Hull's Rockcity, one of the UK’s original climbing centres, has just developed a new textured coating system for climbing walls in conjunction with coating specialists Coo-Var.

Both based in Hull, it was the logical progression for the climbing centre which had traditionally used the Coo-Var product ‘Suregrip’.

Combining 21 years of climbing wall building, maintenance and management with over 100 years of manufacturing specialist marine and industrial resin and paint coatings, they applied both sides of the equation to solve the problem presented.

The new system deals with many of the problems that face both the self builder and existing climbing walls that are already constructed.  Once a climbing wall is built it is not really feasible to take it down again just to coat or texture the panels.  Until now it has been impossible to get a factory finish applied to a vertical or even overhanging surface.

The project has stripped back conventional coating solutions and started from the beginning in terms of what two pack materials solve the specific problems of maintaining a great friction surface in a range of clean colours.

Traditionally climbing walls tried to replicate ‘real rock’ and having a dull, patchy stone-like finish was both desired and easy to achieve.

The problem facing a modern climbing surface is the desire to have solid block colours and a large use of white as the main surface.  As climbing walls, especially bouldering facilities are seeing exceptional traffic it has become increasingly important to try to have a finish that resists marking, especially from the black climbing shoe rubber, which adheres to conventional resins and paints, staining the surface.

Available in all RAL and BS 4800 colours (at additional cost) the Rockcity Pro Wall system claims to allow wall owners to DIY without having to bring in specialist contractors or professional wall builders and achieve a finish that rivals any climbing wall factories output and is both more durable and also more resistant to marking.

The system can be applied to both new plywood and GRP and also to most existing painted or coated climbing wall surfaces.

Both of the two pack products Rockcity Pro Wall Base and Rockcity Pro Wall Shield are manufactured in Hull by Coo-Var, exclusively for Rockcity.

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