BASEBOARD HEATER COVERS

People are always quick to express nostalgia for the past, but in some cases modern design wins out. I have always liked anything hand forged or made of cast iron. I love the heavy black wrought metal design of cemetery fences and Spanish chandeliers. But lately, doing home improvement, I realize how nice it is to have standard sizes and interchangeable parts. Just because you do not like the modern aesthetic does not mean you should also dislike modern construction techniques.

Recently we had to replace the baseboard heater covers in our house. You see, although they were made of wrought iron, they are extremely old and rusted. There was no easy way to even get our baseboard heater covers out to clean the inside of the vents, and with winter coming on we wanted to make sure our heating system was in tiptop condition. In the end, we were unable to get the baseboard heater covers out without damaging the wall in which they were mounted. But the worst was yet to come.

Apparently, in old houses like ours, each baseboard heater cover was custom ordered from a blacksmith. There was no standard size, which means that unless you happen to have baseboard heater covers that were made in the right size by sheer coincidence, you are out of luck. And beyond the baseboard heater covers, there was the matter of the heating system. Every element was built into the house and not designed to be modified. Unfortunately, over the years it had worn down, but we could not take it down without a huge expense.

Between replacing the baseboard heater covers, and replacing the entire ventilation system in the house, we decided that the expense was too much. In the end, we had to get electric baseboard heaters. Although using baseboard electric heaters results in a huge heating bill, we simply had no other choice. After all, we could not afford to pay thousands and thousands of dollars to do drastic work on our house just to get our heating ducts up to snuff. With modern construction techniques, it would have been no problem to replace the baseboard heater covers and the old ventilation ducts. All you have to do is string some premade ventilation ducts, which are light and flexible and easy to use. Although they do not last forever, they do not have to. It is easy enough to get into any problem areas in a modern house, and do work.