F&B paints & Rad question

[JoceAndChris]

Thanks AMc. Just received a huge box of thermostatic valves from Screwfix so think we're committed to putting up with the existing rads now.

Removing and putting back is a DIY job, Chris is good at it but as Lime pointed out the sludge is unbelievable - last Saturday night saw a drunkish Joce watering the garden for hours in the middle of the night with radiator sludge becasue we unexpectedly had to drain down the system after Chris took the rad off, just as well we don't have neighbours!

When you buy cheap new pressed steel rads they're invariably bright white which is the whole crux of my problem...if I could live with bright white life would be much easier!

Here I minimise washing by living in a filthy old pair of overalls : I try not to dry laundry on rads coz of damp, but if I do, I'll be careful!

Enjoy your underfloor heating, sounds divine!

 

[Penners]

Penners & Moo - If you're not tempted by the whisky, perhaps you might be tempted later in the year when my first lambs are ready for the oven?

Aaaaah - the poor widdle baby wambs!

Sounds delicious - count me in!!

 

[michael]

Sorry to butt in on your question ‘Pford 75’ but I also need a bit of advice on this. I have eight panel radiators (pressed steel type) equally spaced down two parallel walls of a very large room (4 on each wall). These are fixed to original T&G panelling which is stained very dark brown. The top of the panelling stands about 1 meter above floor level and the walls above this are off white. The rad’s are currently coloured a kind of matt light chocolate brown which I suspect is an undercoat. I can’t afford to replace them with column rad’s so I need to paint what I have. Obviously I can’t exactly blend / camouflage them into the stained woodwork so any suggestions on colour please?

 

[JoceAndChris]

Mahogany, or Tanner's Brown, by F&B-what other colours you got going on?

 

[michael]

Just off white walls and dark brown panelling ( originally an old Baptist chapel 1817) Wont mahogany or tanners brown make the rad’s look as if they’re made of wood? i.e. too obviously camouflaged.
What about keeping a period metallic look like bronze or dull gold or is that too bling

 

[JoceAndChris]

Well I love metallics too, especially on metal! (as opposed to all this trendy metallic wallpaper/fabric) And I love a bit of bling.

But, as Nigel says, if you match them to what's behind they kind of disappear.They'll stand out a lot if you paint them bronze, whcih is fine if they're beautiful, but, sorry to say it, sounds like your rads are as interesting as mine- not really something I'd want to draw attention to! Buy tester pots and a roll of lining paper, paint a very large section of the paper-enough to wrap up the rad, and see which you like.

 

[CHRIS]

I had mine recycled from another place that was being knocked down, sand blasted from some pink emulsion colour back to bare metal and then powder coated in a gun metal coulor. You have to be careful of cast iron rads as they rust very easily and if you use water based paint it may well grin through after a few months of use so better to get them powder coated by a proper sprayer.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Another vote for powder coating then.

Hmmm, pink versus manly gun metal.

I bet when your little daughter stamps her foot you'll get them changed back again! :wink:

I seem to spend my life humping trees, king size mattresses, and sofas around. Now rads. That combined with having to go the gym to wash is starting to turn me into this:

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/6478/2637se3.jpg

 

[Penners]

I seem to spend my life humping trees

I know a Labrador with similar habits.

 

[Penners]

starting to turn me into this:

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/6478/2637se3.jpg

You're not related to Iggy Pop are you?

 

[CHRIS]

They came from a womens toilet and were an awful shade of sicky pink - anyway pink is banned in my house especially that barbie pink that is all the rage in the 6-19 year old bracket.

 

[JoceAndChris]

I seem to spend my life humping trees

I know a Labrador with similar habits.

We have to get it where we can.

 

[JoceAndChris]

- anyway pink is banned in my house

I'll remember that, and ask you again in 5 years' time. :wink:

 

[michael]

Powder coating is obviously very popular here and I agree that a nice gun metal powder coated column rad dose look nice particularly in a contemporary setting but its certainly not authentic in a period property, is it?
I’m just a bit surprised because I thought most of you period property Junkies (like me) were predominantly purists and avoid modern techniques and materials like the plague.
We have covered this topic once before I seem to remember and my input was my observation that the National Trust tends to paint all the column radiators in their NT houses a dull gold bronze colour which I can only assume, through their restoration research, is the authentic colour for domestic column radiators when originally installed. The last example I saw of this was Chartwell, Winston Churchill’s former home in Kent. Even if there were other colour options available for a particular period, I’m sure that powder coating would not have been an option and consequently it is unlikely to be found on any column radiator in properties under NT care.

 

[Pford75]

Michael - my local powder coaters offer 00's of different colours, so i'd be surprised if there was a paint colour which they couldn't match. I don't therefore see a difference between paint and powder other than the practical differences.

In addition, it's worth remembering that pressed steel panel rads (which are being discussed here) are hardly 'period' features anyway...so it's not possible to be 'authentic'. I compare it to the 'georgian' lightswitches with rope effect....they can hardly be described as Georgian given that lightswitches are not in themselves a period feature.

 

[Flyfisher]

I doubt that period property junkies really are 'predominantly purists' in the true sense of the word - 19th century living conditions might (just) be acceptable to some but I can't believe anyone would give up electricity, as just one example, just to be 'authentic'. I'd guess that PP people are generally selective about their purism - after all, we're trying to create homes, not museums.

Or can it be considered 'purist' to use the first incarnation of a material/methodology/invention if the property itself is even older, e.g. is it more 'purist' for me to install cast-iron column rads in my 16th house than modern (and more efficient?) pressed steel rads or does it not really matter because neither are contemporary to the house anyway so nothing can be really authentic, in which case personal choice might as well prevail.

 

[mardinor]

Just to balance the argument, I can tell you from experience that F&B oil eggshell works fine. We hand painted it on reclaimed princess style (i.e. fiddly) radiators throughout the house. Not difficult to do if you use angled brushes for the nooks and crannies. The finish is wonderful, blends in totally with the walls (same colour), and after 7 years so far hasn't deteriorated in any way either on dark or light colours.

We also had two rads powder coated in the gun metal as they had ornate casting. It looks plasticky and we've regretted it.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Thanks Mardinor - It is too much hassle anyway to powder coat something that will probably end up in a skip in a few years time when we upgrade to fat radiators.

I just don't think powder coating, no matter how many shades they offer it in, could compete with the sludgy, un-identifiable, light-dependent shades that F&B excel at.

Recently someone told me Dulux sell better quality paint and you can match it to any F & B shade. It turned out to be B*llo$ks. There's no comparison.

I'll slap some F & B on, and continue to lust after the "Bruxelles 590" from

http://www.21stcenturyradiators.com/pd_cast_iron_radiators_bruxelles_traditional_radiators.cfm

Now that's a proper Princess radiator!

 

[Penners]

Recently someone told me Dulux sell better quality paint and you can match it to any F & B shade. It turned out to be B*llo$ks.

I don't think Dulux sell better paint than F&B, but I do think it's just as good. And cheaper.

I'm not an F&B fan.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Penners! You were missed you know.

Why don't you like F&B paint? Is it because it's tricky to use- needs 3 coats - needs thinning regularly - prone to show brushmarks? Or just that you don't like its snobby image?

The only reason I'm such a fan are the colours it's available in - I was excited by the Dulux Heritage range, but it's a limited palette, and the colour on the card bears little resemblance to how it comes out.

In terms of cost, I've just found out that the thousands of nectar points I believed I'd been uselessly collecting for some future crate of wine can be traded in at Homebase for paint! Yay! Free paint!