Reflective material for behind radiators

[Simon Finnigan]

Hi everyone, I`m redocorating the house, and have damaged some reflective material while removing it from behind a radiator. It`s a foam type material with a foil covering on one side, to reflect heat from the wall. IIRC when it was first put there it did make a difference to the temperature in the room, so i`d like to replace it. Any ideas for a cheap source of this stuff?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Ian]

The local pound shop for tinfoil ! That's all it is and it doesn't make much difference behind a radiator. The foam part might act as an insulator. I would look in B&Q for foam or polystyrene and local shops for tinfoil and PVA glue.

[Roger Mills]

You need to buy a roll of this.

's foam-backed foil, which you stick on the wall with heavy-duty wallpaper paste. You may also be able to get it from some of the sheds and/or plumbers merchants.

[If the link doesn't work, go to and type 10612 into th search box]

[tony sayer]

In article , Roger Mills scribeth thus

Course your only doing this on external walls with rads on aren't you;?...

[Simon Finnigan]

The foam backing seems to help - I remember that the room felt a bit warmer after this stuff was used rather than plain foil.

[Simon Finnigan]

Yes, but what is the damage doing it on an internal wall with a radiator on? While I accept that any heat going into the wall is going towards heating the room, why not try and heat the air as quickly as possible before warming up large chunks of plasterboard, so the room feels warmer? :-)

[tony sayer]

In article , Simon Finnigan scribeth thus

Well suppose thats one way of looking at it;!...

[Simon Finnigan]

No i`m genuinely curious as to which would be more efficient, both in the end result and for a quick heating of the room. Realistically any heating of the wall past the surface is heating something that won`t directly warm the room the wall is attached to, but would it then release this heat over a period of time, keeping the room warmer than if the wall hadn`t been warmed. And I mean by a meaningful amount, not by fractions of a degree :-)

[Stuart B]

I'm sure Screwfix have rolls of this in their catalogue

[Simon Finnigan]

They sure do, with thanks to the other poster who pointed me in that direction. Now got it delivered, and just waiting until I get round to putting it in :-)