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August 7, 2008
painting radiators
We live in a pre-war building and our radiators are old but functional and not too noisy. They are, however, covered in dirty old paint.
We'd like to repaint them, and wonder if there's a right or wrong way to do it. The paint guy at the hardware store said that you can just use regular latex paint, as long as the radiator wasn't on and that there was time for it to cure.
Is this true? We'd rather have radiators that at least blended in with the room and weren't that sprayed on silver color that they seem to come in.
Thanks!
Comments
here's what I do:
disconnect them and have them taken off site to be stripped. there are plenty of people that will do this.
then spray paint them with high heat paint - it does come in white, not sure what else.
Posted by: raphael9 at August 7, 2008 5:23 PM
check out the thread below:
http://www.brownstoner.com/forum/archives/2008/08/painting_the_he.php#comments
Posted by: z at August 7, 2008 5:41 PM
I recently repainted my radiators. When I moved into my apartment they were disgusting with dirt and dust and the paint was flaking off. I spent a solid few hours scraping off the old paint with a scraping knife and vacuuming out all the corners with a shop-vac (wearing a mask). Then I painted them silver with radiator paint (more like enamel). I wouldn't say they look brand new, but they look much much better, and are suited to the pre-war apartment. I did mine earlier this summer and haven’t turned the heat on so I can't say how they'll look after a winter of heat, but I have no reason to believe it won't last a few years.
One problem with my relatively DIY technique is that there are areas on the radiator that are impossible to access without removing the radiator. I figure that since I can't see it, no harm done.
Finally this may be obvious, but in case it's not, paint the radiators BEFORE you paint the walls. If it's too late, make sure you have wall paint to cover up the inevitable splatter on the wall.
Good luck!
Posted by: henrystreet at August 7, 2008 6:05 PM
Thanks for the posts. Not sure how I missed the link to painting the heat pipe; it was very informative. Looks like if we prep it well we can paint it with just about anything, according to that post.
Posted by: elisbrown at August 7, 2008 10:30 PM
i am reading here and the properway to do this is
1. always use a hepa vacuum to minimize the risk of lead particles in the air .
2.use a half face mask,not those paper masks no good .
3.strip ur radiator sometimes paint comes right off if not apply a paint stripper.
4.then wet scrape not DRY SCRAPE you dont do dry because again you do not want the particles in the air .
5.then when ur done you paint .
or if you want i can do this type of work.
just call John 347 996 6148
Posted by: johnrodriguez at August 7, 2008 11:13 PM
I'm really skeptical that you would be able to paint a radiator with just any kind of paint. Those things get HOT, and I would think that a latex paint, even if it would stay on the radiator (which I don't think that it would), would smell like burning rubber.
Posted by: BrooklynButler at August 8, 2008 9:19 AM
i used the spray oil-based paint. not too many fumes once the job was dry. better for metal. i have latex paint on all my other rads (they just painted the rads whever they painted the house) and there is no smell.
Posted by: ohiise at August 8, 2008 11:33 AM
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