Problem buying a new radiator. £80 for removal. Ouch.

[CluelessDIYer1]

Needed the rad off today in time for wallpapering which is being done next week. After much YouTubing & online asking i was confident in doing it.

Get to the first valve, turn clockwise to close it ...... starts weeping.

All confidence now out the window. Open the valve - anti clockwise, stops weeping. Drain off.

Go to the TRV side but the nut is so tight up against the skirting i just can't get it turned. Having previously bent the 10mm pipe downstairs at a cost of £80 call out i figured i'd rather take another £80 hit than bend another pipe as i can see where this is going

Turns out on the left side, where i was closing it, well the base of that just needed nipping up. Lack of knowledge i guess.

Guy said that the radiator is not right for its location. It shouldn't sit so far below the top of the skirting & the nuts shouldn't be so close up against it (they were really quite tight, well, the TRV side was).

He advised a shorter rad - 400mm/500mm perhaps instead of 600mm & same width.

The skirting is quite high profile & newer than the rest of the skirting in the (1930s) house as it's different.


Anyway so i measure up the face of the radiator which comes in at 1750mm.
Check out the Screwfix catalogue & it lists 1600mm & 1800mm. I measure the fins at the rear of the rad to see if this is how you measure - that also doesn't match what Screwfix have.

So i measure the smaller rads in the house - they also don't match the Screwfix measurements.

There doesn't appear to be a whole lot of movement in the piping either & i don't fancy having the pipe work repositioned.

So with our rad measuring that, how'd you go about it without bending & repositioning the pipework?

I think for fitting of it i'll probably just arrange for someone to come out with the luck i've been having with the central heating

 

[ALCPlumbing]

They're probably old imperial sized radiators. If you don't want to have to change the pipework I always go for the slightly shorter radiator and you can buy an extension that will fit between the radiator and the valve.

 

[Dan Robinson]

I like to go the other way - a long rad hides the pipe work and gives off more heat.

Each job is different though.

 

[Servotech]

I always fit radiators 12mm above the skirting so that the customer can dust the top of the skirting (have done so since my apprenticeship).

However, removing rads for decorating is a total ball-ache even for experienced tradesman.
Advice tuck the wall paper down behind the top of the rad using an aplicator.

servotech,

 

[bazdaman]

I always fit radiators 12mm above the skirting so that the customer can dust the top of the skirting (have done so since my apprenticeship).

However, removing rads for decorating is a total ball-ache even for experienced tradesman.
Advice tuck the wall paper down behind the top of the rad using an aplicator.

servotech,

Really! How difficult is it to remove a rad for decorating for a tradesman?

 

[WabbitPoo]

Its not. Its just not something some of them like to be bothered with.

 

[Dean744PiN5]

Its not. Its just not something some of them like to be bothered with.

Its not that they cant be bothered, it is that most tradesman apart from plumbers are not covered for water damage in their insurance policies.
So you cant blame a decorator for not wanting to remove a rad.

 

[bazdaman]

Servotech is an experienced plumber though dean, dread to think of his curled up wallpaper behind his rads!