Radiators off before decorating?

[Tigofigo]

We are about to decorate and want to get radiators replaced at some point, should we take them off before painting and then get them fitted a month after decorating is done? Has anyone not particularly handy removed radiators themselves? They're huge and heavy... Not sure what we'll do with them!

It does make decorating so much easier! Saying that, I don't know how plumbers deal with any old sludge in the system, it might need flushing through. We had the additional issue of needing new positions for pipes up from the floor, as the new radiators were a different length.

If you wallpaper you’ll have to take them off. If you Paint, you can get a tiny radiator roller that goes behind the radiator. It’s awkward but it works. You have to lie on the floor to reach upwards!

We had ours taken off and then just did without while the decorating was done and while we waited to get new ones.

The plumber came back and refitted the new ones. It was really straightforward, not especially costly and the decorators appreciated it!

Thanks I think we'll need this too, as want to switch from a horizontal to a long line vertical one. Was it a lot of work? We have wooden floorboards.

Really struggling to find a plumber who can take them off in time 😔

Provided you can turn your valves off then you can take them off yourselves. Obviously you can’t move the pipe work without a plumber but you can just work around the pipes as is and then get that sorted at a later date. Unless the pipes come out of the walls they’ll just lift floorboards (or chop up concrete floors) to get to what they need. If you’re changing the sizes and going from horizontal to vertical you’ll need them off to redecorate anyway as you’ll have holes to fill in the walls (unless they’re currently floor standing ones, but often those even have a wall stay if they’re very large).