Cast Iron Radiator Restoration in Brooklyn

Metal Man Restoration restores cast iron radiators for Brooklyn’s brownstones, limestone row houses and converted lofts. Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bed-Stuy, Carroll Gardens and Crown Heights are full of original radiators sitting under a century of paint. We take them out, strip them back to bare iron at our shop, repair the castings where they need it, and return them refinished.

An Original Fixture in a Landmarked House

Brooklyn has more landmarked row houses than anywhere else in the city, and the cast iron radiator is one of the last original fixtures in many of them. It is also one of the easiest to lose, because a radiator buried under lumpy paint looks like something to rip out rather than something to keep. Underneath that paint is usually detail worth having back: fluting, scrollwork and makers’ marks that no modern replacement carries. Restoring it keeps the room honest to the house, and it costs less than a comparable period reproduction.

The Stoop Problem

A brownstone radiator can weigh several hundred pounds, and it usually lives on a parlor floor at the top of a stoop and a narrow turning staircase. This is the part people underestimate. We do this every week: the radiators are drained, disconnected, moved out properly, restored at the shop, and brought back up. It is not a job to attempt with a hand truck and two friends, and the damage from trying tends to be to the staircase rather than the radiator.

What Radiator Restoration Involves

Each radiator is stripped completely, cleaned and inspected before any decision is made about finish. Surface rust is dealt with, the casting detail is brought back, and cracked sections, leaking joints or broken feet are repaired where repair is the honest answer. If a radiator is past economic repair we say so rather than take the job. The finish is yours: a solid color, a bronze or metallic look, a period-correct finish, or hand polishing, which we do in-house.

Whole Houses and Single Rooms

Owner-occupied row houses give you the same option Brooklyn co-op owners do not have: the whole house at once, as a set, so the finish is identical from the parlor floor to the top bedroom. Most owners do it between heating seasons while the system is down anyway. We also do single radiators for one renovated room, and we will match an existing finish rather than insisting on doing all of them.

Part of a Larger Restoration Shop

Radiators are one part of what the shop does. The same benches handle bronze and brass entrances, steel casement windows, lighting and hardware. See our radiator restoration service for the full detail, or the rest of our metal restoration work.

Common Questions About Radiator Restoration in Brooklyn

The questions Brooklyn owners, boards and renovators ask us most.

Do you remove the radiators from the house?

Yes. Proper stripping is shop work and cannot be done safely in an occupied house. We drain and disconnect the radiators, move them out, restore them at our shop, and return them for reinstallation.

Can you get a radiator down a brownstone staircase?

Yes. It is routine for us. The radiators are drained first, which takes a surprising amount of the weight out, and moved with proper equipment and enough people. Protecting the staircase and the floors is part of the job.

Is the old paint on my radiator dangerous?

Radiators of this age are usually coated in lead-based paint, often many layers of it. That is precisely why the stripping happens at our shop under controlled conditions rather than in your front room.

Will restoring it make the radiator heat better?

Generally yes. Thick paint insulates cast iron and works against the thing the radiator is for. Taking it back to bare metal and refinishing with an appropriate heat-safe finish lets the heat out again.

My house is in a landmarked district. Does that affect this?

Interior radiators are not usually subject to landmark review, which is part of why restoring them is straightforward where exterior work is not. Restoring rather than replacing also keeps the interior consistent with the period of the house.

Can you match finishes across rooms done at different times?

Yes. Tell us what was used before, or send a radiator or a photograph, and we will match it so a later phase does not look like an afterthought.

Working elsewhere in the city? See cast iron radiator restoration in Manhattan for prewar apartments and co-ops, or the Bronx for apartment houses.

Restore Your Brooklyn Cast Iron Radiators

If your brownstone or row house has original cast iron under decades of paint, we can bring it back. Fill out the form below, or call (914) 662-4218, and we will get your radiators heating and looking the way they should.

Still deciding whether to restore what you have or buy new? Our guide to restoring cast iron radiators versus buying new covers what each route costs, why lead paint makes this shop work, and the four cases where new iron is genuinely the better answer.

Projects Like This

Real projects from our own shop and job sites. Every one of these is work we did ourselves.

The Rialto The Capital At The Beacon The former Jersey City Medical Center is a landmark Art Deco complex built between 1928 and 1941 that sat largely... View the project Yankee Stadium Plaques In April 2008, the New York Yankees and Skanska Construction Corporation hired Metal Man Restoration to restore two... View the project Metal Man Restoration at Yale University's Harkness Tower Metal Man Restoration was hired in June 2009 to restore the cast iron windows at Yale University's Harkness Tower... View the project

★★★★★

We moved into a very old house with radiators that were in bad shape, to say the least! I found Anthony from Metal Man and wow, amazing transformation as you can see in the before pic... Truly we were astonished when they were returned to us. Pick up and delivery by Manny was seamless, with great...

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