A Disgusting Mess is Behind Your Baseboard Radiator Cover
$20
2 Hours
Medium
Dust was a BIG problem in my prewar apartment. It was so bad I had to run the Roomba daily and break out the vacuum twice a week. If I didn't giant tumbleweed-like-dust balls would start rolling about the apartment. It was really disgusting. I sealed my windows with caulk thinking that would cut down on the amount dust getting inside my home. It didn't make a difference. Then I decided to clean behind my radiator covers. Not only did I find heaping amounts of dust, I discovered how the dust was creeping into my home.
First we had to figure out how to take off the covers. I put on my heavy duty work boots and literally kicked the cover off the living room radiator. Not the smartest thing to do, but once it came off (unharmed) me and the hubby (shown below) were able to figure out how to properly take the other covers off.
The dust was getting into our home via the giant holes the contractor left when installing the radiators. You could actually follow the trail of dust coming out of each hole. We recently spotted a few mice in our apartment (we never had an issue before) and tore the kitchen a part trying to figure out how they were getting into our home. Well, the dust and the mice were coming in via these large gaps. I share how we fixed each gap in my original blog post.
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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2 of 4 comments
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Great tip!
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Holey Crap !! Glad I saw this if we ever have baseboard heat ducts !!! We have a wall furnace that has to be taken apart nearly to clean every 3 months or so!!
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