Central Heating radiators

[buddylab]

Does anyone know the best way of moving a radiator away from a wall so that the wall behind it can be decorated?

[sir.prize]

http://www.diynot.com/pages/pl/pl031.php

[nuoyg]

I know when we had our walls skimmed, the radiators were bled first and heating all off (water etc) then they were taken off the walls - bit time consuming but pretty fuss free, just got to be a bit patient.

[Ethel]

When I first decorated the house I now live in, I put a thin frame the same size of the radiators on the wall.

This was done cheaply with the cheap mouldings you can buy from any diy shop. I then painted the frames to match the existing woodwork. I put radiator heat reflectors ( a sort of very thick tin foil available from diy stores) inside the frames. These reflectors can hardly be seen with the radiators in place.

As well as saving heating costs, the radiators can now be left in place during decorating. The wooden frame is easy to paint or varnish without removing the radiators.