We do alot of remodeling/renovation work in homes with hot water baseboard heat; copper pipe with aluminum heat fins. The covers are usually dented and covered with many layers of paint so they get tossed and replaced with new at the end of the job. I was wondering how you work around these pipes/fins. Do you leave them as is, which means they get pretty beat up, and hope they are not too visible through the new covers……..or do you make an effort to protect them, box them in with cardboard or other material or other method.
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Keep the old covers in place until your ready to install the new covers.
If you leave them uncovered (unprotected) from the demo stage forward , the damage to the fins will affect their function as heaters, i.e. they won't transfer the heat efficiently/effectively from the copper tubing to the room.
You can remove the end caps to do painting and such but otherwise your only other"replaceable" part is the front cover, so leaving the fronts on shouldn't impact your work.
Geoff