Painted Radiators

[Charles Middleton]

All,

The house doing up project seems to be going from bad to worse. What looks like one job seems to branch out into five. Last week was rag roll removal this week its the turn of the "painted radiator".

Basically, Mr & Mrs previous owners (I suspect) have seen fit to paint the bathroom radiator in nice thick gloss paint. It currently looks very yellow - well it did until I started to sand the thing down to reveal a whole spectrum of colours underneath where paint has been applied on paint and so on. The sanding is taking ages so I'm looking for other options.

Bottom line as I see it is as follows:

1. Replace it - seen similar size rad's on Screwfixs site for around £30. I'm no plumber so how easy would it be to put on a new radiator taking into account the pipes. I have what I believe is called Micro-bore (?)

1. Strip it with paint remover - I presume that a good dose of Nitromorse will remove all the paint. I have never used this so not sure on level of effort required. Can anyone advise? I presume it will take it back to bare metal?

Costs seem to be spiralling so I'm keen to use the most cost effective option. If I buy a tin of Nitromorse (seen one on B&Q web site for £25 but not sure on quantity) will I get more than one radiator strip out of it? If so its probably worth it - not sure.

Last question - if I strip it how many coats of radiator paint will it take to get it back to sparkling white?

Thanks in advance,

CM.

[David Hearn]

I know it might go against your morals but have you considered painting it gloss white after sanding off any old lumpy bits? Its a whole lot cheaper and should give a nice shiny white finish.

I'd never paint a new radiator, but all of ours (bar one) are already painted and so we're happy to re-paint in whatever colour suits.

David

[Grouch]

=================================================== Checkout the a replacement at your local Plumbers merchant first. one and half liters of nitro will suffice to remove paint bearing in mind if your only doing the front 1 litre. other than that Quids in newspaper or similar for second hand rad.

Grouch

[Huge]

I cleaned the last one with a wire cup brush in an angle grinder.

[derek]

I'd say it's a good candidate for Nitromors plus a *severe* wire brushing. The fact that it's metal should eliminate the "soaking in" effect. If the original factory coating was not oil bound paint the nitromors might not affect it, but rubbed down it should at least be a sound base for re-coating.

Sounds a lot of money to me.

Probably. :-)

AIUI you don't need to use special paints on radiators, although white oil bound gloss will probably yellow over time. I've used emulsion and emulsion gloss with success in the past.

DG

[Harry Ziman]

[Dave Jones]

Old radiators didn't come in sparkling white, most came in a dark yellow hence the paint!

[Michael McNeil]

You know what you are?

You are a bloody spoil sport!

I was looking forward to the book.

[John Stumbles]

Depends on length of microbore pipe tails - if they're long then you've got some leeway to bend them gently to fit a slightly different width rad, but if they're short you'll need to find exactly the same width replacement.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Replace. Spray paint the new rads first.

[Lurch]

Why? All the rads I buy come in white anyway. ..

SJW A.C.S. Ltd.

[Velvet]

Maybe not all the rads that *could* be bought actually *do* come in white?

Just cos all the ones you choose to buy do, doesn't necessarily mean every rad under the sun will turn up already white.

Sheesh.

Velvet

[Christian McArdle]

I've not ever seen one that isn't (excluding chrome towel radiators). I've seen coloured fan convectors, but not radiators. I'm sure a specialist supplier could come up with some, though. However, you'd certainly have to go out of your way to find one, so you are hardly likely to come across one by accident such that it needed painting.

Christian.

[Lurch]

That's about covered it! ..

SJW A.C.S. Ltd.

[Simon Gardner]

Why aren't radiators always black?

[Simon Gardner]

No indeed. Makes no sense at all. They surely all ought to be black.

[Christian McArdle]

a) Because black looks funny

b) Because they're really convectors, not radiators, so the wrong colour isn't as important as you might expect.

Christian.

[Simon Gardner]

I don't think it's at all funny.

That's a better reason.

[Christian McArdle]

Not funny ha ha. Just weird.

Christian.

[Rod Hewitt]

"Christian McArdle" wrote in news:4031ffbb$0$10341$ [e-mail]:

But have you seen the colour that B&Q call white? It is more of a creamy/greyish colour. No problem with the white on, for example, a CenterRad.

Funnily enough, it looks almost the same as the so-called white of their slding wardrobe doors. Have B&Q redefined white?

Rod