OK Summitposters, we all know you can climb. Plenty of you can build a climbing wall. But can you decorate?

I've got about a twenty-foot ceiling height to work with, thinking about putting in a climbing wall.

Here's the tricky part: it's in the formal dining room - one of those big rooms that doesn't get used much except for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but has to look nice. A plain plywood wall with bright plastic holds just won't do.

Looking for creative ideas. Blank slate.

Anybody ever pull off a setup like this? Any particular surface or paint that works well for the wall? (Resistant to scuff marks would be great...)

Any particular set of holds that aren't too garish? Anybody have experience with natural stone holds?

Also thinking I can child-proof the wall when not in use, by having the floor mat mounted on a board that folds up against the wall and locks into place there, forming a false wall covering the first, I don't know, ten feet. (Or maybe just a false cabinet if the climbing wall is not very wide. Kind of reminds me of Professor Kirke's wardrobe...)

(I need to give some thought to whether a swing-up floor mat would interfere with a floor anchor...)

Now if only there was some way to disguise an autobelay as a chandelier...

Sure - we have a climbing wall in our dining room - about 24' tall. It's painted to match the existing walls - even the screw on holds. Makes the holds slippery - like Yosemite polished granite. Most people don't even realize it's there.

A product called stackstone made from thick slate glued end-on to some kind of a matrix (not sure exactly how it's manufactured. It's used for external and internal feature walls).

Not sure about its load bearing capacity. Further research required.

It did occur to me to try traversing along the feature wall in Beerwah pub that's made of this stuff but I figured I'd probably get chucked out if I tried it.

Maybe there are similar products or even some more suited to the purpose, but depending on the style of yer house, a stone feature wall of some kind could be the go.

I envy you blokes your 20 and 24 foot ceilings!

Craig Peer wrote:Sure - we have a climbing wall in our dining room - about 24' tall. It's painted to match the existing walls - even the screw on holds. Makes the holds slippery - like Yosemite polished granite. Most people don't even realize it's there.

Seriously?

dadndave wrote:A product called stackstone made from thick slate glued end-on to some kind of a matrix (not sure exactly how it's manufactured. It's used for external and internal feature walls).

Not sure about its load bearing capacity. Further research required.

The veneer type of this (as opposed to actually building a stone wall) can be done with either real stone or fake stuff, but the stone is generally only a couple inches deep and not attached to the wall behind it with anything other than a coat of mortar. You could probably work it to hold somebody's weight somehow, but I think it'd be difficult. The look in the US typically goes by the name "drystack", "ledgestone" or something similar. The fake stuff is basically just colored concrete and is made by companies called "Cultured Stone", "El Dorado Stone", and a couple other manufacturers.

Wow... that's a phenomenally good idea. I'd use an industrial epoxy to attach to a secure substrate.

Hm, might consider stacked stone for the vertical wall, if I can learn about epoxies. I've also got a forty-five degree ceiling I want to play on. For that I'll need jugs, so I'm liking Craig's idea of just painting them white to match the plaster in the rest of the room. That's also probably cheaper and easier.

My current worry is securing the ceiling route: avoiding a pendulum into the opposite wall. Either I leave a directional or two partway down the ceiling, or the ceiling will be a sport route only.

Back to the merely vertical wall for a moment: I don't suppose anybody's ever built an indoor trad route? I do see some climbing gyms with real stones (long skinny ones a bit like sidewalk curbs) placed to form artificial cracks - those should hold gear, right?

In thinking about how I'd do my own home trad wall, I've concluded slabs of actual rough granite anchored and epoxied to concrete is the ticket. You can get hardeners for concrete to toughen them up, but when you get right down to it, concrete will never be anything more than really hard dried dirt. I wouldn't take a whipper onto a cam plugged into a flimsy concrete scabbed over formed crack. Real granite will not only hold a hell of a lot better, but buying rough cutoffs from a granite distributor will give you natural variation in texture and width.

If you're actually going through with this, the extra cost shouldn't be an issue at all... maybe a few hundred extra bucks? Any domestic granite slab distributor will have end cuts they'll sell you for cheap.