Outdoor AC Unit Cover

Im getting tired of seeing my AC unit get rustier ever year, because all we had to cover it was a piece of plywood(which ended up getting stolen, lol).

So I decided my project for the day was to make a cover for it that I can expand on as the transition from rain to snow comes(reinforcing it.). I been working on winterizing my household, and this is one job I had been stalling because I had to salvage good enough wood to use.

But I finally gathered it all, so here is my guide to covering your outdoor AC unit.

My goal was to make this just out of stuff I had laying around my shop/house. So if you have to make something similar it may be build differently using different ideas.

I used random screws(about 4" long), staples for staple gun, eleven 2x4's, and some random tarp I got from my uncle, and I caulked all the corners for more stability for an attempt to hold the snow. I know I will have to reinforce this more when the snow comes, but I have a good month before it snows and I got a lot to do. Haha.

The tools I used are : measuring tape, a level, power drill, staple gun, and a caulking gun.

Measure out the size of frame you have to make, I'm not a professional, so I don't know how to tell you how to write your dimensions. But my AC came out to 33" tall and 36 1/2" wide all around, it's like a perfect square, so making the frame was pretty straight forward. I'm skipping detail on this one for obvious reasons.

Time to build the frame, take the dimensions you gathered before and put them to use!! I had kind of a jankey build for my frame, due to the fact that I built the frame all fancy and it ended up not fitting, so I just relocated some things on the finished product and made it work, instead of starting over. Lol.

I would be rabbling if I fully explained my crazy ways of getting the frame together, I'm still learning how to output my designs that can teach people, so hopefully the picture can do it some justice.

I used one tube of caulking and at least 200 staples sealing this down to attempt to ensure that the plastic wouldn't come off with the wind, and that it would hold sturdy through the bad weather. About a week in of some pretty bad weather and it's holding up great so far though!!

Things I would have done to improve this build would of been to build this using some computer software first so I would know my dimensions are correct. I know I measured it right, but the way I built it made it about an inch smaller than it was supposed to be, which forced me to scrap the original more stable design.


If you found this instructable at all useful, I would appreciate a vote for the contests that are going on. The more tools and materials I have the more I can build and share!! :)