Boxing in pipework

Pipes such as heating pipes or waste pipes can look ugly and can be a dust trap, they can be hard to clean and even paint around. The ideal solution is to box pipework in, once they are boxed in, the box can be decorated the same as the surrounding area, such as tiled or painted.

Typically to box in pipework you use timber battens and plywood or MDF, the battens are normally 2×1 inches (50×25 mm) or 2×2 (50×50 mm). The plywood or MDF can be 6 or 9 mm. All of the materials used will depend on the circumstances you plan to box the pipes in. You may even wish to use plasterboard and plaster the box.

Tools required for this job

• Battens (2×1 or 2×2) (50×25 mm or 50×50 mm)
• Drill
• Drill bits
• Screw or panel pins
• Spirit level
• Screwdriver / drill with screwdriver bit
• Hammer
• Plywood, MDF, Plasterboard
• A pencil
• Tape measure

How to box in pipes

Take the battens and hold them against the wall, use a spirit level to ensure they are upright and level, next drill holes through the wood into the wall, use rawl plugs and screws to fit the batten to the wall ensuring they are level.

Once the two wall battens are fixed you can cut the plywood to the correct size, fix a batten on the outside corner of one of the pieces of plywood, this will allow you to screw the other length of plywood to it giving the external corner a good strong fixing.

Decorating the box

Once the boxing in is done you can decorate the box, if you are painting the box, fill the screw holes and rub them down then apply the appropriate paint to match the surrounding area, you may have to prime the box first to seal the plywood. If you are tiling the boxing in, cut and fix the tiles to match in with to other tiles. You can add skirting boards to horizontal boxing in to match the room, and coving to vertical boxing in to make the box become part of the room and once decorated should like it has always been there.

Horizontal and vertical pipes

The same method for boxing in applies if you are boxing in horizontal or vertical pipes.

You can box in heating pipes, hot and cold water pipes, soil pipes and waste pipes to tidy them up and make them look part of the room.

How to build a step

On a recent job I was asked if I could repair a step to a back door, the step was already built out of Celcon blocks and rendered over. The rendering had broken off and become loose over time. I was asked to re-render the step, which I did. I have included some photos of the finished job below.

Building a step

Before you build your outside step you need to work out the height, width and depth of your step, you also need to decide on the materials used to build it, such as concrete, bricks, blocks, block paving blocks, are you going to top it off with slabs?

Once this has all been decided you can start building your step. If you are going to use bricks, lay the edge bricks out to make sure you are happy with the size, you can then fix these down with mortar. Once these are set you can fill in using sand and cement, concrete or hardcore. You can then fix slabs on the top.

If you are going to use concrete only you are going to need to build a form (this is a temporary mold) use timber such as skirting boards to build the shape and size of the step you require, once you have done this you can mix and pour the concrete into the form, tamp it down to ensure all areas are filled and any air bubbles come to the top. You are going to want to have a textured finish the the top of the step to avoid it becoming slippery when wet of with snow and ice on it. The best way to do this is once the concrete is at the top of the form and levelled off, take a piece of wood wider than the step and tamp down across the form, this should leave ridges in the top of the concrete so when it dries you are left with a non-slip surface.

Once the concrete has set you can remove the form leaving you with a concrete step.

With the step I repaired the blocks were already in place, all I had to do was re-render the step, I did this by removing the loose render, cleaning the exposed bricks and sealing with a PVA sealer to aid adhesion. I then mixed up my render and rendered the step, I did this without a form so I could render the top and sides in finish the surface. Once I had got the basic shape, and ensured the top of the step sloped away from the house I left it to dry for a few hours, I then returned to see if it had set enough to ‘work’, which it had, at this point I used a rendering float to rub over the step, this showed up and low spots I needed to fill in. Once this was done I rubbed over with the rendering float to remove the sharp square edges and to leave a non-slip textured step and sides. I then painted the edges of the step to match the plinth, which also had a repair done to it.

To finish off I painted the plinth and the edge of the step in black bitumen paint.

Finished step

Below is the step that I repaired and painted.

How to fit door handles or door knob

Once you have fitted a lock such as a mortise sash lock or a cylinder rim lock or are just simply replacing the handles. This post will explain how to do it, it is a fairly simple task and should’t take to long. This post assumes the lock is already fitted to the door and you just need to fit the handles or you are just replacing handles. If you are fitting a new door, you will need to fit a lock first.

As always, you will need to gather the tools you require together before starting the job, you will need:

• A door handle or knob set
• A drill
• A small drill bit
• A screwdriver
• A small level
• A junior hacksaw (possibly required)

Fitting the door handle or door knob

In the door handle pack you should have two handles, fixing screws and a square spindle. Open the pack and put to one side.
Firstly take the spindle and put it through the lock, then take one handle and place it on the spindle.
Now take the level and upright the handle by placing the level on the side of the handle, that is, of course as long as the handle doesn’t have uneven sides or it is a door knob.
When the handle is upright and level, hold it with one hand while you drill two pilot holes, do this for example for the top left and bottom right holes. Then screw the fixing screws in and then drill the final two holes for this handle or knob.

Now take the other handle and try it on the spindle, the spindle maybe too long and requires cutting. Put the second handle on the spindle and see how far the back of the handle is away from the door, you will need cut this amount of the spindle.

Once the spindle has been cut you can fit the second handle, do this the same way as you did the first one. Once all the screws have been screwed in you can try the handle, if the handle stays down without returning to its original position, try loosening the handle fixing screws slightly, this should help. If it doesn’t help, remove one handle and see if the spindle is rubbing on the door where the spindle goes into the lock, if it is remove the spindle and chisel away where it is rubbing, refit the spindle and handle and try again.

Finally, clean off and finger marks off the handle with a soft cloth.