No matter how original and stylish the design in the bathroom, the whole effect can easily fade away. Blame the pipes, which are very conspicuous. To save the situation, you need to remove these communications away. Let's look at how to close the pipes in the bathroom so that at the same time there is access to them for service and emergency response.
Selection of materials and requirements
The first and important criterion is a small mass. The material should be chosen in such a way that it is not necessary to build heavy frame structures for fasteners. Wooden slats or aluminum profile will do.
Humidity resistance is also important. Water in the bathroom is a common thing. Everything that will be used for finishing should not be subject to the damaging effects of moisture. Preference should be given to materials that will not absorb moisture, and also change their shape in the presence of water on the surface.
Resistance to all sorts of chemical influences is important. For cleaning inbathrooms and toilets use household chemicals. When performing general cleaning, all surface elements without exception are often subjected to chemical treatment. Therefore, facing materials should easily withstand contact with household chemicals.
Hidden pipes in the bathroom are always the right solution. The box can be made of drywall, MDF, plastic panels. You can also apply gypsum 3D panels. They have a large selection of textures and can accurately imitate brick, wood, mosaic.
Before you hide communications, you should check their reliability. If you close the pipeline, which has even minor defects, the structure will soon have to be hastily dismantled.
How to choose a method of disguising utilities
There are many ways to close the pipes in the bathroom. Options vary depending on the shape of the structure and the materials used. Let's look at the simplest and most popular solutions.
Gypsum board box
For bathrooms, be sure to purchase drywall, which is designed for use in wet areas. It differs from conventional analogues in the presence of a special coating. The sheets are impregnated with impregnated and antifungal compounds. Moisture resistant differs in color from ordinary drywall. It can be distinguished by the green tint of the surface.
A frame made of rack profile will be used as the basis for the future box. Profile size - 27 x 60millimeters. Guides will also be used. Their size is 26 x 27 millimeters. The supporting structure is built first, and already cut-to-size plasterboard sheets are mounted to this base.
Stages of making a box
First of all, mark the walls and floor. Having determined the most protruding point of the pipes on the vertical wall, you need to retreat from it about 3-5 centimeters and draw a line. The same principle is used when marking horizontal surfaces.
Then rails are mounted along the line with dowels. To do this, use a guide profile. To these rails are attached crossbars from the rack profile. The parts are connected with crabs at a distance of 15-20 centimeters.
You need to create cushioning for the structure. To do this, in places where it is adjacent to the pipes, a special tape is laid. Next, the finished structure is sheathed with plasterboard strips. When installing sheets, you need to follow the front side. She must be outside. In the process of screwing in self-tapping screws, it is necessary to sink their hats into drywall.
After that, you can proceed to the manufacture and decoration of the door. A technological hatch is cut in the box. To hide it, the door is seated on hinges. Then the body and door, together with the hinges, are finished.
Master's Tips
A collapsible pipe box in the bathroom is rubbed with a grater, plastered with careful sealing of all seams. To enhance the strength of the finished box before puttying, it is recommended to equip the corners withperforated corner. In order for the putty to fit better at the joints between the sheets, the edges of the drywall are chamfered. If this design will hide the communications of the heating system or hot water supply, then holes should be made in the upper part - warm air will escape through them. In case of water leaks, an additional small hole is made at the bottom of the structure. This is necessary in order to quickly detect a leak and timely repair pipes in the bathroom.
In the process of fixing the profiles to the floor surface, the slightest displacement should be excluded. Any, even a small error affects the quality of the design. She will look ridiculous. If the floor and walls of the bathroom are tiled, care must also be taken during the drilling process - with inaccurate actions, the tile can crumble and crack. This is especially true for ceramics. Use only special drills, not universal ones.
Using ceramic tiles
This process is very similar to drywall work. But to hide the pipes under the tiles in the bathroom, it will take much more effort. The main advantages of ceramic tile boxes are beautiful appearance and good moisture resistance. The design of the tile easily fits into any design, while communications will be invisible, an additional area is formed for storing small things useful in the household. The finish can be matte or glossy. The shade of the tiles should not differ much from the overall design of the bathroom. Only in this way will the box fit well into the interior.
Let's look at how to cover bathroom pipes with tile trim. As a basis, a metal or wooden frame can be used. When working with wood, all elements are pre-treated with water-repellent compounds. This is important because such material immediately "leads".
To simplify the task and prevent possible errors during the installation process, it is better to make an approximate design sketch with all important dimensions in advance. Also, it will not be superfluous to designate the places for fastening the elements of the box. This will greatly facilitate the installation process.
Production steps
First of all, they mark the zones where communications take place. Then a frame is made from a wooden lath or a metal profile, which is then securely fixed to the surface of the floor, walls and ceiling. After that, the base is sheathed with any available material. It can be moisture resistant plywood or chipboard.
The front part of the structure should have a hatch - repair or installation of pipes in the bathroom will be much easier. The facing material (in this case, chipboard or plywood) is pasted over with a reinforcing mesh. Next, ceramic tiles are laid on the grid. The service hatch door must also be pasted over with a mesh. The seams between the tiles are rubbed and then covered with anti-fungal mastic.
Expert Ideas
The design and shape of the frame largely determines how the pipes are laid in the bathroom wall. With the help of the protrusion, you can hidecommunications passing in the combined bathroom. In this case, the built-in drain tank is also hidden in the box.
You can hang the design at the level of the sink. This solution will not only hide the pipes from the eyes, but also provide an additional place where you can store household chemicals and other necessary things.
As doors, you can use ready-made plastic products. Their range is quite wide. The presence of an inspection hatch is very important if the pipeline has meters, valves or other controls. Otherwise, you will have to disassemble the structure in order to check the meter readings or turn off the water.
Using plastic panels
Decorative bathroom panels are an easy and affordable way to hide the pipeline. Due to the wide range of colors of these panels, you can create designs for any interior. Convenience also lies in the fact that each element of the panel is easily interchangeable. This greatly simplifies tasks when partial disassembly of the structure is needed.
The only disadvantage of plastic bathroom panels is poor fire resistance. Although most manufacturers guarantee that in the event of a fire the product will only smolder, the smoke is no less dangerous for the human body.
Installation of panels is carried out on an already finished frame. The same metal profile is used as the basis. Before starting the sheathing of the frame, a starting molding is attached to it with the help of self-tapping screws. To hidescrew head, fixing is done through the shelf, which is covered by the next panel.
Sliced blanks are inserted into the molding. They are strung on each other. Each panel should slide in tightly to the end. And for reliability, its free side is fixed with self-tapping screws. When joining adjacent panels, the edges should fit snugly into the locks of already installed panels. At the end of the installation work, an external molding is installed. They also get off the joints of the frame with the surface of the floor or ceiling.
Here's how to close the pipes in the bathroom with plastic panels. In fact, if you have certain skills, it is not so difficult. The main thing is to be careful and careful.
Radically hide pipes
You can hide communications in a cruder way. They are walled up right into the wall. So you can hide not only communications, but also add some free space to the bathroom or bathroom. It should be borne in mind that according to building codes it is not allowed to ditch a brick wall-partition and a thin-walled partition in panel houses.
Besides, this work is quite difficult, the main drawback is the impossibility to get access to the pipes in the event of an accident in a short time. When choosing this option, you should consider the risk of leaks.
There should be no joints in the wall. Fittings and pipes made of polypropylene are used for installation - they are easily soldered into a single whole. For laying communications for hot or cold water supply, the strobe must be equipped with a sleeve made of foam rubberor thermoflex. These are the basic rules for laying these communications in the wall.
Conclusion
So we figured out how to close the pipes in the bathroom. As you can see, this operation can be performed in different ways. Upon completion of the work, the interior in the bathroom will be really full and harmonious.
