Old plumbing

[John]

Had to do a job for an elderly relative tonight. A central heating radiator was loose on the wall. The brackets that hold the seam at the top and bottom were loose on the wall and the rad had come away. The wall was cinder / breeze block and didn't take new fixings very well.

Concluded I should replace the rad with a lighter one that gives a chance to fix brackets in new locations. The system is "single pipe" and was fitted in the 1960s. I was thinking of using plastic for a new installation of a radiator. Is it easy to connect to 1960's copper. Is it half inch or 12 mm? Dunno!

I am thinking of mounting new brackets onto ply and then using whatever good fixings I can to fix it to the wall.

[Bob Mannix]

Wouldn't it be easier just to concentrate on the "didn't take new fixings" bit? You can use soft block fixing plugs (great big fat things). This would save a lot of plumbing /floors up and a possible conversion to 15mm before going to plastic AND you would still have to fix something to the wall even if you did go for the new rad.

[Tony Bryer]

Copper pipe is described by the outside diameter, so 1/2" [bore] is

15mm. The tube you have has an OD of 15.18mm IIRC - so close that it is effectively interchangeable with the current stuff.

[Rob Morley]

Would it not be easier/cheaper to set the fixings in mortar or epoxy and refit the existing radiator?

[John Laird]

Time for epoxy (car body) filler. I take a decent size masonry drill and put several holes in at angles, close to one another. If I'm unlucky enough to find a mortar joint just where I need a fixing, I try to make sure the hole is wider inside than out by waggling the drill around. Then I hoover all loose dust and plaster out and spray in a little water. Let that dry off for a little while and then squeeze in filler. This sets pdq, and will take screws without any need for plugs provided they have parallel shanks. I use chipboard screws which come in a huge variety of sizes. Probably long no 8s for hanging radiator brackets.

The OP seemed to be referring to old rads without welded brackets, but which are instead probably sitting on pressed steel efforts, stayed at the top with similar pressings upside-down. Yugh, yugh, I couldn't get rid of these fast enough in my house - all were very loose, and all made an appalling mess of the wall and/or skirtings to which they were nominally attached. A new radiator won't be a lot lighter but will be much easier to deal with. Old 1/2" pipe is nominally compatible with new 15mm stuff, and you can usually force it into end-feed or yorkshire fittings, but compression joints might be a bit more fun. It might be possible to buy genuine 1/2" olives though.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Whilst the radiator might be a little lighter, much of the weight will be the water which is contained within it.

Why not reuse the existing radiator. Make some nice big holes (2" diameter) in the wall where the existing fixing holes are and then fill them with morter, car body filler etc.. Anything which is stronger than the breeze block, which can be drilled for a fixing, but which will spread the load better into the blocks.

There used to be a two part epoxy substance which was ideal for obtaining fixings in soft materials.