Tidying up plaster after airing cupboard removed.

I have a left-hand recess (52" wide) in a spare bedroom, next to the chimney breast, which used to house the airing cupboard/water tank, before I had it removed and the cupboard ripped out , when having a combi fitted. I now need to make good the damage left behind when said cupboard was removed. It appears that all previous plastering/finishing work was done around (??!!) the cupboard, after it was originally fitted into place, as there is now bare brick showing (approx 30 inches of wall from the chimney, into part of the L/H recess), and where the cupboard came into contact with the ceiling, there is no artex, which the rest of the ceiling in the room has got, just some thin board with the joists almost visible. Also, where the left hand side of the airing cupboard ran against the wall, from the floor to ceiling, there is a strip of beading almost plastered in which I will have to remove as well. To compound things further; the pipework for the combi in the loft, now comes down and runs right next to the chimney breast (represented by O`s) and this needs to be hidden, without covering up the Heating control box which is sited on the back wall of the recess, directly next to the pipework.

My questions are;

1) will it be ok to simply batten (1" x 0.5") this whole recess and nail/screw in plasterboard onto it, rather than getting half the wall plastered & trying to get it evenly skimmed/wait absolutely ages for a plasterer, in order to make it good once more? (Also making sure some sort of hole is cut out, to allow access to the control panel behind it)

2) Will I also be able to use plasterboard to `box in` the pipework?

recess _______________ _________ | | old O | chimney breast | recess | | |cupboardO | | | | was | | | | here | | | W - --------- |_________________| | i | n W | d a | o l | w l |

Does anybody have any other suggestions? I have been chasing builders/plasterers up for ages, with no luck, and until this work is carried out, I cannot get the skirting replaced in this recess, nor can I start carpeting the room & getting it back to some semblance of a bedroom/study once more.. Im tearing my hair out!

TIA

breast, which

yup. Screw with plasterboard screws, dont nail, dont use ordinary screws. Since youre creating a small cavity, very sensible to stuff cavity with glass fibre wool. You can use scrap wood as it doesnt matter what it looks like. I would suggest using 12mm not 9mm, little price difference, significantly stronger.

unscrew it from wall and remount it to the PB

you could, but I would personally pick something stronger like chipboard, and PVA it before skimming. If you use PB youll need to make a wood frame to screw it onto, it wont support itself.

replaced

semblance of

If you do the PB neatly, getting it level with the existing wall, you can just fill the gaps and youre done, no need to skim plaster it. Do it all yourself! Cutting the PB with a knife gives nice neat edges, unlike sawing or snapping.