# Baseboard Radiator Covers



## PatR (Oct 21, 2012)

Good Evening All,
I just moved into my new house and it has hot water baseboard heaters on pretty much all the walls. The house is 62 years old and the baseboards are in rough shape which means they need some updating. I have been searching the web for some ideas of what other people may have done but there's not much out there. I have found a picture of something that I'm going to use as a rough plan but I want to know if anyone else has had some sort of experience with this??

Pat


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## DanKrager (Apr 13, 2012)

The picture shown is beautiful. If you do something like this, be sure to use well dried poplar as your base wood. Anything else is likely to give you trouble due to proximity to heat. You will want to make some part of it removable for cleaning out the inevitable dust bunnies that clog circulation. And all surfaces, front, back, top, bottom, ends get the same finish treatment (or else!) 
I used to build entire cabinets over baseboard heaters. The trick was to use a false back and false bottom with enough vents to provide the original circulation. The cabinet itself had to be vented at least on top to let accumulated heat escape. I usually concealed the vents in the toe space and behind shutters or other distraction.
Good luck!
DanK


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## AandCstyle (Mar 21, 2012)

Could you use MDF for the raised panels? Would that be a less expensive option than poplar?


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

cool design Pat, great job.


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## PatR (Oct 21, 2012)

Thanks for the input. I think MDF is what I am going to use. I just finshed making the baseboards for the other walls that don't have heaters on them and MDF is what I used. It worked well and was much cheaper than buying pre made baseboards from the hardware store plus I was able to get the exact look I wanted.


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## DanKrager (Apr 13, 2012)

Yes, MDF will work pretty well. The product has improved greatly in recent years but my early experiences with it left much to be desired back then. 
Good Luck.
DanK


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## BillWhite (Jul 23, 2007)

Using an exterior grade MDF would be even better. It is more dense, and when sealed with a good primer (I use Seal Coat) will paint very well. This stuff is almost bullet proof.
Bill


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