Yet Another Cycling Forum

General Category => The Knowledge => OT Knowledge => Topic started by: rider1972 on 22 October, 2020, 06:40:56 pm

Title: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: rider1972 on 22 October, 2020, 06:40:56 pm
My in-laws have just had a new water heater/boiler installed and the wall behind was too fragile to mount so the installer mounted ply first to get a good fix.

Bit of a mess but all working. Planning to decorate the entire room now but not sure how best to box this in with the width of that plywood etc and the pipes underneath... oh, and the toilet  :o

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/ACtC-3epaTQSm2gXT3FPhQDdcuvJyy3te6B7ODIS8nGpeIh7jBHYXwmLIW-XD3wBUBgJn1ge9xj-PWSBN6j46pw8jQJP9y1Z9oDOCgEyuDBuo69l0mCwX_We_iU1trKQvQeTlNlehIPl92FMnhNzOHxQFIsXrw=w1497-h1995-no?authuser=0)

Anyone got any inspirational ideas?

Thanks

James
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: robgul on 22 October, 2020, 07:14:36 pm
Subject to the measuremnts (can only guess from the pic) I'd look at getting a tall kitchen wall cupboard (with a flush door) or perhaps a larder cupboard and cobble the back out of to make some side-battens and some sort of frame to fix it the wall (perhaps with keyhole plates to lift it off if necessary) - the cupboard door would give access to the controls.   

Leave the top open and cut apertures in the base to allow air in.  Just make a very thin simple box construction to cover the pipes from the boiler down to the floor.


Note: An estate agent (well a good one) will tell you never to photograph a toilet with the seat up  :facepalm: :) :)
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: canny colin on 22 October, 2020, 07:19:05 pm
Kitchen / bathroom cabinet  with the back and top modified to fit  boiler . I used to work for a plumbing firm and have done quite a few . Cross post with robgul
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: rider1972 on 23 October, 2020, 04:34:51 pm
Ok, will go down that route  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: T42 on 23 October, 2020, 04:53:12 pm
Subject to the measuremnts (can only guess from the pic) I'd look at getting a tall kitchen wall cupboard (with a flush door) or perhaps a larder cupboard and cobble the back out of to make some side-battens and some sort of frame to fix it the wall (perhaps with keyhole plates to lift it off if necessary) - the cupboard door would give access to the controls.   

Leave the top open and cut apertures in the base to allow air in.  Just make a very thin simple box construction to cover the pipes from the boiler down to the floor.


Note: An estate agent (well a good one) will tell you never to photograph a toilet with the seat up  :facepalm: :) :)

I'd build the cabinet just around the top bit and case in the pipes separately so as to leave a bit more room round the loo.  If you were to take the cabinet all the way to the floor you'd be continually bashing your elbow on it.
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: nicknack on 23 October, 2020, 07:28:54 pm
I'd just box in the pipes under it.
But I'm a lazy sod.
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: Ian H on 23 October, 2020, 08:00:09 pm
I'd just box in the pipes under it.
But I'm a lazy sod.
I'd do the same.  Some appropriate moulding to neaten the edge of the ply, and a shallow box to cover the pipes but leave the taps, etc., accessible.
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: The French Tandem on 23 October, 2020, 08:48:04 pm
Why do you want it to be boxed in? Because in our preconceived ideas of beauty, a boiler is ugly but a cabinet is beautiful? If it were my house, I would tidy up the walls all around, but leave the boiler as it is. Remember that any cabinet will be bigger and more cumbersome than the boiler itself.

A
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: robgul on 23 October, 2020, 09:44:14 pm
Subject to the measuremnts (can only guess from the pic) I'd look at getting a tall kitchen wall cupboard (with a flush door) or perhaps a larder cupboard and cobble the back out of to make some side-battens and some sort of frame to fix it the wall (perhaps with keyhole plates to lift it off if necessary) - the cupboard door would give access to the controls.   

Leave the top open and cut apertures in the base to allow air in.  Just make a very thin simple box construction to cover the pipes from the boiler down to the floor.


Note: An estate agent (well a good one) will tell you never to photograph a toilet with the seat up  :facepalm: :) :)

I'd build the cabinet just around the top bit and case in the pipes separately so as to leave a bit more room round the loo.  If you were to take the cabinet all the way to the floor you'd be continually bashing your elbow on it.

That's what I was describing!
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: fuaran on 23 October, 2020, 09:45:11 pm
Why do you want it to be boxed in?
To discourage people from randomly pressing buttons on it, then complaining that it doesn't work?
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: Jaded on 24 October, 2020, 12:11:08 am
To be honest, looking at the plasterwork and the newspaper on the window, I’d move. Quickly.
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: Kim on 24 October, 2020, 12:12:57 am
To be honest, looking at the plasterwork and the newspaper on the window, I’d move. Quickly.

At least it's the Mirror...
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: T42 on 24 October, 2020, 08:04:49 am
Subject to the measuremnts (can only guess from the pic) I'd look at getting a tall kitchen wall cupboard (with a flush door) or perhaps a larder cupboard and cobble the back out of to make some side-battens and some sort of frame to fix it the wall (perhaps with keyhole plates to lift it off if necessary) - the cupboard door would give access to the controls.   

Leave the top open and cut apertures in the base to allow air in.  Just make a very thin simple box construction to cover the pipes from the boiler down to the floor.


Note: An estate agent (well a good one) will tell you never to photograph a toilet with the seat up  :facepalm: :) :)

I'd build the cabinet just around the top bit and case in the pipes separately so as to leave a bit more room round the loo.  If you were to take the cabinet all the way to the floor you'd be continually bashing your elbow on it.

That's what I was describing!

Right enough.  Heigh ho, ready for the booby hatch.
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: Paul on 24 October, 2020, 08:45:23 am
Take off. Nuke from orbit.
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: spesh on 24 October, 2020, 12:14:33 pm
Take off. Nuke from orbit.

I think that was the approach used WRT removing the old boiler, hence the bodge - sorry, "creative workaround" - for mounting the new one.   :demon:
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: robgul on 24 October, 2020, 01:16:14 pm
. . . . on further reflection I wonder about the wisdom of mounting the boiler on plywood - OK the fire risk is probably less than minimal BUT I would have thought that something fire-resistant (perhaps like the tile-backer board?) would have been prudent?

Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: Peter on 24 October, 2020, 01:26:36 pm
That's a good point, Rob, though the boiler will only be on spasmodically and they don't generally get any more than warm to the touch, do they?  It also looks from the fixing under the flue that the unit has been spaced out from the wood a little, so that should help.  Your comment still seems sound, though.

However, IANA fireman!
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: robgul on 24 October, 2020, 04:25:37 pm
That's a good point, Rob, though the boiler will only be on spasmodically and they don't generally get any more than warm to the touch, do they?  It also looks from the fixing under the flue that the unit has been spaced out from the wood a little, so that should help.  Your comment still seems sound, though.

However, IANA fireman!

I can't really talk because our boiler, mounted high up on on a brick wall in the garage, has a timber stud/OSB clad partition wall about 5 cm from it . . and I store all my woodwork timber in a "lumber cart" (as they call it in the USA) under the boiler.   You're right - the case on modern boilers barely get warm so probably not a risk.
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: rider1972 on 28 October, 2020, 06:19:16 pm
Thanks everyone.

In the end, just boxed in underneath ready for decoration.

A standard wall cabinet was not high enough for the boiler and flue so would have had to get two or a bridge cabinet and then two doors.

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/ACtC-3f27W7IZLkBTuZ1yZszbX787jNuSOVsG7K0w5wS_ouJ2Kms1S9OWFPaaRXySZq93LpM_YrIKzPgt-MjbLxUlIVnM2M8z6Vzy7ir1AfPGbz4CTENKPpcmjMe-L8LsYfMKPDKMn5pvwi_otJXdxQXTuX9xQ=w1082-h1444-no)

The underside of the deeper bit is open so you can get your hand in to turn the isolation valves on/off.
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: robgul on 28 October, 2020, 07:49:25 pm
Thanks everyone.

In the end, just boxed in underneath ready for decoration.

A standard wall cabinet was not high enough for the boiler and flue so would have had to get two or a bridge cabinet and then two doors.

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/ACtC-3f27W7IZLkBTuZ1yZszbX787jNuSOVsG7K0w5wS_ouJ2Kms1S9OWFPaaRXySZq93LpM_YrIKzPgt-MjbLxUlIVnM2M8z6Vzy7ir1AfPGbz4CTENKPpcmjMe-L8LsYfMKPDKMn5pvwi_otJXdxQXTuX9xQ=w1082-h1444-no)

The underside of the deeper bit is open so you can get your hand in to turn the isolation valves on/off.

That looks OK - one thing I would consider is to have the front panel fitted with flat-topped "mirror screws" [that's the screws that have a threaded hole in the head for a stainless or chrome cap to screw into to form a cover] - they would just make it easier to get to the valve etc - take off the screw covers, undo the screws and take the panel off. 

Have to say I'm a bit anal about boxing in anything relating to plumbing . . . . you never know when you might need access (from bitter experience having to cut away an oak panel box to get to a cistern that wasn't flushing)
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: rider1972 on 28 October, 2020, 08:27:34 pm
Good idea. In fact it's all screws and no glue/brackets so relatively painless to remove if and when required.
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: Peter on 28 October, 2020, 08:38:01 pm
That's a very neat piece of woodwork.  Future experience will make a right-ward twisting action on rising instinctive, as you remember with a wince the early encounters between left shoulders and the corner of the overhang.  Hope it doesn't take long!
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: Kim on 29 October, 2020, 12:30:49 am
Bogroll holder on the square end of the upper part of the boxing?
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: Kim on 29 October, 2020, 12:32:57 am
Good idea. In fact it's all screws and no glue/brackets so relatively painless to remove if and when required.

I'd be inclined to take it apart and paint/paper/whatever the component parts, so it can be disassembled without ruining the decoration.
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: robgul on 29 October, 2020, 07:43:04 am
Good idea. In fact it's all screws and no glue/brackets so relatively painless to remove if and when required.

I was assuming that you were going to fill the screw holes and paint it all?  . . .  . and pleased to see that it's photographed with the seat down :thumbsup:
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: pcolbeck on 29 October, 2020, 08:38:05 pm
Magnets are another method for holding a cover over things like this. I boxed in some pipework in our bathroom cupboard but left a hatch to get at the stop cocks and the hatch is held on by a magnet in each corner. Just recess a hole in a bit of wood for one magnet and recess the cover for the other. No screw holes to fill :)
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: Kim on 29 October, 2020, 10:08:01 pm
Magnets are another method for holding a cover over things like this. I boxed in some pipework in our bathroom cupboard but left a hatch to get at the stop cocks and the hatch is held on by a magnet in each corner. Just recess a hole in a bit of wood for one magnet and recess the cover for the other. No screw holes to fill :)

 :thumbsup:

I have a Mk 1 bit of wood drilled for hanging test leads, multimeter probes and the like, which people who own houses would be able to screw to a convenient wall.  I recessed magnets in it so it can stick to the front of our server rack (and be easily removed and draped out of the way when non-trivial access is required to the equipment within).  Works well.
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: robgul on 29 October, 2020, 10:12:19 pm
Magnets are another method for holding a cover over things like this. I boxed in some pipework in our bathroom cupboard but left a hatch to get at the stop cocks and the hatch is held on by a magnet in each corner. Just recess a hole in a bit of wood for one magnet and recess the cover for the other. No screw holes to fill :)

Agreed - I have a couple of magnet applications for stuff in my workshop . . . and for some thin oak trim around a panel in the downstairs loo it's fitted with velcro! (not by me I would add)
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: nicknack on 30 October, 2020, 05:46:36 pm
Boxing in pipes? That reminds me...
The bathroom always seemed to be a bit damp. It wasn't until we decided to have the floor renewed we discovered why. When the chap doing the flooring removed the old floor he discovered a shower tray underneath that was full of water. The water came from a continuously leaking pipe that had been boxed in behind the loo.
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 30 October, 2020, 05:50:19 pm
Boxing in pipes? That reminds me...
The bathroom always seemed to be a bit damp. It wasn't until we decided to have the floor renewed we discovered why. When the chap doing the flooring removed the old floor he discovered a shower tray underneath that was full of water. The water came from a continuously leaking pipe that had been boxed in behind the loo.
So rather than unbox the pipe and fix it some bodger decided to put a shower tray under the floor??
The mind boggles.  ??? :facepalm:
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: Kim on 30 October, 2020, 08:53:00 pm
Putting a tray with a moisture sensor to catch drips under your bath/shower seems eminently sensible, but that's Groverhaus (https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/groverhaus) territory.
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: nicknack on 31 October, 2020, 09:30:04 am
Boxing in pipes? That reminds me...
The bathroom always seemed to be a bit damp. It wasn't until we decided to have the floor renewed we discovered why. When the chap doing the flooring removed the old floor he discovered a shower tray underneath that was full of water. The water came from a continuously leaking pipe that had been boxed in behind the loo.
So rather than unbox the pipe and fix it some bodger decided to put a shower tray under the floor??
The mind boggles.  ??? :facepalm:
We have no idea of the sequence of events that lead to this, but it wasn't the only example of spectacularly crap bodging we found. The best one being the waste pipe from the utility room (from the washing machine mostly). It went through the wall then down at an angle of 45 degrees against the wall to disappear through a hole in the slabs. First time we ran the washing machine it flooded the yard. Lifting the slab uncovered solid London Clay - no drain at all, just a hole in the slab. More slab lifting uncovered a proper drain directly below the outlet through the wall. So why drill a hole in a slab that goes nowhere when there's a perfectly fine connection even nearer? Bonkers.
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 01 November, 2020, 03:52:31 pm
Very odd.
Title: Re: How would you box in this water heater/boiler?
Post by: spesh on 01 November, 2020, 04:11:10 pm
Boxing in pipes? That reminds me...
The bathroom always seemed to be a bit damp. It wasn't until we decided to have the floor renewed we discovered why. When the chap doing the flooring removed the old floor he discovered a shower tray underneath that was full of water. The water came from a continuously leaking pipe that had been boxed in behind the loo.
So rather than unbox the pipe and fix it some bodger decided to put a shower tray under the floor??
The mind boggles.  ??? :facepalm:
We have no idea of the sequence of events that lead to this, but it wasn't the only example of spectacularly crap bodging we found. The best one being the waste pipe from the utility room (from the washing machine mostly). It went through the wall then down at an angle of 45 degrees against the wall to disappear through a hole in the slabs. First time we ran the washing machine it flooded the yard. Lifting the slab uncovered solid London Clay - no drain at all, just a hole in the slab. More slab lifting uncovered a proper drain directly below the outlet through the wall. So why drill a hole in a slab that goes nowhere when there's a perfectly fine connection even nearer? Bonkers.

Going by my experience with DIY in my house, it sounds very much like a previous home-owner at your place was a builder.  ;)