With the advent of new materials, bathroom design is becoming more perfect. Comfort is created by functional furniture, modern plumbing, beautiful finishes, mirrors and lighting fixtures. All this loses its appeal when pipes in the bathroom remain in sight. It is advisable to leave open only wall-mounted heated towel rails that have a chrome finish and an attractive shape.
Before you start creating a bathroom design, all pipes must be hidden or masked. You need to hide them at the first stage of repair, so as not to harm the fine finish. To do this, the pipes are placed in boxes or embedded under the cement mortar.
Installation of pipes in boxes
In the box, it is possible to hide pipes of large diameter or a whole cluster of them. To build it, you will need the following tools:
- perforator;
- screwdriver;
- construction knife;
- hammer;
- metal scissors;
- level, plumb, tape measure.
For box manufacturing the following materials are required:
- frame profiles;
- sheets of plastic or waterproof drywall for sheathing;
- insulation;
- dowels;
- self-tapping screws;
- putty.
Access to pipe connections
Where periodic maintenance is required, access to utilities should be provided. Suitable for this boxes made of plasticwhich are easy to understand. The disadvantage is that they quickly lose their attractive appearance.
When using drywall, its further finishing is required: putty with painting or pasting with tiles. After that, disassembly of the box becomes impossible.
Therefore, plastic fences are mainly used for old pipes or if they have areas in which leakage may occur over time. The box can be mounted on a wall with a finished coating.
Access must be provided to the following types of pipeline connections:
- threaded steel or plastic, tightened by hand or with the use of keys;
- fittings with crimping, in which there is a risk of leakage.
Soldered or welded joints are closed without the possibility of disassembly if they are made by specialists. They can be hidden in strobes, a screed or placed in boxes made of plasterboard.
How to make a box
- Pipes near the floor are easy to hide behind podiums or decorative screens, which look beautiful in large bathrooms. Often use boxes made by hand.
- The frame for plastic and drywall is done the same way. Guide profiles are attached to the walls with self-tapping screws. Fixation is made in the gaps between the tiles of the tile. The outer corner is formed from two guide profiles twisted together by self-tapping screws at a right angle. The corner rib is fixed with the help of sections of the supporting profile to the guides on both converging walls. To fix the panels, jumpers are installed on the frame in increments of 50 cm.
- A starting profile is attached to one of the wall guides. A strip of plastic cut to size is inserted into it. The other side should be hidden by putting a plastic corner profile on it and attaching it to the other plane of the frame with glue.
- The next side of the box is also sheathed, but the plastic strip is attached with the starting profile put on it. It is better to install the connection on silicone glue, which can be cut with a knife during dismantling.
- Inspection holes are cut out in the panels for access to taps or meters. They are glued with silicone. plastic hatches from the same material.
- A drywall box can be easily sheathed with your own hands. To do this, strips are cut out of moisture-resistant material, which are fastened with self-tapping screws to the frame.Then, with a thin layer of putty, perforated corners made of plastic or metal are attached to the box and at its junction with the walls. After that, revision openings with plastic doors are installed and finishing putty is applied. It is advisable to provide access to pipe connections with the central riser. This should be done to facilitate the removal of blockages or the replacement of elements in the future. Doors should be installed so that they are less visible.
- Drywall is most suitable for creating boxes. Under the joints of the sheets, bases are made from a carrier profile. The material is easily processed and any finishing method can be chosen for it. After pasting the box with mosaics or ceramic tiles, the unsightly riser is turned into a decorative column. In this case, the doors of the box can be hidden if they are made of drywall and finished with the same material.
Shtroblenie
Pipeline communications can be placed in a cavity made in the wall. Cutting to a greater depth will not work, as this can damage the integrity of the structure of the house. In strobes, it is possible to hide communications, the diameter of which does not exceed 50 mm. Chasing is not allowed if the wall is not thick enough.
Cavities are made using the following tools:
- grinder with stone discs;
- perforator;
- chisel;
- hammer.
It is believed that pipes should be immured into the wall only with insulation, otherwise condensation appears inside it and there is no possibility of temperature deformations. The following materials serve as thermal insulation:
- mounting foam;
- thermoflex;
- rotband.
Water pipes different temperatures are placed at a distance of at least 5 cm. It is required to remove the wall material under the strobes 2-5 cm deeper than the diameter of the product. Embedding is done with cement mortar, and then plastering is performed.
Screed application
In this method, there is no need for chasing. It is not as difficult to hide pipes in the floor as in the wall, but if it is still heated, then 15-20 cm of height will be lost in the bathroom.
V coupler pipes are led in the shortest way. For large areas, corrugated packaging is used. In a small bathroom, this is not so important.
Pipes are filled with hot water or heating turned off. After that, you should wait until the floor hardens completely. If it is wet, cracks will appear if the temperature regime is violated.
Pipes of small diameter can be hidden with tile adhesive, which is used to finish the floor with tiles.
Conclusion
Despite its small size, you spend a lot of time in the bathroom and its design requires special attention. During the repair, an important step is to hide the pipes that spoil the appearance of the room. To make a beautiful bathroom with your own hands, the pipes are closed with boxes or hidden in the walls for decoration.
