Places to buy traditional column radiators?

[Scam]

It's a thirties semi so I'm assuming the supporting walls are brick. I actually phoned the company who supplied the radiator and they said that it would be fine without feet, as long as it was a brick wall. The plumber said he'd prefer to use feet but as they were out of stock I didn't give him a choice. I must admit the radiator was quite heavy to lift, even before filling with water.

Fair enough. If only our plumber would come back, the other builders are getting agitated as he's starting to hold them up!

I think this really comes down to cost now. We've found some 400 high ones here but blimey charlie they're expensive, and even more so when you had the feet and dials Do you guys think they're worth it, aesthetically?

 

[dlockers]

I personally think they make the space (in that they look great). In terms of BTUs they aren't as effective as proper panel rads though so you may need to bare that in mind. The feet on those linked look a bit OTT and spoil the look though.

I doubt your plumber will come back with an answer that puts any blame on him so don't hold your breath. A single skin wall with nothing above it (i.e. a window is asking for trouble though IMO).

 

[BennyC]

Facebook marketplace can be worth a sift through. We've some from eBay, this one below reclaimed from Facebook (£120 + 4 hour round trip) and a few from TradeRadiators.

Edit: this weighed around 80-100kg, as a former gym rat this isn't an exaggeration. Getting it in and out of the car by myself was a challenge given it was slightly too wide to get good purchase on to lift with the weight involved. The boot floor collapsed on the way home too

 

[Scam]

@BennyC very fancy! We mocked up a 300mm high one for the bedroom, much easier/cheaper to find that height but unsure if it will look a bit small and strange. We can go as high as 450mm according to the plumber. We found the 400mm posted above but the feet are pretty f'ugly.



Bed will be coming out from the wall on the right (just out of shot), facing left side of pic with the foot of the bed coming to about the left edge of the existing radiator. For this reason we won't bother putting one under the right window, there will only be 80cm ish clearance between the wall and the bed that side.

 

[dlockers]

That'll look totally fine with a super wide 300mm IMO. The sills are so low it looks like it was made for that design.

 

[Scam]

That'll look totally fine with a super wide 300mm IMO. The sills are so low it looks like it was made for that design.

Did they have central heating in 1902 or whenever this was built?

The pink paper there is mocking up this rad which is 300x1010. It's only just enough BTU though. The whole window sill is about 1300 wide so we'd not want to go over that. The main issue is if it needs to go on feet it might look a bit daft sticking up with super long feet underneath. Wall mounted and concealed pipes looks great, but not sure if possible. Plumber is here today so can chat to him about it later.

 

[dlockers]

Ah right I missed the bit about not wanting to go under the right hand side window due to the bed. 800mm is still quite a bit of clearance though, if you can find a 1.4m 2 column, 300mm height and put it centrally it'd look bang on IMO. My 2 column only comes off of the wall by 90mm (just measured).

 

[Scam]

Ah my bad. It’s actually 50cm clearance from the bed to the window wall but it doesn’t really matter as the end of the bed doesn’t even come up to the left end of the rad that is currently there.

I think we’ll go for the 3 column 300x1184 which is a bit wider than what the pink paper shows. Not wider than the sill though. Only sticks out 10cm ish so there’s really no issue getting around the end of the bed.

When you say centrally do you mean between the windows? We want it just under the left window as shown. On the left wall out of shot will be fireplace and built in wardrobes. So the bed will always be put to the right as I described.

 

[Scam]

So did you guys plump for the expensive traditional valves? Can't decide if the modern ones will actually look fine/not be noticeable - or completely ruin the effect!

 

[dlockers]

In a bedroom you'll want a smart TRV surely? So regular valves. Here's mine. Spot the obvious clanger I dropped

 

[Scam]

You can get traditional looking TRVs, they're just twice the price; https://ukradiators.com/signature-w...hermostatic-radiator-valves-angled-25726.html (not sure where you get the numbers on them etc.)

But now we've paid a fair few invoices to our builder we're starting to see the need to economise a bit

But yeah, cheers. As I suspected they're not really noticeable. Worth saving £50 now on the pair, and it'll save us more when we get to the other rads as well!

 

[Orifice]

You can get them for £32 pair https://www.hpwholesale.co.uk/ (Clearly shipped from China, but they are identical to a Bentley valve I purchased from a UK supplier for almost double) They dont have numbers as such, but four rings on the shaft that signify the set temperatue. I think they look better on a column rad than a modern equivalent.