building walls around existing baseboard heaters

K.S.

I am hoping you can offer me, who knows nothing about large scale heating systems, some advice about a dilemma I am having. I just rented a loft apartment in a converted factory building in New York. The apartment is a large open space (1500 square feet) and so we are going to build walls into the space to create rooms. The apartments are all heated with baseboard heaters that run from what look like radiator pipes. There are no thermostats in the apartments, and I was told the super controls the heat for the building.

My apartment in on the 3rd floor of 4 floors and on the south-side of the building- and so it is way too hot, around 80 degrees, even with windows open- this is apparently "normal" in New York, and everyone's answer to that is to open the windows. This of course works, as counter- productive and inefficient as it is. The other option is to convince the super that it is more important that I be comfortable than the people in the basement be warm. But when I put the walls in, some other problems are going to arise.
The way the apartment is situated, the rooms will be constructed along an existing external wall that has a string of baseboard heaters lining it, about 40 feet long. My first concern is how to build a true wall (perpendicular to the wall with the baseboard heater) that covers the baseboard heater. I removed the cover to see where the pipe gaps between the baseboard fins are, and I can't figure out a good way to situate the walls at these gaps (which are a little to small to fit walls into, anyway, about 4 inches.) I would like to avoid just skirting the heater if possible because the walls are intended to separate private spaces where we would like to have good sound insulation. The next problem that I see is that once the rooms are built, about half of the length of the baseboard heaters for the entire apartment, that already overheat 1500 square feet of open space, will be within these two rooms, which will only cover about 300-400 square feet,
and so the rooms will be extremely hot.

So the one thing that seems like it would solve all of these problems would be to actually remove the part of the system that would run through the rooms and thus to downsize it for the whole apartment. 1. Could you tell me if this is even possible- it seems to me like it might not be because it looks like a looped system. If it is possible, would it be a huge hassle and very expensive?
2. Do you have any suggestions for how I can build a perpendicular wall over the heating element, the "fin" area? Would it be very difficult to maybe remove part of this and replace it with copper pipe or just physically cut the fins off so that I might be able to build over if I insulate it? Is it safe even to build flush to the copper pipe or the element with removed fins? 3. Assuming I have built the walls, (and I am considering building better-looking wooden baseboard covers), would it work well for me to either insulate the heaters to reduce the heat in the room, or use a radiant barrier as the website suggests, like aluminum foil, around the element?
4. Would the best choice be for me to have TRV's installed for each of the rooms? How expensive would this be?

I am also trying to keep within a low budget for working on this apartment, and contractors are working for New York prices, so any dollar saving advice you have would be awesome.

Patchogue Phil_7

heat redirection

I have done this.

Build your partition wall where ever you want it. Since they are NOT load bearing, the framing details can be "notched" around the baseboard. Remove the aluminum fins that wind up inside the wall. Along with your soundproofing details (horizontal runners to screw the drywall into, etc etc) use of sound limiting insulation like mineral wool (www.roxul.com) worked pretty good for me. Since it's fire resistant tuck it around the pipe. A creative drywall hanger can piece just close enuff to the baseboard pipe with out it touching. Touching the pipe will most likely lead to expansion noises, altho it sounds like the heat is on 24/7!

A solution to solve the overheating and the no heat areas after the partition walls are up consider this. Build an insulated "plenum" around the extra basboard that would otherwise over heat the new room. An inch greater than the size of the fins would work. Cut down strips from a 4'x8'x3/4" PIC (polyisocyanurate) foil faced board fashioned into an "L" shape. Airseal with caulk &/or low expansion foam. Cover that with 1/4" luan plywood and paint/stain to match the decor. Add some duct on each end by similiar means. Blow air in one end and out the other directing the heated flow towards or into the other areas that do not have baseboard. Careful planning could result in parts of the "duct" hidden inside the new partition walls.

Just a few ideas. HTH

Phil