Steam Radiator Touching Wall

CherylL

We're having our bathroom remodeled. It hasn't ever been remodeled and is 80 years old. The HVAC/plumber tech came by yesterday to remove the steam radiator so we can start construction. It's less than an inch from the wall on one side, but touching the tile wall on the other side. When the radiator was removed, you can see that there is soot on the tile. We were planning on having beadboard on that wall after the remodel, but I'm concerned about safety. Over years and years of use (we live in Buffalo, NY, so COLD winters), I'm concerned that it will, at the very least, turn the wall black. We could keep tile on that wall, although that will substantially increase our reno costs, but we're using white tile, so again, not ideal. When I asked the tech if we could move it over a few inches (I was thinking some kind of elbow), he said it didn't work like that and in order to move it, he'd have to move the pipe from the basement (the bathroom is on the third floor of the house)- which would be thousands of dollars and include tearing out walls and floors. I'm hoping that someone here has a better option for me. Thanks!!!

Steamhead

Either a 90° or 45° elbow between the valve and the radiator should give you the clearance you need. The old-timers did this frequently, especially when retrofitting steam in existing buildings.

Jamie Hall

That's not soot. Sorry to have to say this, but it's plain old fashioned dirt. Not to disparage your housekeeping -- it's in a location which is impossible to clean. As @Steamhead said, an elbow in there and you're good to go.

Don't worry about it damaging the beadboard -- it won't, even if it's touching. But the elbow will make it so you can get back there and wipe down the wall from time to time.

CherylL

Thank you both so much! I feel a lot better. I’m not sure why the tech said we couldn’t use an elbow, but I will be asking for a new tech and tell them what I want. I’m also very relieved that it’s not a fire hazard. 

ChrisJ

CherylL said:

Thank you both so much! I feel a lot better. I’m not sure why the tech said we couldn’t use an elbow, but I will be asking for a new tech and tell them what I want. I’m also very relieved that it’s not a fire hazard. 

It's only 212-215 degrees F.
And in that case, it was near ceramic tile. Ceramic is good to over 1000F.

There's plenty, if not most steam radiators sitting on wood floors.

EBEBRATT-Ed

@CherylL

All the tech has to do is put a 90 degree elbow on the pipe coming out of the floor. Then a 45 degree elbow (or a street 45 degree elbow) which will bring the radiator out a little.

There is people who put pipe together and then there are pipefitters. A little common sense and some ingenuity is all you need

mattmia2

EBEBRATT-Ed said:

@CherylL

All the tech has to do is put a 90 degree elbow on the pipe coming out of the floor. Then a 45 degree elbow (or a street 45 degree elbow) which will bring the radiator out a little.

There is people who put pipe together and then there are pipefitters. A little common sense and some ingenuity is all you need

Or put a street 90 or 45 between the spud and the radiator and put an angle vale on the riser 90 or 45 degrees to the wall.

PC7060

I assume you are gutting the old floor and wall tile?Once you remove the wall tile you’ll find there’s 1.5” mud base (e.g. cement) over extruded lathe behind it. Replace with drywall and you’ll have plenty of room for beadboard and radiator. 

The floor will probably be mud embedded between the joists. See below for example. Note the top of joist are planed to a ridge. You should remove the recess planks and blocking and sister 2x6 or 2x8 along side the old joist before installing new subfloor to ensure a solid flat surface for tiling.  

JUGHNE

PC, that looked like a fun project.
I bet that recessed med cabinet was a cold tin box.
It looks like the insulation blowers tried to drill into it for filling.

PC7060

JUGHNE said:

PC, that looked like a fun project. I bet that recessed med cabinet was a cold tin box. It looks like the insulation blowers tried to drill into it for filling.

Yes, I bet that was a surprise. It was cold and full of old razor blades as well. That section got demo’d for new kitchen addition but the rest of the house got a real scrubbing to address 90+ years of wear and bad decisions. 

jhewings

I did a simi.ar job and it proved to be tricky. I used @mattmia2 method and put the street 90 in between the radiator and the spud. It is usually very hard to recover a spud from an old radiator. So I went with a new valve and spud combo. However the new valve was about 1/2" shorter than the old valve, which would have put the new valve 1/2" shorter than the new spud. I had to change the riser through the floor to 1/2" longer.