Over time your Tension Board 2 collects excess chalk, hand oils, and shoe rubber. Eventually, this can wear on the board’s holds and even affect your climbing performance. If your Tension Board 2 gets frequent traffic or you’ve had it for a while, it’s time for a thorough cleaning.
Cleaning a Tension Board is easy, once you know the drill. Forget stripping, soaking, or pressure washing holds. With our quick and effective cleaning protocol, you can leave the holds on the wall and clean them with minimal supplies.
So, grab a friend, grab your Tension drill brush, and get started. It will only take an hour or two to get your TB2 fresh again. If you’re more of a visual learner, you can watch this step-by-step instructional video in the Tension Resource Hub, featuring Tension’s Quinn Spadafora.
Why You Need to Clean Your TB2
Before we start, let’s briefly discuss the key reasons you need to clean your TB2.
First, longevity. Like most things, regularly cleaning your TB2 will help maintain it through years of use. This is especially true for the board’s wood holds. Wood holds, naturally more porous than polyurethane plastic holds, absorb hand oils and other small particles. Eventually, this can lead to increased wear and tear—easily remedied with proper cleaning.
Second, performance. As your TB2 gets dirtier, your climbing performance may suffer. Caked-on chalk, hand oils, and shoe rubber reduce the hold’s texture—especially on wood—making it slick and shiny. As a result, your hands and feet are more likely to slip and sabotage your chance of sending.
Third, aesthetics. This doesn’t need too much explanation. Layers of chalk and shoe rubber can change the appearance of your board. If you want to protect your investment and maintain your board’s fresh appearance, simply clean it.
What You'll Need to Clean
Here's everything you'll need to clean your Tension Board 2.
- Gloves. Protect your hands.
- Safety glasses. Protect your eyes.
- N95 mask or similar. Don’t neglect your lungs!
- Basic boar’s hair hand brush. Just like the one you use when you climb.
- Tension Drill Brush and Drill. Tension’s drill brush attachment, while not a requirement, this will help greatly speed up the cleaning process.
- Use a drill and not an impact driver. The drill will give you more control over the speed.
- Be aware of the holds around the drill brush to avoid dinging them up while brushing. Don’t have a Tension drill brush? Get yours here.
- 99% isopropyl alcohol. 99% will ensure quick drying! A little goes a long way. Please note, this is not the same thing as rubbing alcohol.
- Microfiber cloth or hand towel. Any old rag will do.
- Hand sandpaper. 100 to 200 grit works perfectly for touching up super-polished holds.
- Tarp. Protective covering for your pricey pads.
Clean Your TB2: The Quick 6-Step Process
Have your cleaning supplies in hand? Let’s get to it.
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Suit up. Put on your safety glasses, gloves, and mask.
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Place your tarp. Arrange your tarp so that any alcohol runoff or debris from the board will land on the tarp and not on your pads.
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Dry brush. While dry, brush the holds with the drill brush (at a gentle speed) and boar’s hair hand brush to remove caked-up chalk and shoe rubber. This step is highly important! Skipping this may result in a mud-like mess when applying the alcohol to the compacted chalk.
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Spray 99% isopropyl alcohol on holds. Use a small amount of alcohol on both wood and plastic holds. Start with a small amount and use more as needed. Let the alcohol sit for a few seconds before brushing the hold with a the drill brush. The isopropyl will dry extremely fast. It is important to spray and brush each hold before moving on to the next.
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Wet brush. While hold is still wet, use the drill brush to easily brush away the grime from the grip surface and outside of holds. Use a basic handheld brush to get behind crimps and areas harder to access with the drill brush. Before moving on to the next hold, wipe away excess alcohol with a microfiber cloth. If you have two people, the first should spray and drill brush while the second follows with a handheld brush and cloth to wipe/dry the hold.
- Use hand sandpaper on touch-up wood holds. After the holds dry, if needed, lightly (we mean lightly) rub hand sandpaper over the grip/edge surface of the wood holds with a noticeable slick sheen to them. This will help restore some of the hold’s original out-of-the-box texture. We recommend 100-200 grit sandpaper.
Give your board around 2 hours to fully dry and Voila! Your Tension Board 2 is now sparkling clean.
Keep Your Tension Board 2 Feeling Like New
Nobody likes a dirty board. Whether you’re a gym owner or homeowner with a Tension Board 2, clean your board regularly with the right supplies. We suggest a regular board cleaning cadence of once per quarter to twice per year. Cleaning will help maintain your board for years to come and ensure you can train without limitations.
We hope you find our cleaning process quick and simple and it gets you back to your sessions. If you have any questions or concerns, reach out to the Tension Team at info@tensionclimbing.com.
