CH Pipes. Paint of not

[Andrew May]

I am interested to know what everyone else does about exposed central heating pipes. Do you paint them to match the adjacent woodwork or walls or leave them copper and allow them to gradually tarnish?

[Roger Mills]

Mostly, I paint them. In a few cases, I've got some white plastic clip-on covers which just have to be cut to length and snapped over the pipes - but they tend to discolour after a while.

[Frank Erskine]

Whatever tickles your fancy :-)

[Andrew May]

Never used those but I'm thinking more about exposed pipe runs rather than radiator tails. It is a solid floor so all pipes come down from the ceiling above rather than up from the floor below.

[Huge]

Polish and lacquer them?

(A friend did that with all the DIY pipework round his boiler because he was so proud of it.)

[Roger Mills]

Ah, yes - I was thinking of radiator pipes coming out of the floor.

However, I have got some pipes coming down the wall because I, too, have solid floors downstairs. Mine are mostly in corners - where they're boxed in and painted or papered over - or in cupboards where they don't show at all. I haven't got *any* vertical pipes which are visible. In one case, the pipes come down in a cupboard and then run along the skirting board to the radiator. The horizontal bits of these are painted.

[Gazz]

That'd look good if they were feeding the old style steam radiators i.e steam punk the heating system... a few pressure gauges, industrial valves etc, all polished like the engine room of a vintage boat.

in this house the pipes are painted... with the same stuff that went on the walls to give it that sharp bobbely feel, not sure it's genuine artex, i'm sure it's just grains of sand mixed with the paint, as i leave a few layers of skin on the walls every time i brush against them,

sandpaper effect i call it, and every bloody pipe to the radiators has it slapped on it, still, i guess it helps it blend in.

[Frank Erskine]

...and knife switches for the electrics.

[Martin Bonner]

Paint, every time.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I spray them with 'chrome' paint. Which looks rather like brushed stainless steel.

[ARWadsworth]

Sink them into the wall.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

[ARWadsworth]

[Dave Plowman (News)]

[blush] It's the towel rail in my main bathroom.

[ARWadsworth]

:-)

[Fred]

Does anyone have problems removing nuts after the pipes have been painted? I even saw an isolating valve painted the other day!