Towel Radiator on a Stud Wall

[ijc]

Hi

Grateful for your thoughts on this one...

I've bought a nice chrome towel radiator for my bathroom and I need to fix it to a tiled stud wall. It's heavier than the little standard radiator it's replacing yet the wall brackets supplied seem less sturdy than old-style radiator brackets, concentrating the weight in four small areas.

From your experience, can anyone advise as to whether the thing should have its weight supported from below as well as from the wall brackets? I've bought some hollow wall anchors for the brackets, but really don't want to risk damaging the wall (newly tiled).

Any thoughts on whether the fixings are usually good enough, or ideas on how to provide extra support would be most welcome.

Thanks

Ian

 

[ChrisR]

Easy - remove tiles, cut out a plasterboard panel, put noggins where your fixings will go, make good and retile.

A further problem you have - I expect the wall fixings are about 80mm long and the diameter against the wall is about 30mm? That means there's a serious bending moment on the tile. Quarter of the weight x 8/3. Plasterboard alone doesn't stand a chence, and although a tile MIGHT be ok when you first put it up, a crack later is very likely.

A solution is to put a force distributing plate under the fixing, against the wall. Wood is possible if you can gind something neat , maybe round, or metal.
The ONLY roughly suitable thing off the shelf from a hardware shop that I know of is a keyhole protector/ecutcheon. You can get them chrome plated brass or plain brass which you can paint white, about 50mm x 60, with the keyhole in the middle, which your fixing can go through.

Here's the first I could find on the web
http://www.handleanything.com/images/products/thumbnails/JV4005PC.jpg

SOmething like this may be adaptable - haven't seen them yet!
http://www.screwfix.com/sfd/i/cat/87/p2007487_l.jpg

 

[ijc]

Thanks for your help ChrisR - that gizmo looks like it'll certainly help.

You're right about the wall and likelyhood of cracks - even the old radiator cracked the plasterboard and that had full length brackets to spread the load.

It's all a bit ironic this - the chrome radiator looks great, but all the ways of fixing it risk spoiling the effect!

Thanks again

Ian

 

[ChrisR]

Hmm - in that case if you haven't used mega expensive tiles I would remove enough to put a big ply panel between the studs in place of the plasterboard.
Seal the ply before tiling on it (proper sealer not pva) and use a flexible adhesive and grout - which you should have done anyway.

Doing it right means doing it once.