How to build a climbing gym?

[acg]

Hey Team,

Making a small private climbing gym for me and some friends in my garage, managed to source roughly 50 sqm of old high jump mats that I want to cover with some sort of carpeting, to distribute the wear and tear on them, as the mats are going to take a beating. 

Any ideas or products you can recomend? 

I was looking at getting 50 metres of this NuPlastex Magic Stop 60cm Navy Non Slip Matting,

But not sure how to tie down or secure the carpet, velcro maybe?

Cheers,

Sam

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @acg. It's a pleasure to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about covering mats.

I don't believe the NuPlastex Magic Stop 60cm Navy Non Slip Matting will be robust enough for your usage. Also, it's only 60cm wide, so you would have a lot of joins across your span. 

What about a large tarp over the whole lot? They have grommets around the perimeter so you could fold the edges under the mats and then tie ropes across to the other side, fixing the tarp in place. The heavy-duty tarps will take quite a beating. For the same price as the 50 metres of the NuPlastex product, you could pick up a Polytuf 9.1 x 9.1m Extra Heavy Duty D-Ring Tarpaulin. That's the extra heavy-duty version; it is all one piece and can be tied down so it doesn't shift around, and it is more than large enough for your 50 sqm of mats.

Let me know what you think of that option.

Mitchell

[acg]

Hey Mitchell,

That's actually a pretty good idea. 

Tarp would be more heavy-duty, the only thing is it may not look as good or provide enough grip since we're going to be using a ladder to reset the holds. 

Might give it a try though.

Cheers,

Sam

[Squeaka]

A tarp over the mats and re the ladder, put a 19mm board under the ladder to spread the load out and create a more stable base.   This is what they do in many commercial gyms