Moving Radiators and Curving them

[Rolo]

Hi,

I have two bay windows and all the radiators are currently on internal walls.

I want to move the raditors and as a result will need 2 curved raditors for the bay windows. I have a couple of questions,

1. How do I get the raditor curved or can I expect to leave the plumber to sort that out ? Is curving the raditors expensive, iv had a look on the web and most people say its diffcult to get done ? As I don't have a raditors in the bays at the moment I wont have a template for them to work to.

2. I want the raditors moved, i've looked under the floor boards and the joist run in towards the windows so all it would involve is just adding some additonal piping etc. Im not after a quote but would moving 5 radiators be a major job for a plumber and expensive for me ?

Cheers

 

[Paul Barker]

Specialist firms, probably minimum £100 each rad plus your time carting it to and fro on different occasions, unless you want to pay plumbers wages for someone to spend two days driving around for you, perhaps all the way to London. No guarantees with it.

Personally I wouldn't do it for you, find a customer that didn't need curved radiators.

Moving 5 rads can't be quoted without looking, and depends on system type, easier for a sealed system as the refill after a drain down usually goes without hitches, on an open vented system need to allow for 1/2 a day just refilling, and possibly having to cut into cold feed to clean out the crusted up magnetight, and rebalancing the system to get some radiators working which customer will state "has always chucked out heat before you came".

Probably in the region of £100 per rad + depending on as mentioned above, and however many people you get to estimate they will all disapear into the distance if you expect them to run around geting your rads curved for you. Do the leg work yourself if you want the job actually done, and you take full responsibility for failure (which is about 50 50, same chances as a child admitted to hospital with meningecocal septicaemia).

 

[ollski]

We used to have a guy near Birmingham who used to do them but since all rads now have convector fins on them he has put a stop to that. Would imagine you could get some sort of fancy rad custom fabricated for a price.

 

[namsag]

Get a roll of wall paper and cut a template of the length of rad and the curve of bay window either look in yellow pages for somewhere or try local plumb centre . The one i use used to send rad away to be shaped. Long time since had to do this and think it used to be at least twice the price of the rad

 

[a.different.animal]

Why don't you use the money it'll take to get an Overlay, floor level heating system installed instead. This can be run by your existing heating system and your walls will be free of any radiators - curved or otherwise. You also get the benefit of more even heat distribution in your room and you're not limited in your choice of floor covering as long as you have a suitable underlay.
Take a look here...
http://www.freeyourwalls.com/products1.asp

 

[ameliabrunt]

There is a company in Bristol, Greenfinch Engineering that can curve and angle radiators - tel: 01454228212 - sorry not sure on the costs.

 

[wilhelm]

I get the feeling that the bottom is about to fall out of the "curved radiator market"

 

[Breesey]

You could use, say, 3 smaller flat rads fitted in series on the curved wall. Doesn't look as good as a curved rad but it ain't bad.

 

[John M]

From here it looks to me like ya got 3 options

1. Have a custom made rad assembled & just plain Pay the bill
2. Use multiple panels
3. Put a radiator somewhere else in the room



Me I'd go option 3 ...... & at a push 2

 

[dal5band]

We had this done recently - my son bought two flat radiators, single panel and took them to some radaiator benders, together with a template of the curvature required. The single panel rads had corregated fins on the back but that didn't seem to cause any problems as the bend is away from the fins.

This was appox 50% of the price of having them made to order but did need a bit of fetching and carrying.
On fitting, we had to make minor adjustments as the bays were not regular so it is quite a fiddly job hanging them.

 

[John M]

Its all a head Ferk if ya asks me ......... Why is it that builders insist on doing the following:

1. Mounting radiators directly under the panel in a room offering the least thermal security ?

2. Mounting lights directly in the centre of a natural light source ?

3. Orientating doors so the swing of the door uses the greatest amount of floor space possible ?

4. Wearing dodgy jeans

***EDIT***

5. Allways tiling around anything that might be changed later on ..... Like Sinks etc etc

 

[chrishutt]

1. Mounting radiators directly under the panel in a room offering the least thermal security ?

Do you mean windows? There are good reasons for doing that.

 

[John M]

Go on then

 

[Rolo]

Ive given up with the curving, delays in getting the decorating done meant I couldnt get going on the rads till Sept. I found a plumber who would sort it but then bailed as it was too much work, I found 2 companies who would curve them but it was 3 months lead time minimum as they are so busy. Just want to get house sorted now so just replaced the exisiting rads.

 

[ColJack]

the reason to mount rads under windows is that is where you get air cooling and falling down the window surface.. doesn't matter how good your double glazing is..

the rads heat the cold air and cause it to rise instead.. this slows the inevitable convection current that would arrise if the rad was on an internal wall and keeps a more stable and even room temperature..