How do I hang a radiator on a Thermalite block wall?

[Tim+]

In the process of changing a radiator and found that the old fixings were a bit too flimsy for my liking.

The new one is a 2000x450 double convector so fairly heavy. There are currently three battens with two wood screws each, the screws going through the battens and into the thermalite. The battens and screws just about fell out when I tried to remove the screws. All the vertical load seems to have been carried by the plaster coat around the battens.

What?s the best wall fixing for this sort of load in thermalite?

Tim

[tabbypurr]

Options include coach screws into large wooden plugs, or resin bonding them in, or supporting the supporting sheet at the ground. The 1st is the least strong. Or use floor sitting rads.

NT

[Tim+]

What sheet? There?s a plaster coat on the thermalite into which the battens are embedded, or rather, were.

Think I might fix new battens that extend down to the floorboards to take the vertical load.

Tim

[newshound]

I'd also expect long frame fixings to work, at least 125 mm. These Anchor fixings might be even better

[The Natural Philosopher]

ditch the battens,. re skim and use long screws and plugs straight into te thermalite

[Andrew]

use the sort of plugs that kitchen fitters use, i.e. longer than normal plugs and with parallel sides, the tapered ones are no good. Drill the hole using a wood drill bit so that the plug is a fairly snug fit, and make sure the bit does not 'wobble' or you will end up with plug that just goes round and round and makes the hole bigger.

[Andrew]

The internal partition walls in my house are 3 inch blocks so that would not be great idea !!.

[The Natural Philosopher]

If this does happen, car body filler instead of a rawlplug is ideal.

I've lost count of the times that haqs got me out of trouble...sticks to anything, can be drilled and tapped, takes woodscrews and self tappers, spreads loads marvelously, can be filed sanded and painted..

[The Natural Philosopher]

well use bolts then!

[Tim+]

In the end I decided I was being a bit paranoid. I found a bunch of 10mm diameter long frame fixers in my odds and ends drawer so I drilled 10mm holes in my battens and through the full thickness of thermalite. After de-dusting I squirted a good wodge of ?no more nails? (or equivalent) down the holes and over the backs of the battens.

It all feels really solid now and It?s got to be a lot stronger than it was before (which must at least have been ?adequate? all these years).

Tim

[Tricky Dicky]

A nearby timber supplier in his hardware section has some concrete bolts that have a very coarse thread in a slow helix and it occurred to me that they might make quite a useful termalite fixing. Unfortunately having left termalite blocks in our last house I am not going to be able to try them out. At our last house the most effective fixing I ever used was a Fischer nylon plug with four vanes in a slow helix. To fix you drilled a 10mm pilot hole if I remember correctly and then hammered the fixing in. These were the only fixing I ever found that you could fix to and undo without losing integrity in the block. If you were unlucky to hit a mortar line then they could be problematic to get in. Unfortunately it seems that Fischer no longer make that particular plug but claim their general purpose nylon plug is suitable for aerated concrete.

Richard

[Tricky Dicky]

Correction apparently they still make the plugs I described in my previous post, GB10 & GB8

RICHARD