How to build an indoor playground?

[ericfong]

Hi!

Looking to do a Xmas project for my 3 year old son. Doing up a indoor playground setup with bouldering elements and a wooden monkey bar (between walls) which I may use as a pull up bar as well.

How would I reinforce my gyprock wall to hold weight <120kg (taking into consideration weight of timber as well - inclusive) over a wide surface area?

Cheers

Eric

[EricL]

Hello @ericfong 

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's sensational to have you join us, and thanks for sharing your question about indoor playgrounds.

Instead of mounting to the wall I propose building it as a self-standing unit. I suggest having a look at this discussion - Solved: How to build an indoor monkey bar? by @JohnC5. You'll find in the discussion a proposal of how to build the monkey bars without having to anchor it to the walls. There is also pre-built options such as Lifespan Kids Junior Jungle Daylesford Swing Set Jungle Gym or the Playground Equipment 2.5 Monkey Bars Moose SP2004. For climbing I recommend looking at the 110 x 93 x 70cm Adventure Climb Play Equipment. Please note that the pre-built sets are for children's use only and not for adults.

Let me call on our experienced members @Dave-1, @AlanM52 and @Noyade for their recommendations.

If you need further assistance, please let us know. 

Eric

[Dave-1]

Good morning @ericfong 

I would strongly suggest not to attach the bars to just the plaster wall. (you would be like the hulk the first chin up you do lol)

You could instead attach a horizontal bar to the studs behind the plaster via timber screws. This would share the load  of the weights that will be lifting. You do this on both sides of the wall with thetimber span between them. I would suggest to span 3 studs with the horizontal rail compared to just two. Lift 100kgs plus is not always smooth so the force can vary if you were bouncing on the bars.

Some things to note -

Even if you use the horizontal timber bar to support the rails across the room, you could still compress the plaster so you may need to do repairs down the track to the wall when you remove the bars.

Dave