resin anchors.

In reply to David Buckett: Some M12 through bolts (expansion bolts) would be fine if the blocks are concrete and not thermalite. Thermalite are the ones you can dig through with a spoon- would take a while and a few spoons to get through a concrete one!

In reply to David Buckett: If your hinging it at the bottom why not attach it to the floor? I'm assuming thats concrete?

In reply to ollieollie:
m kean has a fetish for resin anchors.

I've now had 2 expansion bolts pull out of walls, once due to a cavity in the block and one that was in an ideal placement. A lot of expansion bolts are absolutely awful at resisting straight pulls even in ideal placements. I wouldn't hang a >200lb wall off a couple of them in that position never mind climb on it.

In reply to David Buckett: I'm not sure you need hinges as the weight of the wall pushed into the corner of the floor and wall will keep it there.

I'm sure a structural engineer would recommend the through bolts method. You could use M12 studding.

Alternatively spread the load over several blocks by using a plate , angle iron timber or ply. Use at least 4 fixings per plate .

In reply to David Buckett:

If it goes to the floor why waste hinges on it, just sit it on the floor against the wall. It's the tension anchors at the top that require more care. When I've done this in the past I used expansion anchors to bolt on a 2x4, I then built off that for convenience. You could equally well bolt on some hangers to attach your chain to.

Or better use a compression member across near the ceiling. Hinge it to a spreader on the opposite wall saving drilling any significant sized holes (screws and rawl plugs will do since loads on them are small and almost entirely in shear if you do it right). Pass it through a hole near the top of your wall (or a notch in the top and the angle can be changed by moving pegs in the compression strut. It's a neat solution requiring minimal drilling and no great structural strength in the building wall material.

jk

In reply to David Buckett: Thanks all, lots to think about. I was thinking of raising it above the floor a bit to get some ground clearance above the crash mat and options for using foot holds right at the bottom, for maximum use of the size, but it may be simpler just to wedge it on the ground.

Thanks

In reply to David Buckett: mine doesn't move, but it is only attached at the top - the bottom is wedges but onto concrete blocks which raise the height a bit. Sure you could do something similar - there is info on my blog (see profile) if you are interested. Maybe making it an adjustable wall would complicate things.

In reply to David Buckett:

You read it here first....it'll all end in tears! But good luck nonetheless.

In reply to David Buckett: My girlfriend just found out so yes, yes.

In reply to David Buckett: I had almost exactly the same idea as you. I fired some thunderbolts through a long piece of 2x4 into the wall a little bit above the floor, screwed another piece onto that then screwed hinges on to this and then attached the wall to the hinges. Instead of attaching chains to the top of the wall I have drilled holes into the support beams of the room so the force goes through that rather than pulling the top of the wall. I used cord rather than chains.

In reply to squicky:
I don't know what you mean by "support beams of the room" but it is important not to cut, drill or notch any part of a manufactured roof truss.

In reply to David Buckett: What's on the other side of the wall? Could you not drill slightly down and straight through the wall, have a metal rod poking through with a hook on the internal side and attach something large to the other side so it wont pull through. Would save trusting all that weight onto some bolts.