Planning bath remodel, 2 pipe steam, options to move?

marriott001

I am thinking about doing some remodel work in my bathroom the main issue I am having is that my 2 pipe radiator is more or less taking up the only usable wall space in the room. I thought maybe I could get some insight into some heating options available to me, trying to keep the steam if possible.



I have attached a crewed drawing of my ~6x7 bathroom. The room is next to the attic stairs, which has some space in that area (a broom closet below the 2nd set of stairs, and a fairly open crawl area under the rest of the stair area. The radiator is on this wall. The return pipe is on the left end of the rad, and the door will strike it upon opening. The intake comes out of the wall and into the crawl area. I do not know if the return drops straight into the basement from the 2nd floor, or if it goes back into the crawl space and down from there.



The Broom closet has a small door around 2 ft, and the space inside is around 3 feet. part of the Broom closet footprint goes behind where the radiator is in the other room, with most of the ceiling in that closet being slanted to accommodate the attic stairs.



At first I wanted to move my bath tub along the far side of the wall, but the floor is ~3-4 inch poured concrete, and I am not sure of the hell I will unleash if I rip it up. So now I am trying to maximize my usable space and from the image, the radiator space is the only room I have.



Right now I am pondering knocking out he wall to the broom closet to get a little more open space, and to do something with the rad, here are the options I have thought of, but I would like to get some input on any other ideas I can do with my steam.



1. Recess the Radiator into the wall behind it - This would involve moving it about 6 inches up, and about a foot or so back into the wall space. I would have to have a space constructed to hold the rad, and either leave it open in front, or cover it to some degree. This would give me more walking space, but depending how it is closed, I may not have any more wall space to use.



2. Remove the rad, and install a wall mounted radiant heater - I've seen things called Comfort Cove Heaters, which hang high on the wall, and provide radiant and convection heat. This would give me the space, but at a cost of losing my rad, and having electric heat in the bathroom. (my electric is around 6 cents)



3. Some kind of floor heating - I don't know if it is possible to cut tube slots in the floor for radiant, or if this is not possible.



4. Kickboard heater - Don't know if a steam version exists, and doesn't necessarily solve the wall space issue, because I can't block it off.



5. Open the Broom closet area, and place the rad back in that space - This gives me the main bathroom wall space, and some broom closet space. Don't know how hard it will be to open this space up with the stairs above it, and also involves moving the rad further than option 1.



What kind of options do I have when moving a radiator? piping wise? Does anyone see any other possible solutions? I am going to try to get some pics to post, but I am away from my house for couple days. Hopefully my drawing can give you some idea.



My plumber (Gerry Gill - who this forum is familiar with) has in a way shied me away from moving my main fixtures, but I didn't talk about this at that point, because I didn't think about it yet. Figured maybe the forum has some ideas, before I drag him back to my house :-)

Steamhead

There are very slim radiators

that might hug the wall more closely. How far does the current radiator stick out?



If you have Gerry working on this, you have one of the best.

marriott001

~10 inches total

The radiator is about 3-4 inches off the wall and is about 6-7 inches wide so about 10 inches off the wall in total

Steamhead

The "small-tube" type of radiator

with three vertical tubes in each section, is only 3 to 3-1/2" deep or so. So with one inch between the radiator and the wall it would only stick out 5 inches. Sometimes we can squeeze this type of radiator behind a door.



What's in the space between the tub and the attic stairs? Is this a walkway?

marriott001

It is part of the bathroom

There is a wall that to the left of the tub in the drawing. it is a wall that houses the plumbing for the tub. To the left of that wall is about 2.5 feet of bathroom then the wall that touches the attic stairs wall (the wall with the radiator) This space is fairly useless, it has a window on one wall, and the wall that touches the bathtub has a access door to the plumbing. Idealy that wall would go away, but that might not be possible (or is it?)

Steamhead

You need the wall at the tub

to form a shower enclosure.



Why not just move the radiator under the window between the tub wall and the attic stairs wall?

marriott001

That is a option

The current radiator is about 2-3 inches taller than the window bottom, so it might need to be swapped out.



What about the piping? does the returns have to be a straight drop? can it turn at all?

Steamhead

As long

as the return (and the steam line as well) is pitched so condensate drains out of it, you shouldn't have a problem. Talk to Gerry, he'll know how to make it work. Tell him I sent you ;-)