Additional insulation around radiator?

[AmatörDonaren]

You know how it is, we sit and have dinner one evening and talk about maybe tackling that wallpapering in the kitchen now that the kids have grown out of the worst food-throwing phase. At the same time, maybe we would move some of the cabinets and now I'm sitting here thinking that it might be best to add extra insulation to the wall from the inside if we're taking the cabinets down anyway.

There are two walls that are outer walls that would be relevant. The house is a townhouse built in the early '70s, no vapor barrier to speak of, and I would simply frame 45 or 75 mm and insulate a new wall on the old one.

To the question, under the two windows are of course two radiators, initially, I thought I would simply splice the pipe and hang the radiator on the new wall. However, that means I get a splice inside the wall which I would like to avoid. Another option is simply to build the new wall "around" the two radiators, the advantage is that it simplifies the placement of kitchen drawers in the future as a drawer risks hitting the radiator. The obvious downside is that I don't get any additional insulation behind the radiator and I impair the airflow for the radiators. Anyone with experience with similar ideas and am I doing myself a great disservice by not insulating the entire wall when I'm at it anyway, or is it a negligible loss considering the whole scenario?

 

[klaskarlsson]

You know how it is, we're sitting and having dinner one evening talking about maybe taking care of wallpapering the kitchen now that the kids have grown out of the worst food-throwing phase. At the same time, maybe we should move one of the cabinets, and now I'm pondering whether it might be best to add insulation to the wall from the inside if we're taking down the cabinets anyway..

There are two walls that are exterior walls that would be relevant. The house is a townhouse built in the early '70s, no vapor barrier to speak of, and I would simply install 45 or 75 mm framing and insulate a new wall on the old one.

To the question, under the two windows are, of course, two radiators. At first thought, I figured I would simply splice the pipe and hang the radiator on the new wall. However, this means I would have a splice inside the wall, which I would like to avoid. Another alternative is to simply build the new wall "around" the two radiators, the advantage being that it simplifies the placement of kitchen drawers in the future since a drawer risks hitting the radiator. The obvious disadvantage, however, is that I won't get any additional insulation behind the radiator and that I impair the airflow for the radiators. Does anyone have experience with similar ideas, and am I doing myself a disservice by not insulating the entire wall while I'm at it, or is it a negligible loss considering the whole scenario?

Can't you build a small "box" around the splice and move the radiators?
That way, you don't completely encase the splice, and you have the possibility to access it, and with a waterproof box + a drip pipe, you'll see if there happens to be a leak in the future?
If it can be done nicely, that is...

 

[AmatörDonaren]

Can't you build a small "box" around the joint and move the elements? That way, you don't completely enclose the joint, but still have the ability to access it. With a waterproof box + a warning pipe, you'll see if there's any leak in the future. If it can be done nicely, that is...

Absolutely, if I go that route, I'll probably implement such a solution. Of course, it means there won't be any insulation in it, but it's a significantly smaller area than the entire element.

However, with that solution, I risk hitting the element with a kitchen drawer and might have to move the entire kitchen a bit, so I lose that advantage, which is actually a quite desired advantage.