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Rope Wall Construction at Bella Grazia Studio The rope wall can be a handyman
project for anyone with good carpentry skills. The construction of the
vertical support is the most important as each opening must be square
and flush as they will guide the router bit when cutting the holes. I
didn't pay much attention and have some 'divots' in the facing plywood
as a result. No bigee, but I'll always see it... see below for an
improvement. Locating the wall studs is the first step (Fig. 1) and can take some time. I used a Black & Decker stud finder but didn't really need it because all were placed on 16" centers1. I made a spacer-jig to set the cross braces in the vertical supports (Fig. 2) so that all the openings are uniform. The holes are 5" square, a tip I got from Chris Saudek. A recent inprovement is to place 1/4" sheet material, like paneling, in the holes to get a smooth surface (also can be color co-ordinated with the room) when routing out the plywood 'skin'. A nail gun would be great, but I used drywall screws and that worked well. The
bars are inserted midway in the
holes (Fig. 2a) - parallel to the floor. The center is marked and holes
drilled. Then bend finishing nails over ends to hold in place. In order
to accommodate attaching the
ropes we use a non-corrosive metal like 5/16ths aluminum. This is a
good
size that will allow a 3/8ths snap hook to easily fit over it to attach
the Sacral WebŪ (shameless advertising). Jumping ahead, Fig. 2b shows
the bar and 'skin' in place after the router is used from the
outside. Regular ropes can
be attached in the normal way.2 Do not use cheap rebar as it
will damage ropes. Once the vertical supports were set (Fig. 3) I measured the openings carefully, measure twice and cut once, to drill the holes for the router bit (3/4" Flush Trim Bit worked well). At the same time I measured where the vertical supports were to counter sink the holes for screws to attach the plywood 'skin' to the vertical supports (see upper right corner of Fig. 2b). Once in place (Fig. 4) the work went smoothly. Cutting out the openings is messy so be prepared. As you can see (Fig. 5) the completed wall looks impressive. Just add the trim and sealant. More information is available at the San Diego Yoga Center. 1. The wall hooks/bars are meant to be
1.5'', 38.5'' and 80'' off the floor. The horizontal distance between
the center of the holes is 18''. The next set of two is then 25'' away.
Fig. 5 has been modified to suit the space with an extra hole and the
horizontal spacing is less than above. These are recommendations. 2. The recessed anchor system results in
shorter rope length to floor compared to the eye-bolt system. You may
want to use caribiners or snap hooks to make up this difference. |
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