fixing raditor to lath & plaster wall ?

[Jack Fate]

I fear this will always be rath Hit miss . However does anybody have any tips.?

thanks

Richard Morley

[Fash]

Put two thinnish (10-12mm) bits of timber across the wall at the heights you want to screw the radiator brackets on. These bits of timber to be fixed to studs in the wall. Then screw the rad brackets to the timber using all the screw holes. This hould be fine. Alternatively still use the timber but attach to the lath and plaster with butterfly fixings if you really can't find any studs in suitable places.

I've done both without any problems.

Fash

[EricP]

Use a wood drill, not a masonary one to drill the holes and little pressure on the drill. That way you will not disturb the lathes much. Also try to put one set of screws in a vertical support.

It might be wise to use cavity wall fixings that go right through the wall and open up in the cavity.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Jack Fate" saying something like:

Cut a sheet of 1/2" ply and mount it to the wall where the rad will go. If the rad's wide enough it'll span 2 or 3 battens; simply screw the rad brackets to the ply.

If it's a small bathroom rad you might find the hollow fasteners are good enough straight into the plasterboard.

[Jack Fate]

Many thanks to all for your prompt suggestions.

Are there always Battons in a P & L wall & any sure fire way to locate them ? Remember this is P &L , not plasterboard. This is a 1909 house.

Richard

[Phil]

The laths are fastened to something! It's these vertical studs that you'd be aiming to find.

[Weatherlawyer]

Yes but they will be remarkably skimpy maybe 1 1/2" rather than the full 2". They will be at 2 ft or some other imperial measurement "centre to centre" though. Poke a smallish hole somewhere the rad will hide, then insert you tape measure. Where it stops you have found a stud.

You should be able to plug the hole no problem or cover the whole of the wall at the back of the rad with some aluminium faced plasterboard for extra insulation.

[Stuart]

I don't know about "always" but in my flat any bits that are Lath and Plaster are fixed to either joists ( ceilings) or timber strapping on the walls .Can't you poke around where the radiator is to go to find what the laths are fixed to .It'll be hidden by the rad anyway ....Just remove some of the laths to see whats behind them .

The best idea sounds like the fixing of horizontal timber straps to whatever the laths are fixed to but make sure they themselves are secured to the wall behind

Stuart .

[Christian McArdle]

My house was built in 1909 and the studwork is of identical dimensions that you would find today. The biggest problem is that the laths set off a stud locator, making them useless. Like you, I find the studs by drilling a hole and poking around (but in my case with stiff wire liberated from some 2.5mm T&E I find lying about).

Christian.

[Jack Fate]

Thanks

Brilliant & helpfull suggestions.

Many thanks to all

[Dave Plowman (News)]

IMHO, rads need to be very firmly fixed - enough to take a man's weight. If they get pulled off, they can make quite a mess and the pipework etc difficult and possibly expensive to repair.

So with l&p your only real option is to run some form of noggin between the studs. Perhaps the easiest would be a galvanised steel strip - this could be let into the wall with minimum making good if you take care.