[Pako]

Building a 50 degree outdoor woody with 3660mm of climbing length and a 200mm kickboard. So bloody psyched, no bouldering whatsoever where I live. Got a carpenter helping out because with the whole structural part of it, and going to be making some Malcesque wooden holds and planning on having a G-corner with posters of the almighty man himself. Pics will definitely be forthcoming.

[Nutty]

We've had an offer accepted on a house (YYFY), and I'm planning on building a woody in the garden. Does anyone know what height / size limits you can build to before you run into planning issues (I'm not planning anything ridiculously huge, just wanting to avoid problems)? I think I've read 2.5m high for outbuildings? Also, does anyone have recommendations on good methods to anchor to the ground - is it best to concrete posts into the ground, or concrete some post-bases into the ground, or use some sort of screw-in/hammer-in ground anchor?

Any other tips for building an outdoor woody?

[Will Hunt]

Word. This is me crib. Note garage location below living room, 60s construction:
Crib by Hunta_998, on Flickr

This is the garage. Please ignore assorted shite/cast offs from parents/general disarray. Note: asbestos tiles to the ceiling, brick wall to the rear and sides.
IMG_20150224_203321 by Hunta_998, on Flickr


Have recently been offered access to PeeWees board, which I fully intend to take him up on soon. However it all depends on planets aligning with transport/girlfriends shifts/music lessons blah blah blah. Likewise getting to The Depot. I think the only real long term solution is to build my own facility and bring the psyche to me.

Dimensions are thus: 245cm width across the back; about 250cm height (that's stopping a good few 5-10cm short of the dreaded asbestos); 350cm of usable depth in the garage. CAVEAT! This garage will still need to store bikes, small chest freezer, garden shizzle, DIY shizzle and other assorted shite - so there needs to be a compromise on space somewhere.d

Questions:

• What should I go for? Traditional steep board against the back wall, or long and shallower gradient system board type effort going along a side wall (primary use will be to get stronger for the boulders).
• What basic construction should I employ? Freestanding? Bolt a kickboard to the brickwork and attach to that? Any plans that someone can show me?
• How wide/tall/steep does a board need to be in order to be useful and fun to use? I've only really been on Andy Popp's board before which was mega and has endless possibilities. From memory, it's not overly deep, but is quite broad and steep. In this instance, it would be very very useful to retain some storage space at the side for bikes/ladders etc etc. Will I need to use the full 245cm width to make something worthwhile?

I think those are my most burning questions. Having done some calcs just now (not accounting for the kickboard so these figures are slight overestimations), assuming that the full 250cm of height is utilised then a 40 degree board would take up 210cm of garage depth and give 326cm of climbing. A 45 degree board would use 250cm depth and give 353cm of climbing. My preferred option would be the 40 degree board to leave as much space as possible, however it would be interesting to hear opinions on whether 326cm (less whatever the kickboard is) is a worthwhile length of climbing.
 

[chris j]

Hi Will

Mine (on the previous page of the thread) is broadly similar - slightly taller (270cm) but shallower (35 degrees) so I have slightly less climbing length than yours would - just under 3m from top of kickboard (20cm), 230cm wide. Totally freestanding due to gas pipes running along the back wall.

It gives me problems between 3 and 5 moves. It would be nice to have another half metre of width (and height) but it is big enough that I don't feel too restricted. I would have thought you should be ok with the 40 degree plan.


If you can open a dwg file there's a link to the plan for it in my dropbox on the previous page of the thread. The wall is freestanding due to gas pipe running round the bottom of the back wall. In reflection with the design I would have moved the cross bar at the top to behind the wall structure (freeing up space for another row of holds) though this would have made it tricky to hang the rings... I think the side frame could be reduced from 2x6 to 2x4 as well as the structure is well over engineered.

IMG_20150225_083727663 by chrispj35, on Flickr

[lagerstarfish]

with regards to the storage vs wall area,

hopefully Shark will read this and post some pics of his inside-the-wall storage system

looked cool

[shark]

with regards to the storage vs wall area,

hopefully Shark will read this and post some pics of his inside-the-wall storage system

looked cool

Cant take the credit as it was Steve Mac's idea and I had a joiner build it. Works really well as the spaces are so usable/accessible and it is surprising how much space there is. The locks hold the panel in place really well. Probably be better to have the hinges on the inside but those one's were spare and unused.

Lagers - have you got enough jugs now ? as I said when you came over I have plenty spare





 

[lagerstarfish]

Lagers - have you got enough jugs now ? as I said when you came over I have plenty spare

could do with more - Jack (3) seems to struggle with some of the reaches and slopers - possibly due to him trying to copy my shoddy footwork

I'll phone you later

extreme mardiness and negativity has slowed development on the secret training facility, but it is well into the setting phase thanks to consuming plenty of Get-A-Fucking-Grip suplements

[Nibile]

I love the back-board storage space.
One winter I was caught by a storm while midway up my board, on a nasty two move traverse at high altitude. I had planned to do everything in under 24 hrs, being back to the kitchen right for my Spritz, so I had no bivvy gear, nothing. I was soloing, also.
God I felt so little up there, all alone on the board, with the force of elements all around. My girlfriend in the living room seemed incredibly far. She was there knowing nothing about my epic.
I would have given all I have to find a little shelter in the back of the board, sitting the storm out. But no. I hadn't provided any access to the back, so the only chance I had was either reverse the move I had already done and face all the rappels down to the mats, then try and navigate my way back to the bedroom and the kitchen; or try and go up, do the other move that was still missing, and reach the top, risking my life, putting everything into it, for that brief moment in which all your soul is into what you're doing; that brief moment in which there's no difference between what you want to do, and what you are doing; that brief moment in which there's no difference between what you are and what you are doing.
And I went up.

[lagerstarfish]

a lesser man would have resorted to using knee-bars

[Will Hunt]

I love the back-board storage space.
One winter I was caught by a storm while midway up my board, on a nasty two move traverse at high altitude. I had planned to do everything in under 24 hrs, being back to the kitchen right for my Spritz, so I had no bivvy gear, nothing. I was soloing, also.
God I felt so little up there, all alone on the board, with the force of elements all around. My girlfriend in the living room seemed incredibly far. She was there knowing nothing about my epic.
I would have given all I have to find a little shelter in the back of the board, sitting the storm out. But no. I hadn't provided any access to the back, so the only chance I had was either reverse the move I had already done and face all the rappels down to the mats, then try and navigate my way back to the bedroom and the kitchen; or try and go up, do the other move that was still missing, and reach the top, risking my life, putting everything into it, for that brief moment in which all your soul is into what you're doing; that brief moment in which there's no difference between what you want to do, and what you are doing; that brief moment in which there's no difference between what you are and what you are doing.
And I went up.

    Nibs' tales from the Stollenloch!

Thanks all for the replies.

Simon, that internal storage idea is ingenius! I think it might be a bit complex for my carpentry skills (non-existant) and I'll definitely want to keep costs down and do the job between me and my dad (he doesn't know this yet).

I think Chris' rear storage shelving idea is an excellent idea. Cheap and simple, it would turn practically that whole back wall into much needed shelving which should make it much easier to get the permission slip signed by 'er indoors. I suppose the compromise to be made there is you'd have to leave some space at the side (a foot?) to get round the back. The whole construction would need to come forward off the back wall by perhaps 50cm to leave room to walk around the back. Would definitely need a freestanding construct then.

Next job is to have a big sort out in the garage and draw up some proper plans 

[shark]

Simon, that internal storage idea is ingenius! I think it might be a bit complex for my carpentry skills (non-existant) and I'll definitely want to keep costs down and do the job between me and my dad (he doesn't know this yet).

I think Chris' rear storage shelving idea is an excellent idea. Cheap and simple, it would turn practically that whole back wall into much needed shelving which should make it much easier to get the permission slip signed by 'er indoors. I suppose the compromise to be made there is you'd have to leave some space at the side (a foot?) to get round the back.

The other thing is that the shelves will be really long and nightmarish to retrieve stuff from the back unless you can access both sides in which case that is more square footage lost from your board.

[Nibile]

a lesser man would have resorted to using knee-bars

All was lost, save honour.

[Will Hunt]

Simon, that internal storage idea is ingenius! I think it might be a bit complex for my carpentry skills (non-existant) and I'll definitely want to keep costs down and do the job between me and my dad (he doesn't know this yet).

I think Chris' rear storage shelving idea is an excellent idea. Cheap and simple, it would turn practically that whole back wall into much needed shelving which should make it much easier to get the permission slip signed by 'er indoors. I suppose the compromise to be made there is you'd have to leave some space at the side (a foot?) to get round the back.

The other thing is that the shelves will be really long and nightmarish to retrieve stuff from the back unless you can access both sides in which case that is more square footage lost from your board.

Yep. You'd need to leave a narrow walkway along the back so you could get to any bit of the shelf I.e. bring the whole thing forward off the back wall.

[chris j]

I do like Shark's in-wall storage. I would be lost on how to build it without the door eventually swinging open with me hanging on it...

I have about 60cm on each side for access to the shelving, due to constraints of pre-existing workbenches etc. This is enough to post in things like a 180cm snowboard, 5'4" kite surfboard, the rest of my kiting and snowboard gear etc. A small gap round one side and then a walkway round the back would have made a lot of sense (I am kicking myself), would have been really easy with the freestanding A-frame construction.

(The missus has just reminded me that if I did drag it forward the A-frame would block the door from the house into the garage... doh!)

[rodma]

you could do a hybrid of what shark did and have a removable panel in the centre held on with countersunk bolts and tnuts, that way you don't have to employ too much carpentry skill and it should stop you from using it to store stuff that you need access to on a daily basis. our campus board cupboard is a nightmare, made it way too easy to use, so have ended up storing consumables in there, meaning that the door ends up ajar a lot of the time

[highrepute]

The other thing is that the shelves will be really long and nightmarish to retrieve stuff from the back unless you can access both sides in which case that is more square footage lost from your board.

what have you got holding the door shut Shark?

[a dense loner]

Will you wouldn't need a foot of walkway space at the back. Just put a foot worth of ply down flat, you'd only need say 4 offcuts to balance this on the back of the ply of the board. Even if you only have access to one side you'll still have a lot of space. You could even have the back walkway as the "front" of your storage

[Eddies]

Nice hinges!!!
You could easily do away with them buy fixing a small block in each corner of the door frame, each with a hole and T-nut so that the door can be fixed back with 'secret' fixings.

[rodma]

Hello, helloooo , is there anybody there? :D

[andyd]

Nice hinges!!!
You could easily do away with them buy fixing a small block in each corner of the door frame, each with a hole and T-nut so that the door can be fixed back with 'secret' fixings.

Nice one Fritzl

Best leave plenty of space to get round the side/back or go easy on the protein shakes!

[Eddies]

Soz rodma, I just saw the pic of a HUGE pair of aircraft hanger hinges with a bit of ply nailed to the back and dashed into a reply without reading the shiz below! x

[rodma]

Hehe, glad others thought the giant gate hinges were a bit ott

[shark]

Probably be better to have the hinges on the inside but those one's were spare and unused.

[shark]

The other thing is that the shelves will be really long and nightmarish to retrieve stuff from the back unless you can access both sides in which case that is more square footage lost from your board.

what have you got holding the door shut Shark?

Dunno what they are called but there is one at the top, one at the bottom and three at the side and look like this:

[a dense loner]

Shark I don't mean to sound rude but that looks like the most over-engineered worst board I have ever seen! What is it 5degrees? I hope it's just an awkward camera angle?