not sure what I want - handyman?

I need to get a hole in the wall behind a radiator repaired. This is mean temporarily lowering the radiator to the floor to get access to the wall, filling the wall, fixing the bracket to it when dry, and replacing the rad.

I don't think I should need a plumber for that - maybe a handyman would do?

And does anyone have a handyman to recommend? The only recent one is for Joe the diy doctor but he was only recommended by one person - has anyone else used him? I'm in D8.

You could just put up a radiator cover...why is hole in wall there or bothering you...its a messy job to remove a rad temporarily....

Radiators weight alot,and weight alot more when they are full of water.

If its a long double rad then its a 2 man job to remove and lift it out and drain it off.

Any proper good plasterer will have the skills to remove a rad,but you may need a plumber when it comes to refilling it and balancing it,if needed.

It's a small radiator, and old. The wall is also old, and the hole is where the bracket holding the rad was screwed into the wall. So hole, no bracket. I believe there's some way of turning off the water supply briefly to the rad, leaning it out of the way, repairing the wall and replacing the bracket so that the rad can go back in place. I don't want to mess with it myself! Which is why I'm looking for a handyman....Does anyone know of one that you can recommend?

Hi Gordanus... don't have a recommendation for you, but if the radiator is old, then the valves into the radiator are probably old too and may (should) need to be replaced, as closing the valves, opening the connections etc with the pipes / rad, may cause issues when connecting up everything once the job is done. If the valves do need to be replaced, then that is a bigger job as the system may need to be drained, and draining the heating system may have it's own "fun".

If not replacing the valves, it still may leak afterwards... please, once the job is completed, turn on the heating and leave run for few minutes... place some tissue paper under all the connection valves into the radiator - there should be no wet marks on the paper. Might just need another tiny tightening on some connection to resolve, but the person doing the work should do this before they leave. Be satisfied that there is no leak, no matter how small it may seem before you hand over money or that person leaves.

Don't want to frighten you, but just be aware that what seems like a simple job may turn into something bigger... best of luck with it...

Rads have valves at both ends. The main one to turn it on/off or up/down, and the lock shield that is set and left alone. The latter is set to balance the system.

It's easy enough to remove/replace a rad, take careful note of how many turns it takes to fully turn off the lock shield so you can set it back to the correct level when done. Turn off both valves and you only have to deal with the water in the rad when removing it.

When you're re-fitting the rad, open the bleed valve, open the lock shield to the previous level, then open the main valve to let it fill again, forcing air out the bleed valve. Close the bleed valve when all the air has escaped. You'll need to top-up the water level in the system to replace the water lost when removing the rad. If you're not going to do the work yourself, make sure whoever is doing it is comfortable with how to do that, and get them to show you so you know they're not spoofing.

Thanks all. Have now got a plumber in. (I'm not good at DIY, and I'm not techy, so AAM is a godsend)

Gordanus said:

Thanks all. Have now got a plumber in. (I'm not good at DIY, and I'm not techy, so AAM is a godsend)

Click to expand...

BnQ do 4 hour long diy courses in their Liffey Valley store on things like painting,basic carpentry and plumbing and the likes of changing/moving a radiator to decorate a wall.

It costs 15 euro and its good value for what you learn in the 4 hours.

Might be worthwhile to look into it for the future and then you might be able to save some money,if you can do it yourself in the future.

http://www.diy.com/diy/ireland/services/