#HIDDEN WATER HEATER INSTALL#

Here is a before and after of that corner. The last few things we needed to do was paint the door and trim and add a hook and eye closure to keep the door securely shut.

We did this purposely so that we could add a piece of trim that would overlap the wall and create a seamless look. The door slightly overlapped the edge of the shiplap wall. We used these hinges, similar to door hinges to hold it up. There was no other way to get this pic without me in it. This is one of those rare times that I will put myself in the picture. Apparently a 6 ft 5 inch man just doesn’t fit quite as well as I do. My husband made me hold the door up while he secured it to the wall. We strengthened it by adding 2 by 4 blocks to the left and right sides. We didn’t want this door to be too heavy. We built the door out of one piece of 1/2 inch plywood. Once this part was done, we worked on the door of the closet. Here, the shiplap has been installed over the plywood and is being prepped for paint.

#HIDDEN WATER HEATER INSTALL#

The next step was to install plywood to the framed wall for more support and to give the shiplap something to be secured to. We added another vertical stud for more rigidity and stability. We screwed it into the floor joists in the ceiling and drilled it into the concrete floor and bolted it. We built the frame of the wall with 2 by 4 studs. We started by building a wall that would divide the space and create the wall to the closet. See that lovely thing on the wall? What about that giant water softener? This was not just about a water heater, that over sized water softener had to be hidden too. It would make it look deliberate, like it was a natural state of the room, not a sneaky hidden space. It was decided….a closet, covered in shiplap to match with rest of the walls. I wanted to conceal them well enough, that anyone looking in this room, would not notice the screening, or concealing materials. I thought of a few different scenarios including: hanging a curtain, and building a pegboard screen, but non of the ideas had that permanent, and INVISIBLE look I was going for. There had to be some way to conceal our water heater and water softener. Its all the same though, unsightly in all its glory. I guess I should be grateful it was a tank less water heater instead of a regular one. Every time I looked in my laundry room all I saw was that evil thing. Before we knew it, we had this ugly tankless water heater hanging out smack dab in the middle of the wall. I guess you could say we really should have thought it through better when we were building our house. During my planning of my laundry room remodel, there was one thing that was at the top of my list.

Hidden water heater