Corey Porter // Centreville, VA
When did you build your wall? Was it a “COVID baby”?
Its current iteration is a COVID baby. I tore down the original version over the course of 1-2 months late last year and completed this wall over the course of one day in November.
How long did it take you to build and what did that time look like?
The current wall took one day of 4 or 5 straight hours of work. Installing t nuts is a whole different story. That was also probably a separate 3 hours or so. It really wasn’t too bad, since I was working with my father-in-law and I learned a lot from the first version of the wall I had.
Not including holds and padding, how much did it cost you to build? Any surprises there?
The lumber and screws and brackets only cost about $3-400. I got it delivered to my house, which honestly was a huge cost, as well.
What are you doing for padding?
I have four crash pads I use to cover the fall zone.
What was your primary incentive for the wall? Did anything in particular inspire your wall design?
My gym had a couple of COVID exposures, so just to be safe I place my membership on hold and immediately set out to build the new wall. My old wall was really cool looking, but just wasn’t that good a training tool. It was mostly a traverse wall, which is fun, but it wasn’t really doing anything for building strength.
What was the most difficult aspect of the design and build?
My garage has really low clearance (around 9 feet) and the wall has the bottom 8 inches where there’s no dry-wall, just concrete. So I had to plan something that was going to give me enough climbing surface, which resulted in a 45 degree wall. I wanted something closer to 30 degrees, but that just wouldn’t have given me the amount of training space I wanted.
What would you do differently?
I would go function over form my first time around, for sure. My wall doesn’t look as cool now, but it’s a much better training tool.
Did you make any mistakes along the way or choose to re-do any aspects?
Not this time. Things went pretty well this time around since I learned a lot from my first mistakes.
What is your favorite aspect?
My favorite aspect is the online community for homewallers. I use an app to set on others’ walls and have them set on my wall. It’s pretty rad and we’ve gotten/given some really great feedback to each other.
How often do you use the wall?
I use the wall once a week. It’s tough to get out there right now, since my kids aren’t asleep until 9 and by then I’m pretty beat from the day. I still expect to get out there about once or twice a week once gyms open back up.
Any words of wisdom to aspiring homewallers?
If you have the space, it’s awesome. Go for it. Even if you don’t have a lot of room or clearance, you can probably fit more than you think. If you don’t have the space inside, consider building something outside that you can cover with a tarp or build a ceiling onto. There are so many DIY articles and YouTube vids online.
