DIY Kids Backyard Climbing Wall
Coronavirus social distancing has granted you time for the simple home improvement projects that you have pushed for years. Since moving to our new house a year ago, I have procrastinated on building a backyard climbing wall. Last week two vectors, motivation (kids need something to do outside) and will (plenty of time) finally met. Below is a quick 4-step guide to upgrade your own backyard experience.
Step 1: Plan the project
The first step is to make sure you have a space for the climbing wall. It’s easy to alter the height, width, and angle of the wall depending on your outdoor space. In our case, we needed the right size wall for 5-7-year-olds. My son is 5 and is comfortable climbing up 9 feet high boulders, hence we decided to make the wall 8 feet tall. This was also an ideal height for assembling the wall against our garden fence. To make the build and assembly easy, we sized the wall at 8fx8f. This meant that we didn’t need to use saw as all the materials came at the right size. And the best part of this project plan - we were able to order all the materials online and got them delivered to our home.
Step 2: Climbing wall materials
Climbing wall frame - to make the wall sturdy we built the frame from 2x4s.
Climbing wall materials
(1) Climbing holds and bolt set (I bought a bag of used holds from my climbing gym)
(2) quarts of outdoor paint to make the wall look good and last the elements
Tools for build and assembly
Electric drill
Philips head bit
7/16” wood boring bit
3/8” Hex wrench
Tape measure
Saw (we didn’t need saw as everything was delivered at the right size)
Total cost of the wall materials was $400 including Loews’ $80 home delivery fee.
Step 3. Build and assembly
Assemble frame: (1) Build a sturdy frame from 2x4s by using 90 degree angle and mending plates.
Prepare plywood: (1) Stack plywood sheets and drill bolt holes. For 4x8 plywood you should drill 60 holes (6 x 10). (2) paint the plywood with outdoor paint. (3) Hammer the T-nuts on backside of the plywood.
Attach plywood to frame: Use 2 inch drywall screws to attach the climbing wall to the frame. Use enough screws to make the wall study.
Mount the wall: (1) In our case it was easy to mount the wall to an existing sturdy fence. We dug a pit to the base of the wall and bolted the wall to the fence frame with 90 degree plates and pieces of 2x4. (2) Set the holds and create climbing routes with appropriate difficulty.
Step 4: Start climbing
The project took couple of weeks from plan to mounting. The most time consuming step was ordering lumber and deciding on the other materials. You’ll need a bouldering crash pad or similar to soften the falls. The wall is too small for adults, but I’m sure your kids will love it!
