What to do to hide post and cold air return

  D. Paint a building front on the board

That looks terrible.Re route the air return.Is that a basement?Why is there an air return going down towards the floor anyway?

I agree where does that duct go?

It goes to a cold air return duct. Why it was put there?  Poor plan its that simple. Re-routing does nothing since there are two structural posts on each side.  They are not going anywhere.  I agree it looks terrible. So the question remains. One vote for painting a building thanks Farmer Bill!. 

Get a piece of green board (the type of drywall) and cover the duct work and posts.  Paint a grain elevator on it and build a loading dock on that siding.

mirrors?

I would suggest you turn it into some form of a building structure. Either use a kit, or scratch build around it, and as others noted add a loading dock. In this approach it will blend in and you will never see the wood.

I'm with Rich on this, purchase a kit or kit bash a few kits and make a beautiful building front. Rich has many too choose from.

 

Thanks,

Alex

       
       

   
       
       


Heck of a good idea guys... i was gonna pick trees but actually hiding it with a building is ingenious!

 

https://ogrforum.com/t...-beautiful-structure

Option C

 

A grain elevator should cover most of it nicely.

Moonman's post above is a clear winner in my opinion. Add some landscaping, assorted junk piles, etc. and you'll never notice the post/duct.

jackson

The painting is unique,  but give some thougt  to Alex M. He has that build,

he is doing with that depth, and you place some stuff on both, side,  You will

have a classy solution !!!

Remove the cold air return.  Build into the cavity of the 2 beams.  Either a coaling station or even rock.  The flat and limited space of the cold air return isn't offering much but once removed, that space can be reclaimed and most likely make an area open for more ideas, even with the support beams.

"I am open to any and all suggestions."

 

Well O.K.   Without having the actual dimensions it appears the Cold air return is the size of a standard stud wall cavity...14.5" X 3.5".

If so, you can keep the return air function by installing a new pipe of about 50 square inch area...say a 10"X 5" pipe.

One suggestion would be to shorten the siding behind the wood post and install the 10 X 5 inch pipe behind the wood post connecting it as needed to the ceiling return air run. Now you can eliminate all the old return air ductwork (including the studs).

You still have the post to contend with but at least now you can disguise it with a tall building built around the post.

If your house collapses when you remove the studs I disavow any connection to this post.

Mark

 

You need a very large, tall structure with a relatively small footprint like a grain elevator. Google grain elevator and you will find lots of images.

Great ideas guys I appreciate all the ideas and keep them coming.

OPTION D

 

 

(This is fun!) 

 

Ok.....

 

Tear down the house.

 

Re-design new house for layout.

 

Build house.

 

Problem solved.

 

Here's a possibility.

The Atlas (IHC) two stall engine house might work.

You could build only the front side and the two ends.

This way the front could be much longer using the spare pieces, and look like a long engine house.

The one end farthest from the duct and post would be operational, while the end with the duct and post is a dummy.

 

Rod

My cold air return is now a warm air return! Looks much better. Good ideas all. I think I will build a simple shed and paint the board to match the backdrop. Something like Avanti's option D. Assumes I can paint. Probably not a good assumption. I like the concrete silo idea also but since I  envision this area as a backwoods type industry a large concrete silo just doesn't seem to work. If my feeble attempt to paint the scene does not work well,  I see a concrete silo in my future. 

Another alternative is to use modular building drawings to create an interesting scene by covering the vent.  Check out my selection of in your case a number of industrial buildings I offer on my web site www.westportmodelworks.com

Les Lewis

I would frame the upper ductwork in, drywall it, and paint a cloud scene sky on it.  Then for the vertical post, same box it in drywall it, paint a sky scraper onto it, easy to stencil in windows, use industrial grey rust colors, you could use reflective white paints so they glow with  a black light at night.   then no need to do all the building constuction figuring piecing together.  just my suggestion.  thats what Im doing in my garage now, boxing in and drywalling everything before I start my benchwork again.