Checking In With Chelsea

DIY ideas, crafts, and tips for your home

subscribe and never miss a thing!

Receive Free Email Updates

  • About
  • Videos
  • Projects
    • Indoor Projects
    • Outdoor Projects
    • Craft Projects
  • House Tour

Hide Your AC Unit with a Trellis

September 25, 2020 By Chelsea Lipford Wolf Leave a Comment

How To Build Panels to Cover your AC Unit

Call it a trellis or call it lattice, hide your AC unit with these easy DIY panels! Take it a step further and plant climbing vines to cover your HVAC even more!
Screening Air Conditioner from Backyard Patio or Deck

Materials to Hide AC Unit

  • pressure-treated 4x4s*
  • post hole diggers*
  • fast-setting concrete
  • pressure-treated lattice strips/lath*
  • nail gun*

Sure, you can get pre-made lattice panels. But to hide this particular AC unit, I wanted to mimic the ‘checkerboard’ under skirting of the deck Dad and I built for a recent episode of Today’s Homeowner. And since no where locally sells checkerboard panels, I built this one out of lattice strips.

This project was made in partnership with Exmark Mowers. My full how-to video is on their Backyard Life site along with tons of other outdoor project videos!

HVAC Condenser Unit Visible in Backyard

Set Posts at Corners

Once you decide on how many sides of your AC you’re going to conceal, you can start digging for the posts. I created a panel on the deck side and one on the yard side, so I needed (3) 4×4 posts. One for each end and one in the middle to share.

Mark your holes at least 24 inches away from your unit. This allows room for future service professionals and gives the unit adequate space for air intake. Then dig the holes with post hole diggers, about 12 inches deep.

You’ll want to have at least 1 foot of post in the ground. So measure the height of your unit and add 12 inches to it. I cut my 4×4 posts to 48″, so my panels ended up being 3 feet above the ground.

Set a post in the hole and add the fast-setting concrete around it.

Pouring Quikrete Fast Setting Concrete into Post Hole

Have a level handy to check for plumb as you add water to the concrete mix and it starts to harden. Work on one post at a time since it sets up so quickly!

Checking Plumb on 4x4 Post for Trellis Support

Add Lattice Strips

The next, and arguably most important, step to hide your AC unit is the lattice! You’ll need a piece of scrap wood, maybe a few inches of a 2×4 turned up on its side, to use as a spacer block as you’re installing the strips.

I started at the top and nailed one lattice strip flush with the 4x4s on the top and on the sides. For my next strip, I pushed my spacer up against the first piece followed by the next lattice strip. This will give you uniform spacing throughout your panel.

Using Spacer Between Horizontal Lattice Strips for Covering HVAC Unit

Make sure you use your spacer on the other end too!

Keep going down your panel until it’s as low as you want. Mine stopped 5-6 inches from the ground. Then it’s time to work on the vertical strips!

Because it’s highly unlikely your panel will be equally divisible by your spacer block, you may need to fudge the vertical strips as you from outside to inside.

Starting Vertical Lattice Strips for Checkerboard Lattice Trellis Panel

Start with vertical strips on each end flush with the outside of your 4×4 posts. Use the spacer block to place the next 3-4 strips on the right and left sides. Then, dry fit a few strips, with the spacer block, to see how the spacing will end up in the middle. Mark them with a pencil as you go so you have a visual guide. If you’re going to have 2 strips really close together, you’ll want to eliminate one strip and slightly increase the spacing as you move in.

I would hold up the spacer block and the next strip, then I would lower the spacer and slide the strip over 1/8 inch or so. And I would continue doing that, alternating between right and left, until the middle of the panel was full of vertical strips. It’s hardly noticeable once it’s all said and done.

Spacer Block from Scraps Used to Hide AC Unit

This is the slight disadvantage to building lattice from scratch. If you prefer to build it with pre-made lattice panels, here is a larger-scale privacy panel project I built many moons ago!

DIY Checkerboard Lattice Panels to Cover HVAC

Or I suppose you could take the length of your panel-to-be, crunch some numbers and cut a spacer block to the right width so that you could use it uniformly throughout. But I don’t have the brainpower for that!

Plants to Hide Your AC

After you’ve made your way around nailing all of the vertical strips, you can paint or stain it to match your deck or existing outdoor accents. Then take it up a notch and plant some climbing vines. They’ll grow up the lattice in no time and cover your HVAC unit even more! And it’ll probably even knock some of the noise from the unit too.

My favorites are Carolina jasmine and Bougainvillea.

Screening Air Conditioner from Backyard Patio or Deck

Don’t forget to click over to Exmark’s Backyard Life to see my video tutorial on How to Hide Your AC Unit and many more projects!

Thanks for Checking In! Chelsea

Subscribe for Free Updates!

Stay up-to-date on Chelsea's latest projects, tips, useful resources and more.

Previous Post
How to Sell Your House Fast and Cheap
Next Post
How To Install Beautiful Privacy Window Film

Related Content

Completed $200 Front Porch Makeover$200 Front Porch Makeover1950s Ranch Brick Home on Corner Lot Pristine ConditionOur Ranch Revival Introduction and Before TourChelsea Lipford Wolf on Deck with Small Bug-Repellent Container GardenEasy Way to Keep Mosquitos AwayRear View of Tan Vinyl House and Wood DeckHow to Refresh Your Wood Deck for a New Look

Please Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Welcome!

I’m Chelsea. DIY
enthusiast who loves
sharing my victories
and mishaps!
Learn more
here.

CHECK IN WITH CHELSEA ON INSTAGRAM

Happy 3rd birthday🎈to the biggest mama’s girl Happy 3rd birthday🎈to the biggest mama’s girl I’ve ever known! She weighs as much as her big siblings but still likes Mommy to hold her.😜 She’s got plenty of sass and insists on doing everything herself. Which is why she normally has hair in her face and a tornado of chaos all around her. Pretty much our life since she came into it. But the best kind of chaos that grows and stretches you and teaches you to slow down and accept them just the way they are.☺️
.
.
Can’t believe it’s been 3 years!🥺
.
.
#celebratethem #birthdayshoutout #girlbirthday #girlparty #3rdbirthday #springbreak2022 #familyvaca #vacay2022 #vacationmode #visitflorida #staugustinefl
Cheers to the weekend, friends! May it be filled w Cheers to the weekend, friends! May it be filled with plenty of sunshine and bright spots!☀️🥰
.
.
#happyweekend #friyay #feelslikesummer #weekendvibes✨ #mothersdayweekend #beachday #plentyofsunshine #pocketfullofsunshine #girlbedroom #twinbeds #pinkvibes
FINALLY painted this eyesore of a wall and finishe FINALLY painted this eyesore of a wall and finished just before dark last night!🙌🏻 My husband and I decided instead of starting a new project (ahem a baby nursery) we should finish the projects we’ve already started. Since baby is due in the summer, it will be so nice to have our backyard up to par so we can rest and relax out there during recovery. ☺️
.
.
We started this project back in October by stripping and scraping the many layers of paint so we could waterproof the bricks and paint the wall to match the house. But the house was painted exactly a year ago. So it was way past time to knock this huge item of the time-do list. And it feels like such a relief to not have to walk by the unfinished-ness every time we come home now!
.
.
Next up we’ll slowly tackle patching hardwood floors and finish painting and replacing our interior doors that are taking up room in our garage.👏🏻
.
.
What’s something you’ve knocked off your to-do list lately?!
Happy Sunday! Love these little Easter babies of m Happy Sunday! Love these little Easter babies of mine! And definitely loving this beautiful spring weather we’ve been having lately!☀️Don’t forget Sunday is a day of rest and to give yourself some time to relax today.💆🏼‍♀️
Easter Sunday always feels special!✝️✨ Easter Sunday always feels special!✝️✨
Azaleas under oak trees never gets old. Welcome, S Azaleas under oak trees never gets old. Welcome, Spring!🌸🌺🪴
.
.
#naturalbeauty #natureisbeautiful #natureinstagram #azaleacity #mobilealabama #southerncharm #canopyoftrees #springhassprung #springhascome #springishere☀️
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Indoor Projects Outdoor Projects Craft Projects
Facebook Pagelike Widget
  • Contact
  • FAQs
  • Advertise with Chelsea
  • Media
  • Today’s Homeowner

Search This Site

Receive Free Updates Via Email

Copyright © 2022 Checking in With Chelsea • All Rights Reserved