Post by autobodyman on Feb 22, 2010 17:30:02 GMT -6
My mother had a basement bathroom redone a couple years ago. She asked me but I didn't want to mess with all the cutting of the concrete floor, so she hired some other guys to do this bathroom. Anyway I tried to tell her that since all the plumbing in the house seems to go threw this room that I would have made a removable chase around the ceiling perimeter, but she didn't want that. Last winter the water lines running along the outside wall froze and my dad had to cut into the sheetrock over the toilet to thaw the pipes. He fixed the pipes but left the holes in the ceiling with just some white metal grills he put over the holes.
My mother had bought some plastic grid (like a light cover?) to put over the area, she showed them to me and asked if I could work with them. I said sure but they are pretty ugly, then she told me she paid $80.00 a piece for the grids, I asked if she could take them back, I could probably build something nicer for less than that. Me and my big mouth, took me 12 hours all told to make and install this "vent" panel.
I thought about doing the router jig thing but figured it would take more time so I just set my radial arm saw to 45° to cut into my rails about 3/8" deep and cut 1/8" thick slats, covered the top bottom and center with more 1/8" strips. Took 78 slats.
They haven't so far this year had a problem with the pipes freezing again with dad's vents but just in case I decided to make this panel so it could just be slid out if he needed to get in there. I also painted the ceiling black. You can't see threw my panel from the front but I figured if you were sitting on the toilet looking up, it would bug me anyway.
I don't like staining but to match what they had done I had too. I would have made this out of oak but I didn't have enough on hand so I made it from soft maple. Again I figured since it was getting stained didn't make much difference, their doors are oak but the guys used pine for the trim on the window.
The panel is remarkably light, I think it turned out okay. I'd have spent more time and done a carved panel or something but since it wasn't for me, I didn't want to get to much time in this project. I usually charge my folks $15. an hour and materials but for what this is I figured I'd try to keep this under $200 total.
What do you think?
Thanks ~Mike
My mother had bought some plastic grid (like a light cover?) to put over the area, she showed them to me and asked if I could work with them. I said sure but they are pretty ugly, then she told me she paid $80.00 a piece for the grids, I asked if she could take them back, I could probably build something nicer for less than that. Me and my big mouth, took me 12 hours all told to make and install this "vent" panel.
I thought about doing the router jig thing but figured it would take more time so I just set my radial arm saw to 45° to cut into my rails about 3/8" deep and cut 1/8" thick slats, covered the top bottom and center with more 1/8" strips. Took 78 slats.
They haven't so far this year had a problem with the pipes freezing again with dad's vents but just in case I decided to make this panel so it could just be slid out if he needed to get in there. I also painted the ceiling black. You can't see threw my panel from the front but I figured if you were sitting on the toilet looking up, it would bug me anyway.
I don't like staining but to match what they had done I had too. I would have made this out of oak but I didn't have enough on hand so I made it from soft maple. Again I figured since it was getting stained didn't make much difference, their doors are oak but the guys used pine for the trim on the window.
The panel is remarkably light, I think it turned out okay. I'd have spent more time and done a carved panel or something but since it wasn't for me, I didn't want to get to much time in this project. I usually charge my folks $15. an hour and materials but for what this is I figured I'd try to keep this under $200 total.
What do you think?
Thanks ~Mike
