Diy screen for a heating battery (38 photos): how to make a radiator grill, manufacturing features

Renovation in the apartment is complete, but old radiators or even the latest heating radiators are attracting attention, beating out of the carefully thought out image of the room. A decorative screen will help to disguise them by entering into a single style of the room. Despite the large number of ready-made solutions available for sale, they are not always suitable for a particular room in terms of size, design, and functions.

But if you are one of those craftsmen who love and know how to bring a zest to the interior of your home, then you will be interested to know how to make a screen for a heating battery at home.

Radiator grille functions

The use of decorative products for batteries gives their owners a number of advantages:

  • The batteries are effectively masked, which transforms the room while maintaining a uniform and unique style of the interior.
  • The radiators are protected from dust for easy maintenance and longer service life.
  • Households are protected from the possibility of accidentally getting burned or hitting the protruding parts of the radiator.

If you design and create a shield for a radiator yourself, you can endow it with additional functions:

  • The correct screen design will help the air flow to spread more evenly throughout the room.
  • The top cover can be made in the form of a shelf for books, a lamp, interior trifles.
  • The screen can be equipped with a folding table, at which it is pleasant to have a cup of tea or read a book.
  • Providing an overlay with hooks, the owner of the shield will receive a clothes dryer during the heating season.

Armed with all the variety of materials on the market, their colors and textures, rich imagination and a little experience, you can create an exclusive screen that fits perfectly into the interior and will perform all the functions assigned to it. Today, the radiator openwork model is quite popular.

How does the heating system work?

If you are afraid that by covering the heating devices with screens, the room will become cooler, then this is not so. A correctly selected design, taking into account the principles of the radiator's operation, does not reduce the degree of its heat transfer.

Heating devices transfer heat in two ways - convection (mixing cold and warm air masses) and radiant energy (the higher the radiator temperature, the higher the radiation power).

Batteries begin to heat the air at first by convection, but as the temperature rises, infrared radiation is more intense. Heaters manufactured with the latest technology are able to accommodate changing external conditions, redistributing energy flows to increase energy transfer.

For example, air circulation is impeded by a curtain or decorative shield. A modern radiator will begin to raise the temperature of the front panels so that heat transfer begins not by convection, but due to infrared radiation. This property significantly increases the efficiency of radiators.

With any type of radiator, it is necessary that the front panel of the decorative screen has many holes , and there is enough space between the panel and the radiator for the formation of an air gap. Thus, the transfer of heat by convection will not be disturbed.

If you place a substrate with heat-reflecting properties behind the heater, and make the wrong surface of the screen black, this will increase heat transfer due to infrared radiation.

Varieties of accessory

Depending on which installation method is chosen, there are three types of screens:

  • three-sided box with a cover (pedestal);
  • flat panel;
  • hinged screen.

If you need to completely hide the battery, use a structure in the form of a closed box with a lid. A radiator in a niche or under a windowsill is masked with a shield in the form of a flat panel. If the radiator protrudes from under the window sill, then a hinged screen is used, consisting of a cover and a flat facade.

When making a decorative shield, you can choose the following materials or their combinations:

  • metal;
  • wood;
  • plastic;
  • glass;
  • MDF boards, chipboard, fiberboard.

The metal shield conducts heat well. The metal product can be given a very sophisticated look by perforation or welding according to the customer's sketches. But to work with metal on your own, you need skills and equipment.

Wood screens are environmentally friendly and look noble. At the same time, wood is a pliable material, very easy to process. But wooden panels under the influence of hot air and humidity are prone to deformation and drying out, so you need to select high-quality, dried wood, and impregnate the finished screen with special means.

Plastic impresses with its availability, rich choice of colors, ease of processing. But it is short-lived, deforms from high temperature, releases substances unsafe for humans. Therefore, plastic screens should not be installed where people live.

Tempered glass screens are durable, the glass itself is thick, with already processed edges. You can decorate the glass with almost any pattern, supplement it with LED lighting. Glass screens are classified as elite models, they are not cheap.

MDF screens are the most common design option for heating devices. Plates made of fine-dispersed fraction differ little in quality from wood, they are easy to care for and easy to work with. MDF screens are distinguished by a rich color palette, a variety of textures and styles.

In the manufacture of decorative boards, creative craftsmen can use atypical materials, for example, thick fabric.

How to do it yourself?

The manufacture of a shield for a heating device begins with the selection of the desired design. You need to proceed from the location of the radiator, the existing skills in processing various materials, the availability of working tools and available materials. At home, it will be easiest to make either a screen-box or a shield-lattice. Let's consider how to make such screens yourself.

"Box"

The most popular among home craftsmen is the box-shaped screen. There are a lot of options for making panels for such a box, as well as the materials used. Consider the most affordable and easy-to-create mesh box framed by a frame. First you need to prepare what and with what we will do it.

Tools and raw materials

  • finely dispersed fraction panels (MDF) or chipboard (chipboard), color-coordinated with the interior of the room;
  • metal mesh mesh;
  • sheet of metal or foil for the rear heat-reflecting element;
  • legs (dowels, fastening hooks; anchors, bolts);
  • hacksaws for wood and metal;
  • drill;
  • sandpaper;
  • glue, small nails, furniture stapler;
  • fastening materials (staples, screws, corners).

Algorithm of actions

A screen-box is a box without a back wall. The front and end panels of the box are metal mesh planes framed by a decorative slatted frame. This option looks nice and does not interfere with the heat transfer of the battery. The screen cover is made either from a mesh (by analogy with a front panel), or from a solid canvas.

The manufacturing process consists of taking measurements, drawing a sketch and creating patterns, transferring patterns to the canvas, cutting out parts, assembling, decorating in accordance with the style of the room.

Taking measurements, creating sketches

They begin work on creating a screen-box by determining the parameters and drawing a sketch of the future product.

  1. They take measurements from the battery - height and width. For the optimal size of the facade panel, the height value is increased by 5 cm, and the width - by 10 cm.
  2. The depth of the battery is measured. The resulting value is increased by 2.5 cm. Thus, the width of the end pieces is obtained (their height will be equal to the height of the facade screen). The location of the pipes is marked on the pattern.
  3. Determine the dimensions of the cover. Its length is the width of the front panel, and the width is 1-2 cm greater than the width of the end panels.
  4. The edging frame is equal in length to the sum of the cuts of all panels, and in width corresponds to the wish of the master (for the facade, the frame width is recommended to be 11 cm).

Separate parts of the screen are cut out according to the following algorithm:

  1. The resulting patterns are redrawn onto a metal mesh and cut or sawn out along the contour. It is necessary to prepare one element for the facade, two for the ends of the box and one element for the cover (if a one-piece cover is not intended). Provide the entry and exit points for heating pipes on the details of the end panels.
  2. Elements for framing the cellular element are cut out of chipboards or MDF (four strips for the facade, eight strips for the end panels and four strips for the cover). If the lid is solid, then it is cut out according to a pattern from chipboard or MDF.
  3. The ends of the resulting slats are cut off at an angle of 45 °, after making a markup. The cuts are sanded with sandpaper.

Assembly

When the main elements are ready, you can assemble. The four slats of the facade are fixed together with carpentry glue and additionally nailed with nails. The frames of the end elements and covers are assembled according to the same principle. On the reverse side, a metal mesh is attached to the frame with a stapler.

The finished panels are connected together: first one end panel is attached to the facade, then the second. The cover is secured last. After completing the assembly, the finished shield can be decorated.

Installation

Before installing the box, a heat reflector (metal sheet or foil) is glued to the wall behind the heating device. The dimensions of the heat reflector are not particularly important - by the size of the radiator, by the size of the box, or slightly smaller. A part is cut out of metal or foil and fixed to the wall behind the battery. Then you can mount the box itself.

Choose one of the installation options:

  1. Legs. Metal corners with furniture legs are attached to the bottom of the box (choose legs with height adjustment). Set the required height of the legs and mount the screen.
  2. Dowels with hooks. Putting the screen to the place where it will hang, mark on the wall where to drive the dowels. Holes are made in these places, dowels are driven in. Mounting hooks are mounted on which the box is hung.
  3. Bolted anchors. They outline the places where the anchors should be hammered, drill holes, drive in anchors, screw bolts into them. A decorative screen-box is mounted on the bolts.

Decorative grille

If there is no need for a screen-box, you can completely get by with a screen in the form of a front panel. Such a panel can correspond to the dimensions of the radiator or, by its size and shape, meet the wishes of the owner. The lattice shield can be made in the form of a frame with a metal mesh or a perforated MDF panel. The manufacturing process for such a lattice is similar to the manufacturing process for the front part of the masking box discussed above.

If experience allows you, then you can make a decorative shield in the form of a wooden slatted lattice in a frame (like blinds). The slats in such a frame are located in any direction - horizontally, vertically, diagonally. Complicating the task for yourself, you can pile a mesh lattice from slats (you can lay slats not only at right angles).

Recommendations

The decorative screen should not interfere with heating the room, especially if the radiators are of the old design. Panels with a mesh, grate or sheets with a large number of holes, which do not obstruct the passage of air, do well with this task.

The raw materials can be combined to enhance the functionality, durability and visual appeal of the screen.

        The decorative screen protects against dust, but cleaning is still inevitable. When choosing a screen model, take into account the cases of cleaning, planned seasonal work, accidents.

        Making a decorative shield with your own hands will not cause difficulties if you understand the technology and have at least a little experience in carpentry work.

        For information on how to make a screen on a battery with your own hands, see the next video.