DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Hello all,

I would like advice on the following dilemma: I have quite a long radiator in my front room approximately two metres long and the previous owner of the house must have gone round the whole house with a lick of paint only forgetting that radiators require special paint and so all the paint now is cracking and peeling off....now the radiator itself is not that powerful so I was going to replace it with a double radiator but I need to weigh this up with the cost in time and effort of getting the original paint off the radiator without damaging the radiator too much. Can anyone suggest a quick way of stripping the inappropriate paint from such a radiator and any useful tools as naturally there are a lot of small ridges and valleys.
This is my first contact so i hope someone out there can help......

Look for a person to sand blast the paint off. A plummer can disconnect the radiator so it can be moved. Not a winter project. Good luck. Jane

IMHO sandblasting isn't an option. You'll take it back to bare metal and it will have to be repainted from scratch. It'll probably (guessing) cost more than a new rad!!

Actually radiators do NOT need special paint. Modern gloss paints stick like the proverbrial to a blanket and it is quite in order to rub the enamel down to provide a key and then put gloss straight on.

It sounds as though the previous owner undercoated it first before painting. The very LAST thing you should do. Undercoat is not as flaxible as gloss and with heat variation it will part company with the subsurface. I suspect this is what has happened. Even worse if it was not keyed first. Rub it down (it'll havce to be done by hand tho' - not an electric sander) preferably to below the level of the previous undercoat and then either gloss (proper runny stuff not the horrid useless jelly paint or non-drip stuff) or use eggshell finish both without undercoat.

Cheers

Hi there

IMHO you will not acheive a sucsesfull finish on this the cost of a replacement rad is about £ 30.00 plus a few hours fitting .