Nowadays, the apartment is more than ever permeated with communications. Especially many difficulties arise with how to hide heating pipes. However, there are enough ways to wall them up, you just need to choose the right one, which one is better. Designers do not care too much about masking heating pipes, which sometimes look out of place, so homeowners have to think about it.
Methods for masking heating pipes
First of all, the scheme of laying heating pipes is being studied. Based on it, it is necessary to think over possible options. In a private house, everything is done during construction, when communications can be laid in the walls of rooms and utility rooms. But what should apartment owners do with unsightly heating pipes?
You can hide heating pipes in finished housing in the following ways:
- decorate with screens;
- make boxes or false walls from drywall and other similar materials;
- pour into the screed;
- remove from suspended ceilings;
- hide heating elements behind furniture and plants.
How to close heating radiators with decorative screens?
When deciding how best to hide the heating pipes in a modern apartment, the use of screens is the fastest and most effective. Old-style heating batteries function no worse than new ones, and sometimes it makes no sense to change them. For their shielding, the help of professionals is not required. It is best to cover risers and radiators with screens when they are at a distance from the wall. In this case, it should be taken into account that up to 15% of heat will be lost.
Decorative overlays and a plastic box for heating pipes are often transformed into a cabinet or cabinet. Materials are purchased in stores or decor is made from improvised means.
Apartment owners are interested in the question, is it possible to leave the valves available with a screen in order to repair radiators, regulate the temperature and bleed air when it enters the heating system? To do this, the screen is made removable or open ends are left on the batteries. Also, the screen surface is made with holes or slots in order to improve heat transfer and reduce energy losses.
If the radiators protrude outward, they are closed with a box. Panels are used for radiators in a niche. Materials can be metal, plastic, wood, glass, etc. Products must match the interior of the premises in color, pattern or pattern.
It is advisable to choose glass screens for heating radiators, which do not transmit radiation and do not reduce convective heat transfer, if the gaps are chosen correctly. They are easy to remove and clean. Tempered glass does not shatter, but many people now prefer a clear acrylic screen due to its light weight, variety of shapes and colors.
How to hide heating pipes in the floor or in the wall
Concealed laying of pipes for plumbing and heating in a multi-storey building requires a permit. It is necessary to order a rework project and coordinate it with the Housing Office, which is difficult to do. In addition, when a leak occurs, you can flood the neighbors, since the malfunction is difficult to quickly fix. It is best to hide the heating pipes in a load-bearing wall or floor of your own house.
The advantage is an increase in heat transfer through building materials, as well as an improvement in the appearance of premises without communications. Modern polypropylene or metal-plastic pipes have a very significant service life.
Rules for the design of heating systems with pipes built into the walls:
- The use of reinforced pipes for heating with compensation loops from thermal expansion.
- Collapsible fittings can leak over time. Only welded structures can be walled up in walls, for example, elements of a heating system made of polypropylene pipes. As a last resort, viewing windows are left in the walls for detachable pipe connections, through which it is possible to inspect and tighten the threaded connections.
- It is desirable to insulate the pipeline in the wall. This is especially true for metal products, on the surface of which condensation forms upon contact with concrete. It is important to lay the thermal insulation of the outer walls, which can take energy into the external environment.
- The supply and return in the strobe are laid through separate channels or a distance of at least 10 cm is maintained between them.
The procedure for laying pipes
First of all, it is necessary to develop a laying scheme indicating the exact location of the pipes. This requirement must be met in order not to damage hidden communications during further work.
Work on the installation of heating elements is carried out sequentially.
- In walls made of traditional materials, strobes are punched with a size that takes into account the diameter of the pipes, the thickness of the thermal insulation and plaster. The channel is made only vertically so as not to weaken the supporting structures. Roof slabs must not be broken. First, pipes are laid on them, and then they are poured with a concrete screed. If it was made earlier, it can be ditched, since the layer is not a carrier. Under the wooden floor, heating pipes can be laid over the ceiling along the board, which can be removed if necessary.
- Pipes are fastened in the channel of the wall or floor using clamps and dowels.
- The gates are closed with cement mortar only after testing the system under excessive pressure and temperature for several days.
- After the wall should be puttied under the finish, so that it becomes even and uniform.
Installation of heating pipes under the panels
The method of sheathing GKL, plastic, plywood, MDF panels or OSB boards is the most common. To do this, a frame is erected around the riser or horizontal pipe, on which the sheets are attached. It does not require any coordination with the housing office and does not need to transfer communications. You don't need to cut the walls. After installation, it will be difficult to get to the pipes, so inspection hatches are made or some plates are installed on latches or magnets with the possibility of removal. Finished panels, which do not require finishing, can be easily disassembled. The options may be the following: a box or a false wall. In both cases, a frame is made.
The main task of a false wall is to delimit the space in the room. It is made two-sided and communications and engineering networks are laid inside. Installing a false wall is not difficult, and there is a lot of space left in the gap between the sheets. The frame can be made of wood, but a metal profile is preferable, although more expensive. Depending on the material, self-tapping screws for wood or metal are used.
The bathroom is done pvc panel box moisture resistant. If you sew up heating pipes with drywall, it is selected to be waterproof, and tiles are glued on it. A wooden crate is not suitable here: it is necessary to use galvanized profiles that are resistant to moisture and corrosion.
It is convenient to hide the elements of the heating system with a plastic plinth-box, just as it is done with a cable duct for electrical wiring passing above the floor along the wall.
Decoration of heating pipes
It is advisable to sew into a box or pour into a monolith only new pipes, since dilapidated ones can leak at any time.For old communications, it is convenient to use one of the decoration methods that will allow you to keep the state of communications under control.
- You can paint the heating main to match the wall decoration. To do this, the pipes must first be cleaned.
- The hemp weave looks beautiful. Here you can add artificial branches with leaves to the cover or build a decorative corner.
- In places that are inconvenient for closing, pipes can be decorated in such a way that no one would guess about their existence. You just need to use your imagination.
Laying pipes in ceiling structures
Hide the heating pipe or cable behind false ceiling easier than on the wall. It is especially convenient to do this in multi-level structures with the possibility of dismantling drywall sheets at the lower level during pipe repair. In this case, the main part of the ceiling will remain intact. You can make a separate box on a regular ceiling, then decorate it or place spotlights in it. Also, the highways are located in the ceiling niches, where they are not visible, and access is provided free.
Pipelines are laid under the ceiling only in extreme cases, when there are no other possibilities.
Conclusion
It is possible to qualitatively disguise the highways in an apartment or house due to the presence of new durable materials. When deciding how to hide heating pipes in an apartment from the eyes, it is important to choose the most suitable method that can help hide other interior details that are undesirable for viewing along with them. Most of the work can be done by hand. A beautiful interior depends on the imagination of the owners and the desire to spend enough time and effort on its creation.
