How to conceal or cove around heating pipes?

~Chameleon~

Hi everyone, back for more advice again!

I'm in somewhat of a quandary over how best to deal with some central heating pipes that run ceiling to floor in the corner of the chimney breast alcove. I was originally going to make a feature of the alcove by putting in shelving and running decor wood strips on either side of the walls, which would then conceal the pipes from direct view. Trouble is, I'm currently in the process of putting up coving and have now run into a problem in this corner in that the coving won't fit behind the pipes on the return wall into the alcove :rolleyes:

My next thought was to completely box in the pipes and run the coving and skirtings around the boxing, but I'm not sure how best to do this to ensure a good finish that I can wallpaper over. This is going to be a feature wall so can't really afford to have any bumps and lumps showing beneath.

I also have very limited time to solve this problem before the flooring and decorating is done next week, which rules out doing any sort of plastering work so if I use plasterboard to box in can I wallpaper directly onto this? Can I conceal any joins with caulking or filler?

I'm open to any and all suggestions, even a solution in how best to cove around the pipes if necessary as this would be the easiest/quickest solution if it's at all possible.

Many thanks for any help and advice :A :beer:

~Chameleon~

Anyone have any ideas please?

jason_s_2

What about building a stud wall? or use the white plastic pipe trunking? any of these any good?

moonrakerz

I needed to box in a wash basin wastepipe which ran along the wall for about 6 feet in my bathroom. I used two pieces of MDF skirting board screwed together at right angles to each other.
Gave a nice straight even job.

~Chameleon~

Would it be possible to wallpaper over MDF though? The boxing in will effectively extend the chimney breast wall by 3" which is going to be wallpapered as a feature wall.

Jason - I could probably use the trunking to conceal the pipes if I don't box them in but that then leaves the problem of how to cove around them on the ceiling. We can leave the main piece of coving slightly longer to extend beyond the pipes at the front, but the the return piece into the alcove won't have anything other than the ceiling to fix to. Is it possible to somehow suspend a piece of coving from the ceiling?

The alcove is only 6" deep so it wouldn't be a very big piece

Benny24

I have the plastic trunking on my pipes that run floor to ceiling. Looks fine.

nick22abdn

For the best finish I would box around the pipes. Use plasterboard over stud work and you should get a good finish. Caluking the joints wont give you a great finish. Probably best to pick up some metal corner tape and fastset. Very easy job to attach + a light sand will leave you with a perfect finish.