We're redecorating the front room, and it's now pretty much gutted. It's time to think about what to do with the radiator pipes; try to hide them, or just buy new trunking and tack them to the skirting boards again. I know the professionals manage to hide them in the wall somehow, but I can't see how just plastering over them is going to work when they expand. The horizontal bits, I can hide behind the new skirtng board; but what about the bits that come down the wall in the corner? Can they be covered over with expanding foam and then smoothed over with filler, or (more likely) is there some really clever way that I haven't thought of yet?
Use bendy plastic 10mm pipe routed behind the skirting board, and join to the rad using a push fit elbow. Done it on 4 rads now, and seems to work very well.
How about buying scrap copper and making decorative plates from it by beating it into something more artistic than tubing and using it to both cover the pipe and add to its radiance?
What the nitwits on here have suggested so far reminds me of them buying a dog and kicking its teeth out to stop it barking. But don't let them put you off.
That's an interesting idea. What sort of connectors do you use at the radiator end? I know you said push-fit, but I don't think I've ever seen push-fit radiator taps. Or do you join to a stub of copper?
Have you tried this yourself? It sounds interesting, and I'm sure there are lots of other interesting ways of covering it. It probably needs someone a bit more artistic (and a bit less OCD) than myself, though. I generally shy away from making features of walls and fitments, preferring to go for a matt white box.
Then, join the 10mm speedfit pipe (use the super bendy stuff) to the existing plumbing with 15mm-10mm pushfit connectors.
It does cost about £10 per rad, so there's that.
Making the hole behind the skirting was my first problem, and I faffed about for a couple of hours before just using an SDS and bloody great masonry bit. Just avoid the joists.
And routing the pipe takes a bit of thinking about, but the mess such as it is is obscured by the radiator - so there's no need to make good plaster perfect.
It all looked quite unlikely - the 10mm pipe doesn't look up to it and I wasn't sure if the narrowed bore would put more strain on the pump. But having seen a large house recently fitted with this system I was impressed by how good it looks. And the rads heat up at least as quickly, and get just as hot.
eating it into something more artistic than tubing and using it to both cov er the pipe and add to its radiance?
g a dog and kicking its teeth out to stop it barking. But don't let them pu t you off.
I might be tempted to kick the teeth out of few of the turnips on here but I am too old to go back inside. So I'd have to be more careful.
One of the turnips on here thinks that you want to hide the pipes so that i t's a clean, flat wall You never even mentioned that as far as I recall. My suggestion just took in every consideration, I am not thinking of doing it myself but It wouldn't be a bad idea if you had the time and money. Puttin g heating pipes in a wall is self defeating since the idea is for the heat to be put into the room.
But a lot of people consider anything unusual to be criminal.
If you treat it as decorative you don't have to make it expensive or elabor ate all you have to do is buy scraps of larger tububing and either paint it or laquer it and just hang it over the existing pipework where it will act as a miniature radiator.
It shouldn't be beyond the bounds of a really small pimple-brain such as Ph il L to work out how to do it. Although the idea of him getting up to soemt hing really impractical like nailing it in place would be funny:
is losing their marbles. If he's not happy to have pipes on view, why would he possibly be happy having jagged scrap metal sticking out all over the place?
But I dare say someone on here could come up with how he would be better of f doing it, should he ever climb down out of his tree. I don't think I shal l bother enlightening him until he has a go and gives up with a plea for he lp. It's just too good to chew on.
Dunno if anyone's mentioned it but that corrugated cable-tidy pipe/conduit stuff should work. I've just used it over all the 16mm aluplex(?) pipes from my underfloor heating where they leave the screed to go up to the manifold (not yet screeded in though). Because it's split longitudinally you can just clip it over the pipes. Don't know whether you might want to PVA it prior to plastering to give the plaster a bit of a fighting chance at hanging on, I would but I'm sure other more clued up folks will advise on that one.
Okay, thanks. I like the sound of this. Whoever plastered our walls left a three inch gap where the skirting boards go, so there is already a channel there to hide them in. I just need to make a vertical one.
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