Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - Replacing big old radiators with baseboard

I have an old house that has these big radiator like (hot water not steam) units. They look o.k. but take up valuable real estate in the room and since I am remodeling, i am thinking of replacing them with baseboard . . . . but, I think usual cheapo baseboard wont look good in my old (1846 cape) house . . . .

I looked on the web at some cast-iron baseboard that looked a bit nicer . . any one have any suggestions for "nice-looking" baseboard . . . or ideas to keep some sort of authenticity to my old home?

thanks folks - this forum is awesome

You can look around over on http://heatinghelp.com ;) ED

Authenticity would require you to keep what you have.

If you haven't done any substantial amount of insulation, you would be surprised at how much baseboard you would need to match those radiators. Furthermore, it is frowned upon to mix copper tube and cast iron radiation on the same zone. The heat-up and cool-down rates are so different that you will not have the comfort you desire. There is a company that makes a steel baseboard but it is intended to cover every wall. I don't think you were looking for something that would create that much work. Cast iron baseboard is nicer looking than the radiators but at $30/foot can be a tough pill to swallow. Especially since every 3 foot radiator you have would require at least 10 feet of cast iron or copper finned baseboard to replace it.

If you are not removing the 1st and 2nd floor ceilings, you can use staple up radiant tubing for the first floor and lay radiant tube on the 2nd floor ceiling (on top of the plaster and lath) to heat the 2nd floor. It's more expensive, but it is total comfort, it takes up no space and no one can say it's ugly! Very efficient also.