Water Heater Construction Finished!

2008-05-22

Finally!  After many hours of working on this beast, the water heater cabinet is finished at last!  I've finished attaching all drywall panels and have applied drywall mud and drywall tape where the panels meet.

As a novice in working with metal, I'm reasonably pleased with the outcome of this project.  It was difficult and required some re-engineering from the original design, but it turned out very solid.

I was originally going to skip painting this cabinet, but I've learned that the drywall will darken over time and I'd rather that the unit blend in well with the rest of the garage interior.  I'll be painting this a flat eggshell white in a few days.

So, with little delay, I painted the cabinet a basic flat white.  Not bad for an evening's work.

Progress on the Water Heater Cabinet

2008-05-20

Time marches on and work continues on the water heater cabinet.  I've now mounted two drywall panels to the metal frame and things have come together quite nicely.  First I cut, fitted and affixed the left wall panel as shown here.

Then I cut the right drywall panel to size.  Once that was done, I cut out the vent holes by holding the vent grill to the drywall; scoring the vent interior edges with a nail, drilling four pilot holes, then cutting out the vent hole using a jig saw. After that, I drilled two small holes for #8-10 1" screw anchors with which I affixed the 6"x14" vents.

Bolting the drywall to the frame was a bit of a maneuvering trick, but was nonetheless accomplished just minutes later.  The high vent's uppermost edge is 14" from the top and the low vent's bottom edge is 18" from the floor.  This arrangement allows for optimal air flow for this unit.  Next I'll fashion the drywall segments for the front and then it's on to applying the drywall mud and drywall tape.

Continuing Work on the Water Heater Cabinet

2008-05-17

Work continues on the water heater cabinet.  This weekend I picked up a 80"x30" folding louvered door for the front.  It's a nice fit, but it was a bit difficult working it into the metal frame.  Metal is a forgiving medium, but it is uncompromising to say the least.  I've found that for every addition I've made, I've had to undo at least two previous steps just to proceed one step further.  This is more an issue of my novice status with metal, I'm sure.

Anyway, the folding door went in quite nicely and I'm very pleased with its smooth function.  This should serve well for many years to come.

I've made one significant departure from my original design with the addition of a screen frame that goes all the way to the ceiling.  I originally intended to make a screen lid, but realized into the project that the lid would just be a problematic to maintain with any dust that settled on it.  This new wraparound screen solves that problem and also makes the unit just seem more "complete" since it now mates to both the wall and ceiling.

With the frame in place, I cut up the aluminum screen to fit and mounted it with little trouble.  The next step will be cutting and mounting the gypsum drywall.

Slow but Steady Progress...

2008-05-10

I've been sidetracked with a lot of little projects lately, and progress on my larger projects have slowed down as a result.  Finally, after several weeks of delays, I've been able to resume work on the water heater cabinet.  In doing this, I essentially constructed the entire frame horizontally as shown here.

The cabinet is 8' tall, but the longest metal brace sold at the local Home Depot was just 6' in length.  To work around this, I cut four 4' braces into 2' sections and braced the pieces together using ¼" hex bolts.  This arrangement lengthened the 6' sections by 2' and joined each section together with a 2' section of brace reinforcement secured by six ¼" hex bolts.

Once the 8' sections were completed, the corners were reinforced with diagonal braces.

Right angle brace reinforcements were used for the adjacent corners.

Then I partially disassembled the frame so I could fit it around the water and gas pipes that lead into and away from the water heater.  Then I anchored the frame to the wall using 2" wood screws.  Everything is rock solid and ready for the fire-rated gypsum drywall.

Once I mounted the water heater cabinet frame to the wall, I spent some time applying a few coats of water sealer on the boards around the sink area of the work bench.  After a few hours, the wood was reasonably protected against moisture in the working area.  It isn't anything that I'd submerge on a regular basis, but it'll certainly hold up to everyday sink usage for the next several years.

Working with Metal: Building a Water Heater Cabinet.

2008-04-22

I'm going to be taking on a new project with a new medium. Until now, nearly everything with which I've worked has been exclusively made of wood. That's about to change with this new project of making a cabinet to encase the water heater in the garage.

Since I do a lot of woodworking, my activities generate a lot of sawdust. With a water heater pilot flame not far from my work area, that's a significant hazard. Airborne fine-grained sawdust can readily accumulate in significant quantities in the air. Just one spark could spread from one floating grain of sawdust to another and create a combustive chain reaction. This type of dispersed-fuel combustion is the same phenomenon by which grain elevator explosions occur.

My garage is well-ventilated for the most part, but I prefer to be as safe as possible. To that end, I am encapsulating the water heater in a fireproof cabinet that will have positive outbound air flow and will be appropriately screened to prevent sawdust from making its way into the interior.

The interior frame will be constructed entirely of metal and its walls are made from 5/8" fire-rated gypsum drywall. The drywall will be bolted to the metal frame so that it will separate (rather than shatter) in the event of a flash fire. Additionally, there will be independent natural gas detectors, carbon monoxide detectors and smoke detectors mounted in or near the cabinet for further safety. For ventilation, the front door of the cabinet will be louvered, and there will be two 6"x14" vents on each wall of the cabinet to help hot air rise out of the cabinet, drawing fresh air in at the bottom.

This should be a challenging project and I look forward to completing it this weekend.