Painting radiators

danlightbulb

danlightbulb

danlightbulb

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Lots of info online but difficult to pick out the good from the bad advice. Some say don't do it, either for radiator efficiency reasons or won't get a good finish, others say it's fine.

There are standard paints, and 'radiator' paints available.

I was hoping to replace the radiators in my new house with traditional looking column ones but it will be too expensive.

Anyone had good experiences, got a nice finish, doing it? Tips?

Also contemplating whether a dark paint finish will be easier to achieve than trying to get a pristine white one.
 
Remove, thorough clean up, rub down, prime if needed, paint. Have used both sprays and brush paints before and have all looked decent to me.
 
As above, I've previously just used normal oil-based gloss and a paint brush. Turned out looking decent.

Let the paint dry naturally though, don't switch the heating on to speed up drying.
 
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Don't do what I did and use Hammerite radiator paint. I deliberately painted that on in late summer so it would have loads of time (months) to dry properly. Before I'd even put the heating on the colour of the paint on the radiators had turned from white to cream - I wasn't amused by that. Then, to add insult to injury, when the heating was turned on, the house stunk from the fumes off the radiators for a good month.

When prepping the radiators, I first flushed all mine out with a hosepipe, then lightly sanded the radiators with rough sandpaper to key the paint in preparation for the Hammerite paint.

I honestly wish I just slapped some plain old white paint on. I thought that I couldn't go wrong with the right product made by a good brand - clearly you can, just as happened to me.
 
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danlightbulb said:
Dammit i just seen a YouTube of someone using the hammerite and he said it was great so that was on the shortlist.
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Check the reviews on Amazon, a few mention also mention yellowing within weeks. This might be right, but I didn't really notice until a month or two later.
 
I did three or four coats of emulsion on mine. Looks fine to me…
Read a bunch of blogs saying they did the same and it’s been grand. Sure, it’s not silky smooth if you rub it but who’s rubbing radiators?

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Yeah I wonder why there is so much conflicting information then on this topic if a few coats of matt or eggshell emulsion would be good enough.
 
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I use Hammerite radiator enamel spray it's fine.

Not sure how others are going so wrong didn't have any yellowing etc, and it's been a few years. I use it on all as we go around decorating.

Only thing maybe is when I sprayed it, I almosts misted it, very light layers and build up over 4-5 coats, it takes ages and you end up using quite a few cans per rad.

It also ends up EVERYWHERE, so make sure you do your radiator before decorating, or mask everything off very well - or take the radiator off I guess if you can.
 
Any paint is fine on radiators (despite rumours!). I always just use the same vinyl that I used on the walls. If you frequently place clothes on radiators to dry them then you need a coat of decorators varnish on top of the vinyl.
 
Painted radiators will age like milk imo. I've done it in the past and always regretted it.

However I can understand wanting a custom colour on a column type. You can get them in bare metal ready for you to paint whatever colour you want.
 
I used hammerite on all of ours when we moved in 7 years ago (radiators were 15). I rubbed them down and just painted with one or two coats depending on how they looked. No yellowing at all on any of them, I wonder if it is a difference in the paint as surely the technique can’t be different and I’m fairly poor at DIY.
 
eviled said:
I’ve changed all my radiators to column radiators gradually. You can pick up some bargains on eBay
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I was originally wanting to do column rads but we're talking £400-600 for the sizes of rads I have in my house and needing 8 of them we're talking £4-5k.

Define eBay bargain? £50 quid each?
 
It depends what type of radiators they are as to whether its worth doing or not.

If its the very old trendy double and curvy ones then I'd say go for it if it's any colour other than white that you want. If they have to be white then buy new because in my experience of it being done in a few houses over the years with proper radiator paint, it always discolours with the heat of the radiators. Also, if they are decent classic or on trend style radiators then you should take them off the wall and spray them. You can get inexpensive electrical paint sprayer from Argos for about £25 and then thin whatever oil based paint down as per instructions for the paint and the sprayer to get the right viscosity. At this time of year you'll need a garage with plenty of ventilation to do the spraying.
 
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