How to reduce costs when designing and building your climbing and bouldering walls

Try to circle as many of these bullets as possible to minimize design and construction expenses, whether your facility is a rock climbing gym, K-12 school, residence, college, trampoline park, corporate fitness area, or any other location.

• Plan the wall(s) early. Discuss and make decisions about the size, location, and programming objectives for the climbing wall(s) as early as possible in the design process. Don't just have the architect put a placeholder on a drawing and wait until the project is in the hands of a general contractor to hash out details.
• Keep walls shorter than 42 ft tall. If walls are taller than that, special lifts are needed and everything takes longer since materials and people have longer distances to fgo from the ground.
• Shoot for a ground floor location. Depending on the size and materials used to construct the walls, you may be able to avoid having to add structural reinforcement or compromise the design or materials of the wall to save weight.
• Ensure construction access. Pay attention to access to where the climbing area will be. It is optimal to use forklifts to move steel, wood and supplies. If the wall is indoors, stairs and small doorways impede the flow. If it is outside, landscaping, mud, steep terrain can make it difficult or impossible to use forklifts and move delivery trucks.
• Know local codes. Understand code and permitting requirements during the design phase. Every jurisdiction is different. Know if you need fire-rated plywood, special inspections, special engineering for earthquake or flood-prone areas. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
• Build climbing walls first. If you don't need to worry about protecting already finished surfaces like floors and windows, or coordinating different trades working at the same time, walls can go up more quickly saving time and money.
• Plan for the weather. If your walls are going to be outdoors or in an indoor space that is not completely enclosed, you will need to be prepared based on the season and local conditions. Concrete and certain paints need minimum temperatures to dry and cure. If a slab is needed for an outdoor wall, the ground need to be defrosted, free of snow, and optimally dry.

What about the $40/sq ft climbing walls I keep hearing about?

If you build a facility with at least 20,000 sq ft, you can get close to $40/ sq ft. That is about the size of the largest climbing gyms in the U.S.. The reason the price per sq ft can be lower with the larger walls is because fixed costs are spread out over a larger number of sq ft., there are greater process efficiencies with longer install times, and some savings may come from buying HUGE quantities. That being said, $80 sq/ft is a more realistic average