What safety rules are important to follow?
The first thing to remember is that gas equipment is a source of increased danger. Installation and operation of equipment must be carried out in strict compliance with safety precautions.
- Only employees of special services can install a gas boiler, disconnect it, and connect it. Owners are prohibited from disconnecting the equipment from the main line on their own!
- You cannot disassemble the unit, remove the body or its parts.
- If you plan to hide the gas boiler in a kitchen cabinet, make sure there are gaps on the sides and no upper or lower partition. It is important to ensure free access to all elements and air circulation.
- There should be no foreign objects on the boiler lid — they may simply fall off due to vibration.
- According to safety requirements, any method of disguising the boiler should not interfere with its operation and should be removable for inspection or repair.
How to fit a boiler into the interior?
The safest option to fit a boiler into the kitchen interior is to choose it correctly. For example, an open white column against the background of a white kitchen set will be almost invisible, and you won’t have to put it away in a kitchen cabinet. If there are no wall cabinets, so that the gas boiler fits into the kitchen interior, choose a model in the same color as the walls.
Of course, the big question remains about stylistic compliance. The presence of equipment in a loft-style kitchen will not raise questions – a column with suitable pipes in an industrial interior will look organic.
In the high-tech style, there is also no need to hide the gas boiler, the main thing is that the design should match the kitchen design.
With classic interiors or rustic styles (country, Provence) it is more difficult – bulky heating equipment looks too modern, does not fit into the design concept, destroys it. But a gas boiler can be decorated!
Methods of boiler camouflage:
- Painting. Since the boxes have a limited standard palette, it will not be easy to match it exactly to the color of the kitchen. But you can always just repaint the gas water heater, tinting the paint in the desired shade so that it looks harmonious surrounded by kitchen cabinets. Tinting is done to match the walls, furniture, equipment.
- Painting. For decoration, you will need artistic talents, or the help of an artist. In some cases, you can get by with a stencil. You can draw anything – from flowers or an ornament, to very specific things. For example, if there are shelves to the right and left of the gas boiler, you can draw their continuation on the column itself, objects standing on them.
- Decoupage. No artistic skills are needed, because this technique involves transferring ready-made drawings to the surface using varnish and a brush. Images can be cut out of napkins, special sheets for decoupage, or printed. At the end, be sure to protect the coating with varnish.
- Sticker. The fastest, cleanest way to decoratively mask a boiler. You can find ready-made options on sale or order individual printing on self-adhesive film in a printing house according to your own plot and size.
If none of the decoration options suited you, you want to make the gas boiler invisible, go to the next section.
How to hide the boiler?
If visual design is the safest way to disguise a boiler in the kitchen, then a camouflage cabinet is the most inconspicuous. From the outside, a built-in single-circuit or double-circuit unit in a furniture set looks like an ordinary cabinet, remaining completely invisible.
The main task is to choose suitable furniture for a kitchen with a gas boiler.
- Firstly, it should be larger than the gas boiler by 7-10 cm on each side wall, in front.
- Secondly, to ensure the necessary ventilation, the upper and lower walls are dismantled. The facades remain blank, like on other cabinets.
But if the kitchen design allows, give preference to lattice doors – air will circulate freely, will not be able to affect the operation of the boiler.
It is most convenient to plan the placement of equipment and choose the furniture layout before starting the renovation — this way you can decide where to leave space for the gas boiler (it is best not to put it in the corner, but to leave it in the middle), and call a specialist to connect it after installing the unit.
The unit has already been installed and you don’t want to call a specialist to move it? You’ll have to build the kitchen around it. To do this, first mark the location of the gas boiler on the plan and build the rest of the furniture around it.
For example, when the boiler is located in the corner by the window, it can be put away either in a corner cabinet (if the unit runs along the window opening) or in a floor-standing cabinet. The second allows you to close the unit itself and the communications leading to it, the meter.
Pencil cases are also great for floor-standing boilers. Columns take up a lot of space, which is unacceptable in a small kitchen. But if the area allows, you will get 100% hidden installation.
In order to disguise gas equipment, it is not necessary to order the manufacture of a box – sometimes it is enough to leave a niche. For example, in the corner above the sink. The main thing when hanging cabinets is to leave enough space for air circulation and inspection.
A completely different issue is moving a gas boiler from the kitchen to any other room. In a private house, for example, this could be a boiler room. In an apartment – a hallway, a storage room. The first thing you should understand before starting the procedure is that it is difficult to approve the transfer, and it is prohibited to do so without the appropriate permission – violators face serious fines.
First of all, check the planned future place of residence for compliance with the requirements:
- The presence of an exhaust ventilation duct (chimney) with a pipe of at least 150 mm.
- The presence of a supply opening from the street or another room of at least 0.02 sq. m.
- The presence of a window from 0.8 sq. m, a doorway from 80 cm wide.
- Dimensions of at least 7.5 sq. m, ceiling height above 2 m.
- The room must not be residential (it is prohibited to install in studios, living rooms, bedrooms), there should be no devices with an open water supply near the column (baths, toilets are also under (prohibited).
You can prepare the place for gas household appliances yourself, but disconnecting from the old pipe and connecting to the new one should be done by gas service specialists.
What needs to be done:
- Connect the water and gas pipelines. If the gas is supplied through flexible corrugated pipes, it is prohibited to cross window or door openings.
- Connect the socket that will power the boiler.
- Hang the metal shield on the wall or put it on the floor (depending on the model chosen – wall or floor).
What to do with communications?
To achieve 100% invisibility of the equipment, a boiler box in the kitchen may not be enough – in addition, you need to hide the communications. There are two ways to hide them, like a column: decor or a box.
In the first case, the pipes are painted in the color of the background (walls, apron, cabinet) or made to stand out deliberately. For example, an original bamboo paint job or twine wrapping looks beautiful.
A great option for a kitchen with pipes and a boiler is the loft style. In it, both parts of the equipment look not just appropriate, but decorative. Black pipes look best on a white background or copper pipes on a brick wall.
If it is decided to put it in a box, a special design will be required, because access to the pipes may be needed at any time. That is, it will not be possible to sew it tightly into the plasterboard, the finish must be removable or collapsible. For this purpose, you can purchase a special ready-made cable channel or make it yourself from any available material.
Important! When making a structure that can be disassembled in case of an accident, but not removable, be sure to leave an inspection hatch – there should be direct access to the valve, meter through it.
Whatever method of hiding the boiler with pipes you choose, remember the main thing: safety is always more important than beauty! Before starting work, you should take into account all the nuances – heating, air circulation, urgent repairs.
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