Painting a Radiator

Senseicads

Ok I need some advice. Doing the decorating in our bathroom and we have a prepainted towel rail radiator that we wanted to repaint. So we bought some radiator paint and put a few coats on. It's now started flaking off. Looking at it I don't think any of the paint is going to stay on. I know it's not the paint as we used it on a radiator in the bedroom a few days before and that's gone on brilliantly. So I'm assuming that we did something wrong. The radiator towel rail was a cream coloured almost enamel finish it looks like. It feels like it's metal though. Do we need to put a primer on or something? We left the radiator 24 hrs before we put it back on again. Any advice would be of great help. Thanks in advance.

Grenage

You'll need to sand the existing paint to provide a key.

Senseicads

How much sanding is needed? Should we still use a primer underneath? Is that even necessary?

thescouselander

I agree - the problem is inadequate surface preparation. Now you have flaking paint that's going to be a problem as you'll need to remove it all and I imagine that's going to be a real pain.

Ideally you'd have removed and surface contaminants by giving a good wash down with sugar soap or similar. Then you'd need to do a light sanding with fine sandpaper - not too much needed, just a light going over.

Given the circumstances it might just be easier to replace the towel rail for a new one.

Heedtheadvice

I would guess too that it is lack of preparation and contaminants too.
After you have followed above instructions, provided the underlying paint is still in good condition and no bare patches (assuming it is a steel radiator and this might rust) consider an ordinary water based paint. A gloss or satin finish in a wide range of colours (not emulsion) works very well, much cheaper (especially if to already use it for woodwork etc.) than radiator paint, less smelly and lasts keeping it's colour many a year.

I have radiator paint sitting on the paint shelf. Not likely to use again. Must dispose of it!

firefox1956

Look on the tins of paint & it will tell you if its suitable for radiators or not.
Like Heedtheadvice I used 'proper' radiator paint about 35 years ago.
Horrible stinking useless stuff.......never used it again !!

Senseicads

To be honest the paint is flaking off in droves. It will only take a quick run down with some sandpaper I reckon to get rid of the paint we've put on. I was more after advice what to do when we have the paint all off. So a bit of a sanddown then just apply another coat of radiator paint? How will I know that the finish on the radiator is sanded down enough. Not sure about changing out the radiator, that seems like a big job fraught with me making a mess of it and flooding the house :-)

[Deleted User]

Senseicads wrote: »

How will I know that the finish on the radiator is sanded down enough.

When it's matt and not glossy. Don't forget to wash the dust off after you've sanded.

Cisco001

I used spray paint for BBQ 3 years ago for my bathroom radiator. It looks ok.
http://diy.com/departments/rust-oleum-silver-matt-stove-bbq-spray-paint-400-ml/128293_BQ.prd


I bought that due to I couldn't find sliver spray paint for radiator in B&Q.

Edit: I remove the whole thing and spray it in garden with newspaper around.