How would you box in this water heater/boiler?

[rider1972]

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 



Anyone got any inspirational ideas?

Thanks

James

[robgul]

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 

[canny colin]

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

[rider1972]

Ok, will go down that route 

[T42]

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 

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.

[nicknack]

I'd just box in the pipes under it.
But I'm a lazy sod.

[Ian H]

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.

[The French Tandem]

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

[robgul]

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 

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!

[fuaran]

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?

[Jaded]

To be honest, looking at the plasterwork and the newspaper on the window, I’d move. Quickly.

[Kim]

To be honest, looking at the plasterwork and the newspaper on the window, I’d move. Quickly.

At least it's the Mirror...

[T42]

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 

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.

[Paul]

Take off. Nuke from orbit.

[spesh]

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.   

[robgul]

. . . . 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?

[Peter]

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!

[robgul]

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.

[rider1972]

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.



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

[robgul]

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.



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)

[rider1972]

Good idea. In fact it's all screws and no glue/brackets so relatively painless to remove if and when required.

[Peter]

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!

[Kim]

Bogroll holder on the square end of the upper part of the boxing?

[Kim]

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.

[robgul]

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