Air Conditioner Cover

Here's something rather simple that I made late last fall to replace the disintegrating cover my parents were using. It covers the entire area instead of being tight to the unit. It's on only in the winter months and is taken off in the spring; that's when these pictures were taken.  The blue of the roof matches the shutters on the house and the grey matches the siding & concrete block.  This has many advantages over their old cover - it prevents leaves and debris from getting between the AC unit and house/porch, plus the snow slides off due to the angle. It also sits close enough to the house to prevent any animals from getting inside.  Also, since the AC unit is over 15 years old and probably ready to give it up, there is enough room to accomodate a slightly larger unit. It was quite simple to build - hardest part was manipulating sheet goods in my small shop. Used OSB because it was cheap and the last cover lasted ~15 years before the swelling got really bad.

Pardon the background mess - was getting the boat ready the same day the cover came off.

The OSB top started to sag mid-winter, so I added a couple cross supports to the underside of the top. The problem is now gone. You can also see in these pics the simple blocks that go on either side of the sides to prevent movement, and the blocks in front to keep it from sliding off. Top simply lifts off, but is tight enough to the house that no wind can get underneath.

Here's how the sides/front are held together. Simply slide out the piece of 1/2" EMT and the sides/front come apart. The blocks on either side and the front are part of an old oak 4x4. You can also see here that I cheated & used the cutoff from the slanted part to form the front with 3 thin wood strips holding the two halves together. (Now I don't have extra OSB laying around that'll take me 5 years to find a use for, plus I saved $7.) The sides are 6' tall where they meet the house and 4' tall at the front, which provided a good slant and also allowed me to re-use the scrap in this way. Because the sides/front come apart, you can stagger them and stack them together for storage; entire thing collapses to about 6" thick.

Last are the feet that hold the OSB edges about 1/2" off the ground. This reduces swelling greatly, though it's not entirely elimiated. One foot was frozen in ice and somebody tried chopping it out instead of letting it melt, so I'll be making a new foot or two before fall. Simply a chunk of wood with a dado sawn in it - easy enough to make.

Hope this gives somebody else ideas if you're contemplating making something similar. Total cost was only about $25 for the 3 sheets of OSB, plus scrap wood, a bunch of screws that I already had, and leftover paint. The EMT pipe was left over from my home-made shanty, dismantled when I bought a Shappell 3000 deluxe, but only runs about $3 for 10' at HD if you don't have it. I can assemble or disassemble the entire cover myself in under 5 minutes.