"New" house in New York has old radiators. Considering refinishing (sandblasting? painting?)

oldradiator

hi all, just bought my first house and the hot water radiators look like hell! more importantly, we have a 6-month old and i'm very concerned about peeling/chipping (potentially) lead paint.

it seems sandblasting is the true course of action. i called a few local places. one charged $20/fin, another $50+ but had no solutions to removal and transport.

our painter also told us he'd sand and paint them but i doubt he'd take all the proper precautions if lead is present.

at any rate, hoping to spark a discussion here. thanks!

EdTheHeaterMan

Here is a discussion that started back in May 2020 that seemed to have a happy ending. https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/180002/stripping-paint-from-cast-iron-radiators-using-a-lye-bath

oldradiator

EdTheHeaterMan said:

Here is a discussion that started back in May 2020 that seemed to have a happy ending. https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/180002/stripping-paint-from-cast-iron-radiators-using-a-lye-bath

agree, they look nice but i'm in NO way comfortable attempting that process.

acwagner

Have you tested the paint for lead?

oldradiator

acwagner said:

Have you tested the paint for lead?

no. as of now it's just an assumption.

acwagner

You can buy lead testing kits at a hardware or home center. They're little swabs that you smear on the suspected surface. That might help understand the extent of the problem.

TomTA

Where are you located? $20/fin is outrageous, at least in my area. Try calling a powdercoating place (ask for "blast only", as opposed to blast and powdercoat), or failing that any sort of heavy truck or farm equipment repair place. If that doesn't work, an auto body shop might be able to point you to a sandblasting place.

Removal, transport, and reinstallation is a whole 'nother issue.

oldradiator

TomTA said:

Where are you located? $20/fin is outrageous, at least in my area. Try calling a powdercoating place (ask for "blast only", as opposed to blast and powdercoat), or failing that any sort of heavy truck or farm equipment repair place. If that doesn't work, an auto body shop might be able to point you to a sandblasting place.

Removal, transport, and reinstallation is a whole 'nother issue.

thanks - just outside NYC.

TAG

Many years ago when I was restoring an 1810 town house in Philadelphia we removed a had some sandblasted and then painted by a local auto body (different people) --- it was a lot of work. Later when doing a stone victorian in Chestnut Hill PA there was no way I was going through removing and reinstalling heavy radiators -- just getting them disconnected without damage would have been difficult. That project was large and I had people blasting other parts of the project .... they blasted the radiators in place and I had them sprayed. Back then they used shells.

Today they blast with both dry ice and baking soda ... I had a whole project soda blasted after a fire in 2012. Soda blasting is common when cleaning old beams for barn projects. It's actually easier to find blasting companies today as they have truck based franchised people around -- they don't use sand anymore.

Stripping them with chemicals depends on how thick -- it's messy and hard to get into the tight spots to clean off.

I would look for someone who would do them in place

Paul Pollets

Many times I've removed all radiators for sandblasting and paint in a renovation. Since I live in a major city, there were 2 places to have it done. Now there is one place that does it. The owner or GC is responsible for delivery and pickup. The paint used is a high temp paint available in a dozen colors. Powder coating is not used anymore due to hazards in the workplace. Costs were "reasonable", about $300 per radiator

oldradiator

Paul Pollets said:

Many times I've removed all radiators for sandblasting and paint in a renovation. Since I live in a major city, there were 2 places to have it done. Now there is one place that does it. The owner or GC is responsible for delivery and pickup. The paint used is a high temp paint available in a dozen colors. Powder coating is not used anymore due to hazards in the workplace. Costs were "reasonable", about $300 per radiator

Do you know the company name? I’d be interested to find out.

I’ve been getting more estimates:

	Sections	Cost
Radiator	27	700.00 each (3)
Radiator	8	240.00
Radiator	17	510.00
Radiator	23	600.00
Radiator	15	450.00 each (2)
Radiator	20	585.00

oldradiator

Some photos of the rads 

SuperTech

Those radiators look pretty nice to me. Maybe I am missing something. I would just repaint them. I've seen much worse than that. You are lucky to have a home with cast iron radiators.  They are a wonderful way to heat the house.  

oldradiator

SuperTech said:

Those radiators look pretty nice to me. Maybe I am missing something. I would just repaint them. I've seen much worse than that. You are lucky to have a home with cast iron radiators.  They are a wonderful way to heat the house.  

They’re not terrible (other than the one in the second photo) by any means but there is some chipping and flaking of old lead paint.

Given we have an infant at home we’re exploring the options we have.

It seems the options are:

1. sandblast 
2. paint again and cover 
3. replace with similar radiators

I’d prefer to go down route 1 but thus far I’ve found it to be prohibitively expensive - upwards of $10k+ including transport.

On #3, if I wanted to scour various sources for replacements do they need to be the EXACT same size? Or is close enough ok (for example replacing a 5 foot radiator with 4.5 feet).

Additional insights appreciated!

Grallert

Those radiators appear to have been refinished recently. Except for the second one. I would be comfortable with a quick lead test on the others and an over paint.

ethicalpaul

I was gonna say, I wish mine looked that good

oldradiator

Grallert said:

Those radiators appear to have been refinished recently. Except for the second one. I would be comfortable with a quick lead test on the others and an over paint.

Thanks. My concern is the one area that chipped didn’t pop red for lead. Not sure what to do in this case and now I assume they all have it.

ethicalpaul

So it didn't show lead and now you assume they all have lead? I'm confused

oldradiator

ethicalpaul said:

So it didn't show lead and now you assume they all have lead? I'm confused

Typo. DID not didn’t. As they’re all painted similarity I assume if one has it they all do.

ethicalpaul

Ok, the top layer had lead? Or you saw lead where a chip went down past the top layer?

either way I’d just paint a good quality interior paint over whatever is on there, hand-scraping off any loose stuff. The kid’s not going to be sitting there gnawing on the radiators. 

Every house built before 78 or whenever has lead paint, it’s just a fact. Keeping it covered and not hitting it with a power sander is a fine way to live with it

JakeCK

All but one look great. The one that needs a good coat of paint I vote to hand scrap and repaint. That is what I did with my downstairs powder room & kitchen rads. The smallest I was able to get outside to wash really good and painted in the driveway. The larger one I built a room around using plastic and used an old window fan to vent. I didn't have to scrap either one of them much at all, just cleaned really well.

Now this maybe bad advice but I think you're over thinking the lead risk. The past 10 years I've lived in this house I have done a lot of work with stripping paint off windows and trim and demo work in general. Everyone in the house has had our blood lead levels tested at least once or more times. My blood level in December of 18' was .8 ug/dl, my sons was <.5 I also work with a lot of brass where I work and grew up in older homes, think late 19th century Victorians.

Pretty much if the paint is falling off the walls, you don't ever clean, and you let your toddler(s) crawl/walk freely with no oversight while neglecting their nutrition yes you will have a problem. And that right there is a biggest key. Proper nutrition! Lots of calcium for growing bones. This helps prevent their bones from becoming laced with lead for decades when they do have exposure, which they will naturally through any environment. And the insidious thing about lead is that the body will confuse it for other nutrients and readily absorb it if starving.

Helps to explain why lead poisoning is so rampant in the inner cities.

Edit: Just remembered you said you're by NYC, maybe check into the legalities first. In Ohio homeowners can do their own lead and even asbestos removal last I checked. But I've heard NY is almost as bad as CA when it comes to that.

Big Ed_4

We use to take them down to grave stone makers to get blasted . They had a small gauge rail road system and equipment to move heavy stuff . Plus the beast of a sand blaster to make quick work . Just a thought ..

Grallert

oldradiator said:

ethicalpaul said:

So it didn't show lead and now you assume they all have lead? I'm confused

Typo. DID not didn’t. As they’re all painted similarity I assume if one has it they all do.


You could check them all. Or have you done that? Clearly the flaking one needs to be refinished if for no other reason than it looks like hell. As mentioned simply knocking off the loose paint and recoating will suffice. It is very possible to have them stripped and refinished to what ever color you like but it does get expensive. If you do that make sure you protect the radiator spuds and label each one so as to put them back in the same location..

oldradiator

Is there a special primer and paint that’s best for these? They don’t get super hot on account of them being hot water.

Grallert

There's been a lot of discussion around radiator paint but I think it comes down to any high quality interior latex primer and paint.