My climbing experience is limited to going to an indoor gym 20 times, and real outdoor top rope 2, bouldering across the street on someone else's rock building a bunch of times. So I am building this personal training gym for the last month. I am building a climbing wall in a space 15'x20'x20'tall. The building has a steel super structure so I can get wild with the angles and protrusion. I have started a thread on another forum, http://www.rockclimbing.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2556215;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;page=unread#unread
I will post pics here as soon as I get my wife to do it for me. That link has some pics on it already.
I would like help from route setters on what features to put into this wall. I can build anything! I don't care how convoluted your ideas are, if they are good I will build it.
This is the only bouldering wall in San Antonio. It's downtown on Broadway.
Questions; 1.how many holds will I need for this wall? Where is the best place to get them? Is it better to make them? (like i said I can make anything, I build prototypes for inventions for a living)
2.Does anyone have any pics of a super cool wall that would fit in this space, or parts of a wall?
3.20' seems like it's too high to fall from. What is the best source or way to make pads to crash into? How thick does it need to be? I want to cover the whole area (15'x20')
Also if there is anyone who thinks they can help me with this that is in San Antonio, you are welcome to come and help with the design.
4. How many T-nuts per 4x8? How many for the 3' kick panels and how many for the upper panels?
5. I want to make cool volumes. What is the best way to mount them? I don't want to move them from where they are but I do want to be able to spin them. I can make them no prob but need to see a standard way to mount them for spinning.
OK so if anyone with some knowledge on these questions that would be willing to talk to me or stop by the gym that I am building please call me at 210-845-9855, the address to the place is 2424 broadway. Yeah I know it's a midas shop. The gym will be the warehouse in the back. My name is Scott. This gym will be primarily for personal trainers to train their clients(to make money), but I want to start a center that will grow with more and more climbers so I have to build a bigger place.
I respect the forum, so please even if you are going to call, post a lot of info here so people searching archives will be helped.
Designing Wall, total noob, about to be gym owner,need help
(5 posts) (3 voices)-
Posted 5 months ago #
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I would contact a wall company and have them do your install. Sounds like you have a solid budget to work with and they will give you all the RIGHT answers to all of these questions, the will also design and build your wall quickly as well as make sure it is safe. They will probably also help you with finding local setters to help you out as well as point you in the direction of an insurance company that will understand your claims.
Try Eldorado, Vertical Solutions or Walltopia.
Building your own wall will usually save a little money but if you want your facility to be cool everytime your clients use it, then that is what a wall company specializes in doing.
Posted 5 months ago # -
Thank you Kaleb, but my contribution to this gym is that I am building everything. And there is not much of a budget for the wall. I am not sure it will make much money. Personal trainers in this town get paid around $50-$85 an hour and our split will be about half that for owning the gym. A membership to a climbing wall the size I am building would only be $30-$40 a month. In fact I will only sell so many memberships for the wall, I can't crowd the personal training gym, it won't be that personal if I do.
And what fun would it be having someone else build me a wall? It is not even close between the difference in materials and how much a climbing wall built by someone else costs. If the only way fro me to have a wall was to get someone else to do it, then it wouldn't exist.Posted 5 months ago # -
1. Don't make your own holds. It's time consuming and your variety will not be good. Use a professional for this. check out http://climbingholdreview.blogspot.com/ there are so many great companies including Budda holds i think they are out your way and they are cheep too.
2. Just check out walls like verticle solutions and walltopia to get good ideas to see what you want. You will probably need an engineer to sign off on your plans if you plan to open this to the public.
3. You probably don't want to go 20 feet because of the risk of falling and your insurance will be way higher with a 20ft bouldering wall apposed to a 13 footer unless you have some sort of belay which also increase your insurance rates. however you can create a pretty cool 12-15 foot bouldering wall that you can top out on to use the existing space. On the East coast there is a company called Tiffen mats where you can get pads from but this will be the most expensive aspect of your wall. You will want a minimum of 3inched open cell foam and 1and 1/4 inch of closed cell gymnastic pads. This will most likely run you $15-20 per square foot Yowsa!!!!!! and you will need some satellite pads to move around another $800. 4 The highest T-nut density in the commercial industry is 4 per square foot which is good but not great. probably 150/panel would be the best. 5 As for Volumes the easiest thing to do is to screw them in on the edges.
Use google sketchup to design your walls and check out this general building book http://www.amazon.com/Building-Your-Climbing-Wall-book/dp/B003LDAR60.How do I know so much you ask? I am about to open a small bouldering facility on the east-coast with appx 12oo sf of bouldering space. Good luck
Posted 5 months ago # -
Karma-that is cool what is the name you are thinking of for your facility? Will you have anything else in your facility?
I am an engineer, but I have never had a job outside my own fitness equipment design company. run-rocket.com and maxrepbenchcrafting.com are my companies. Runrocket actually makes money. Maxrep is on hold until I figure out how to manufacture and distribute them.
I would love to see some pics of your gym as it progresses. maxrepmail@yahoo.com is my email. I would like to talk to you and trade ideas. Thanks for your response here as well.Posted 5 months ago #
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