If you wish you can go straight to the section that interests you by clicking on the topic on the left hand side of the page.

There are many options and directions to head in regard to building a wall. Have a read through some of the information and get a feel of what can be achieved with a little imagination. If you want some help or advice feel free to drop me a line. peter.taw@xtra.co.nz

Click on the following images for a larger view

Walls

 

The largest man made outdoor rock wall in New Zealand - Lake Wanaka 13m high and 40 m wide

To try and write all the details regarding wall construction into a letter is almost impossible. The climbing wall business is still evolving and one has to be careful not to build a dinosaur, so design at a reasonable cost is important. Some of the key points are as follows

Size
At one end of the spectrum you can build a small wall for a school or scout hall. The other end of the scale is the commercial gym that requires careful planning and large capital investment. The middle ground needs careful consideration also, as you can be superseded by a competitor or over capitalize depending on the situation.

Product Materials
There are number of options here. I can provide you with a complete wall in one product or a combination depending on your specific needs.

Plywood
The industry standard has established itself as being plywood put together in a variety of shapes and sizes. Overlaid with a texture coat and bolt on holds, this style has proved to be the most economic package available to date.
	Fibreglass Light and strong, F/glass has the potential to form into any shape that more naturally follows the shape of rock outcrops. Made from either moulds or sprayed over a form, F/glass can produce stunningly realistic forms simply not possible with ply
	Rokcrete This is a a heavier product suitable for outdoor usage or indoors where solid walls and foundations have been established Concrete is sprayed over a wire frame and then a second finish coat is applied to give a rock like feel and appearance. Rockcrete does have very “real life” feel to it and significantly adds to the experience of climbing artificial rock walls
	Special weathered effects with Rokcrete

I can also offer you the following services should you wish to proceed further:

Ropes, harness, carabiners and any other equipment for the running of your wall. Holds, Hooks, lead bolts, 'T' nuts and cap screws to fit onto your wall

Custom features to compliment your wall or a complete or partial refit.
Consultation with councils, architects, builders and yourselves regarding the construction of the building and the wall itself

Where to from here?
Determine your budget. Nobody ever has enough money but it is a bad investment to scrimp too much - the users get bored - the instructors get bored, and everyone becomes disillusioned
Who are you trying to cater for, how many people will use the wall each day, what is the cycle of those users?

Call me to discuss whether your intended purpose and budget are compatible.
I have built over twenty walls in New Zealand as well as having been a builder for 30 years. I'm confident that I can create a wall that will be able to meet your needs.

Hope this is helpful

Yours Faithfully

Peter Taw

 

Refits
If your wall is sad and boring we can give it a complete or partial refit to bring it up to scratch and make it look stunning. The refit is a bolt/screw on ply sheathed with F/glass resin to simulate a real rock look. The profile of the panels can vary from 20mm up to 150mm or 250mm, where you have 90° corners and roofs, these can be can be filled in and smoothed out to form curves and rounded edges.

The process is simple:

• I come and measure your wall
• I replicate a skin to the same dimensions in our workshop
• I manufacture in Christchurch and assemble on site at your wall

A partial refit can also be done using this or a combination of second skin and bolt on features see also Panels and product materials

Cost: Price will depend on angles and profile required. Also the access to the rear of the wall and as to the specifications as to how it was constructed. Contact me for discussion peter.taw@xtra.co.nz

Rock Boulder

The rock boulder is an exciting concept allowing for a new climbing feature to be added to an existing park or facility. Because each boulder can be removed by crane, rotation through several parks (say every 6 months) can be utilized thus creating a new climbing feature for the local residents keeping the challenge fresh and maintaining a higher degree of interest in local parks. Maintenance can be administered in the change over period.

Construction
The rock boulder will be constructed of a steel framework with an attachment for craning into position. The design for the framework will be made by an engineer and come with a design certificate. The base of the rock will have a steel skirt to keep the bottom edge of the rock intact.

The base is built on a steel frame that can be positioned on site without the need for elaborate concrete footings . This allows for removal of the rock and replacement with a new shaped design. The skin is made with a concrete/mortar base to form the shape.

The surface will have hand holds of various sizes to cater for a large range of abilities, edges, crack, pockets etc, will be built into the skin to allow for different climbing styles.

General
Each boulder is unique and thus prices will vary according to size and style, weight is between 2-6 tonne depending on size
Cost: (dependant on design and size) approx.$14500 plus GST and delivery Ex workshop: This does not include delivery to site and cranage.

Playgrounds
(See also Panels, Refits and Product Materials)

Painted plywood walls walls available on request, volcanic or limestone options cut to size from a 2.4m x1.2m sheet

I regularly supply playground manufacturers the required shapes and quantities to build playground rock walls. Also available are H3 ply backed F/glass panels to install in frames as an alternative to ply and Holds.

Units can be manufactured to suit. Fixings can be made to suit individual companies standard fittings, something as straight forward as a steel/ timber frame with tabs will be all that is required to fix the panel on, once again I can work with your manufacture to come to a satisfactory solution.

Panels The resin panels are sized at 500mm x 1000mm and are ideal for schools or playgrounds that are wanting to have something more than just plywood. Esthetically pleasing and durable, the panels are easily assembled and are symmetrical on the ends so that different configurations can be obtained by rotating through 90°

Home Walls

Home bouldering walls are becoming more and more popular and depending on your budget can be a great way to train. Depending on the size of the wall you may wish to build I estimate that you would need about 15 climbing holds for a 2.4m x 1.2m sheet of ply. Average number of 10mm T-nuts is about 50 per sheet. Cap screws required are 10mm x 40mm.

The prospect of building a home wall can seem daunting, but if you can turn a screw and have access to some basic building tools, you can build yourself a home wall. This guide intends to impart the fundamentals of home wall building to get yourself started.

There are some basic principles involved as far as design goes but there are a few considerations as outlined below:

Who will use the wall? children? teens? adults?

If the wall is for children then obviously larger holds are advisable to get them started. Also depending on the age the wall needs to be at a more moderate angle to give them confidence.

Is the wall for beginners, intermediates or advanced climbers

If you are an advanced climber then chances are you probably don't need my help. But if you are just starting out and keen then there are some tips to help you get set up.

There are four basic ingredients to the wall
1. Location
2. framework /ply
3. hardware/ T-nuts
4. holds

Location
Build your wall so that you can get access to it without a hassle, also try and make it warm and dry so that you can train in the winter. Garages or attics are ideal.

Framework
I recommend using 100 x 50 framing timber at 1200mm centres to build the skeleton. Line this with 17mm ply
Try to build the wall in module sizes of 600mm 1200mm or 2400mm this will allow you to reduce the waste and thus keep costs down.

Hardware
10mm spiked T-nuts are placed and hammered into the back of the ply to secure the hold .
Drill 12mm holes first into the ply, turn the ply over and hammer the t-nuts in. Flip the sheet back over then screw into place using super screws at about 200mm centres.

Placing T Nuts
As far as placing the T-nuts I use 50 t-nuts per 2400 x1200 sheet but If you want to use more sophisticated methods of training I suggest a matrix grid of rows and columns about 150mm apart.This will allow you to move the holds incrementally further apart to make you work harder

Concrete walls
If you want to mount the wall against a concrete wall then I advise that you line the wall with 50mm x 50mm battens then ply. Otherwise use drop in masonry anchors. Personally I don't recommend this as there are too many things that can go wrong but if you really haven’t got any alternatives then experiment with a few anchors before going mad with the drill.

Holds
The holds are obviously an important consideration and I recommend that you buy a variety of shapes and sizes.
The steeper the wall the bigger or more positive the hold needs to be.

For the bottom metre of the wall you can use smaller footholds and this will do two things - keep the cost down and put more weight on your forearms and fingers thus simulating a steeper wall.
I have designed some holds as more bulbous than others to help train different muscles and particularly the forearms.

Routesetting
It is important to satisfy all levels of climbers and that takes a certain amount of skill to satisfactorily provide for this. The skill required is too complex to explain here but there are a few general things to adhere to.

1. Holds near the lead bolts and top hooks need to be good positive incut type holds so as to reduce the risk of falling off when clipping in the rope.
2. More holds need to be placed directly above overhangs and a few positive holds about 1m above the lip to allow the climber to establish themselves on the face above the overhang.
3. Generally, larger holds make for easier routes.
4. A few hard moves followed by a few easier moves makes for a more intermediate route.
5. Small / medium holds make for a more difficult route.

The route can be of sustained difficulty by increasing the number of difficult moves in succession. The more sustained, the more demanding both in stamina and concentration level
When resetting the wall try to vary the position of the holds so that the route doesn't become like a ladder e.g. left /right -up- left /right - up

Unless the wall is to be set for organized competitions the route setting isn't crucial but artistic style does play an important part at an intermediate /advanced level.

If you have a limited space then the best system is to use coloured holds. I recommend you put up a row of holds of say, small blue and then overlay with another colour of medium red and then another colour of say green large. By doing this you can have a number of options of routes.

e.g. A route of small blue could be graded hard. A route of medium red could be moderate and a route of large green could be easy. This can all be on the same section of climb and people can select a colour to climb on. The next person can choose a different colour all within the same wall terrain.

Variations can also exist by combining two colours say blue and green, red and green or red and blue etc.

The hold density I allow 3 or 4 holds per m2 per route. If you overlay the holds you can get away with less, but generally that is a good starter.

The number of routes will be determined by the top rope hook placements, e.g 10 hooks- 10 routes, the number of holds you put on those routes will be the decider for your budget.

The animals and numbers are good for a teaching aid especially for children so that you can tell people to ’reach up and grab the crocodile’ rather than getting the red hold or blue hold etc. This is method is excellent for teaching from the ground and why the animals are used i.e for identification more than novelty value.

One method of routesetting is to place say 6 large/easy holds (of the same colour) up a route and vary the position from left to right. After that put in smaller holds of a differant colour around those holds, this will help the beginner to try and move from easy hold to easy hold rather than looking at the whole climb and not being able to work out what to do. The moves in between the large/easy holds can be harder. The idea is to make the easy holds further apart on the next climb (say 4 easy /large holds) so that the amount of hard moves between the large holds are more frequent.

Wall Maintenance

Below are listed the requirements in regard to the maintenance of the wall if any detail is unclear please call me to discuss I will be happy to help with any further information.

Tightening Holds
The holds are to be tightened so that they do not spin. The texture of the wall is sufficiently coarse which increases the friction between wall and holds. Do not tighten to the point of breaking holds.

Cleaning
The holds will need cleaning depending on usage but allow for a stripping and cleaning of holds every 6 months. The holds are best cleaned using the following procedure
1. Soak in hot soapy water for about 1 hour
2. Hand brush using nylon brush or similar
3. Rinse and allow to dry
When the holds are stripped the wall may be brushed with warm water to remove any chalk marks

Fixing holds
Make sure the T nuts are aligned in the plywood hole before inserting bolt. Use a screw driver to clean any hole of grit . DO NOT force the bolt in as this will do two things
a) push the T nut out of the back of the ply and
b) may cross thread and damage the T nut

Maintenance schedule
(Use as a base guideline only, your own maintenance needs to tailored to your own wall )

Description	Detail	Regularity
Tighten loose holds Tighten loose nuts Check top rope hooks Check lead brackets Check integrity of structure Check for bolt shear on lead bolts Check for bolt shear on hooks Clean holds route change	Use T handle Spanner check for wear Check for wear stress/breakage Take off nuts Take off nuts remove and scrub remove and reset	As required As required 6 monthly 6 monthly 2 yearly 3 yearly 3 yearly 6 monthly 6 monthly

The routesetting and cleaning is an arbitrary figure and will depend on the usage.

Safety procedures such as group management, free climbing height restrictions and belaying systems are not covered here but need to be covered by the training officer.