input on home wall

[layton]

i'm making a free-standing system training wall in my condo.

 

Adding a kicker board may exceed my carpentry skills. How important is it really if I'm just doings system laps for power and endurance?

 

I've boiled the support structure down to two choices.

Having the vertical support beams holding the wall up

1.) coming down from the top of the wall.

pros: less material and more support.

cons: posts get in the way

2.)having a frame behind the wall with a couple posts in front, low down so they are out of the way

pros: no posts in the way

cons: more material to build stable frame

 

 

[layton]

forgot my question!

 

any issues foreseen with either of these structures?

and will i regret not putting in a kicker board?

[boadman]

Several feet of the bottom of your wall won't be usable if you don't put in a kicker. If you've got the floor area it doesn't really matter though, as you can just extend the wall farther out into the space. How much head height do you have? If you don't have pretty good height (10'), I'd recommend just putting in a hang board and a campus board and saving the bouldering wall for the gym... You'll probably get more benefit with a lot less work.

[layton]

this is just for a campus board and system holds

[jon]

Mike, do you have any retaining walls or anything outside your condo which you could latch a portable campus board onto? I built something like this a while ago and it worked great.

[layton]

jon, one condition of me spending a lot of money building a man cave (weights, rower, wall, etc) was that I don't f'up the condo by drilling holes in it or piss off the HOA

[jon]

Totally. No holes required. I had a retaining wall outside my old place that I could slip a campus board onto the top. It was a basic frame with arms that came out that would hook onto the top of the wall. Light enough to carry around and small enough to store.

[genepires]

the wife lets you have a man cave? Damn you are da man.

[layton]

she let me have the entire master bedroom, we moved the bed/dresser into the tiny spare bedroom.

 

home depot run tomorrow - any input on stand alone design before I go?

[Kimmo]

sounds like you might have already built, but....

 

I'd think the most effective way to build considering your space limitations would be to put a ledger board about a foot up on your wall and a header on your ceiling, and simply frame between the two with joists that gives a 45 or 55 degree wall. no annoying posts needed this way. and i think 2 by 6's 24" on center would give ample support on a 10' run.

 

i did something similar years ago with only 7' ceiling heights and the thing was pretty effective.

[layton]

haven't built it yet but have the supplies. I'm gonna try it with the posts, but if it fails, I'll try and convince the wife to go into the ceiling and walls!

[fern]

I built mine with option 3. I built a large frame inside the walls of the room and hung the top of the wall from it, rather than propping it on posts. The frame is a snug fit to the walls and slightly shimmed out to protect paint etc., but it is not actually tied into any building structure because I couldn't find any studs behind the drywall. Being a snug fit it cannot wobble side to side. The bouldering wall itself is not as wide as the room, so there is space at one side to hang rings or hangboard from the same beam as holds the wall up.

 

I don't think a kick board is necessary for a campus/system board since probably you aren't going all that steep? Most system boards I have seen are around 15-25deg. My bouldering wall is 40deg so I have a 2' kickboard but I wouldn't have bothered if the wall was any less steep and probably could have made the kickboard shorter except I needed the top of the wall to not extend so far as to block a window.

 

 

 

[layton]

do you guys have any pics?

 

I'm going on vacation (again) so won't build it until mid sept.

[Kimmo]

fwiw, a ledger and header usually do minimal drywall damage, usuallly reparable with some caulk or quick dry putty.

[B Deleted_Beck]

sounds like you might have already built, but....

 

I'd think the most effective way to build considering your space limitations would be to put a ledger board about a foot up on your wall and a header on your ceiling, and simply frame between the two with joists that gives a 45 or 55 degree wall. no annoying posts needed this way. and i think 2 by 6's 24" on center would give ample support on a 10' run.

 

i did something similar years ago with only 7' ceiling heights and the thing was pretty effective.

 

i agree. locate the ceiling joists, and secure a 2x6 header to the ceiling with "ledger locks," long mostly thread-less shanks with FAT threads on the end- they have sheer strength and actually anchor shit into their base, rather than just screwing it together. two per joist.

 

sheet rock is super easy to patch, if you're just talking about ledger-lock holes.. fill in with light spackle, run a damp sponge over it so you don't mess up the texture, let dry, touch up paint- totally invisible.