The kitchens of apartments, especially those built in the Soviet period, are distinguished by one feature: a large number of communications located in plain sight and spoiling the overall impression of the interior of the room. These are heating pipes and gas communications, "decorated" with various valves and metering devices. The corrugated duct of the kitchen hood also does not look very aesthetically pleasing. In the process of repair, it is desirable to hide them, while improving the ergonomics of the kitchen. For example, in the box shown in the photo above the kitchen, made of drywall, you can also place additional lighting. Is it really possible to do it yourself?
Why drywall?
It is not in vain that professionals prefer to work with this material, because its use brings a lot of advantages:
- Drywall is an absolutely environmentally friendly material.
- It is quite easy to attach and process. These processes do not require special construction skills and expensive specialized tools.
- With the correct design of the drywall box, due to its properties, it can significantly improve the sound insulation of the room.
- In the created drywall box, not only pipes, but also lighting fixtures, as well as wiring to them, can easily hide. In this case, you do not have to ditch the wall or ceiling: just place the wires in a corrugated sleeve under the surface of the drywall.
- With the help of drywall, you can create a wide variety of designs, realizing the most daring design ideas.
Materials and tools for the box
When calculating the required material, you can not do without drawing up a drawing. This stage is also important because in the process of designing a structure, you can choose its configuration in such a way as to minimize the amount of waste and scraps that can hardly be used in the future. First of all, this applies to drywall sheets.
For a box in the kitchen you will need:
- Drywall. It is better to play it safe and take a moisture-resistant variety: although the kitchen is not as humid as the bathroom, condensation may appear on the pipes, and this can eventually lead to damage to ordinary drywall.
- Rails and ceiling profiles.
- self-adhesive sealing tape, designed for fastening at the points of contact of profiles with walls and ceilings.
- Fasteners: dowel-nails, "bugs" - small metal screws for fastening profiles, direct suspensions, single-level crab connectors, self-tapping screws for fixing drywall.
Fasteners are best purchased with a margin. During the installation process, these elements can be lost or broken, and running to the store for a pair of suspensions will be very disappointing.
You should prepare a typical set of tools for working with drywall:
- Perforator. The impact drill does not always cope with concrete ceilings or walls. It is better to take a hammer drill from friends than to suffer and waste time.
- Screwdriver.
- A paint knife and a regular hacksaw for cutting drywall sheets.
- Roulette, plumb line, water or laser level, paint cord.
- Metal scissors. Some builders prefer to use a grinder, but it is more reliable not to connect the profiles at right angles, but to bend them. To do this, it is enough to carefully cut the side walls, and it is somewhat problematic to do this with a grinder.
markup
The box on the ceiling under the hood must be designed in such a way that there is a gap of at least 5 cm between the pipes and drywall. This will extend the life of the box, as well as avoid the transmission of vibrations arising in the pipes through it.
When installing a box for gas and heating pipes, take into account in advance the presence of technological holes that provide access to shutoff valves or a meter for preventive maintenance and repair.
- On the walls and ceiling, using a laser level, mark the fastening lines of the guide profiles according to the drawing.
- Perpendicular to them on the ceiling, the center lines of the ceiling profiles are drawn. The optimal distance between them is 600 mm, but it may vary depending on the configuration of the box. One thing remains unchanged: the joining of drywall sheets should be carried out only on the surface of the ceiling profile.
- On these center lines are placed the attachment points of the suspensions. When installing conventional plasterboard ceilings, their pitch is usually 60 cm, but the boxes in most cases have rather modest dimensions. Therefore, for load-bearing profiles less than 60 cm, one suspension is sufficient, but if it has a length of 70 mm, two will be required. It should be noted that one end of the profile will be rigidly fixed in the guide on the wall, so we shift the suspensions to the opposite side.
Frame installation
At the end of the markup, the profile frame is mounted:
- The guide profiles are screwed onto the dowel-nails, and a damper tape is previously glued to the side adjacent to the ceiling or wall.
In the presence of right angles, it is much more practical to bend the profiles by cutting their side walls with scissors. After bonding in these places cutter or "fleas" a more rigid connection is obtained than from two separate pieces.
- Holes are drilled in the ceiling and direct suspensions are installed.
- Ceiling profiles are inserted into the guides located on the wall and attached to the hangers. In this case, it is necessary to check the correct installation of each profile using a level. The protruding parts of the suspensions can simply be bent to the sides so that they do not interfere with further installation.
- On the ends of the ceiling profiles, guides are put on and fastened with self-tapping screws, forming the outer edge of the box.
- The necessary vertical jumpers are installed from the ceiling profile. The rule is simple: the more of them, the tougher the box turns out. But you should not overdo it, it will only lead to weighting and complexity of the design.
Fastening and puttying drywall
Drywall, pre-cut according to the drawing, is attached to the frame from the profile with self-tapping screws in increments of 25 cm. The screw heads must be slightly recessed.
Do not join sheets of drywall in the corners, it is better to place whole fragments there, otherwise there is a high probability of cracks in these places.
After installing the drywall, all seams are cleaned, glued with sickle tape and puttied. Special perforated corners are attached to the outer corners. After drying, a layer of finishing putty is applied to the drywall.
The final stage is the installation of the external parts of the fixtures and fine finishing. Of course, that the fastening and supply of electricity to them is done in advance. It is most convenient to carry it out immediately after marking and before attaching the profiles.
