Heating work concentrates into the cold months for obvious reasons, and with it comes a particular kind of collection. Van hire for radiators is not about volume, since a full house set does not fill a large vehicle, but about length, weight and the fact that a radiator panel dents if you look at it wrongly. If you are arranging van hire in Warrington around a heating replacement, the awkwardness is in the handling rather than the capacity.
What a Full House Set Actually Involves
A typical replacement means eight or ten radiators of varying sizes, a boxed boiler, brackets, valves and a quantity of copper or plastic pipe in lengths. The radiators are the difficult part. A double panel unit for a living room is heavier than it looks and has no comfortable place to hold it, and the largest ones can run to nearly two metres. Pipe comes in lengths that will not bend, and boxed boilers are dense and top heavy. Taken together the load is not large but it is entirely made of items that need placing rather than stacking, which is why people underestimate how long the loading takes.
Protecting Panels and Painted Surfaces
Radiators arrive from the merchant wrapped, and that wrapping is doing real work. A dent in a panel is permanent and a scratch through the paint will corrode later, so keep everything in its packaging until it is in the room where it will be fitted. Stand radiators upright on their long edge against a side wall rather than stacking them flat, since a flat stack puts the full weight of the pile on the bottom panel and any grit on the van floor becomes a scratch. Put something soft between each unit and strap them so they cannot tip inwards. Loose valves and brackets should travel in a box rather than rolling about, because a brass fitting sliding into a painted panel does the same damage as a dropped tool.
Choosing a Body With Room to Stand Things Up
Because radiators travel best on edge rather than flat, internal height matters more here than floor area. The long wheelbase high roof van gives you enough headroom to stand the taller panels upright against the wall of the load space and still walk past them, which is what makes an organised load possible rather than a jigsaw. It also takes pipe lengths comfortably. Every van we run sits at three and a half tonnes gross vehicle weight or under and is driveable on a standard category B car licence, so whoever is collecting does not need anything beyond a normal car entitlement.
Timing the Collection Around the Fitter
Heating work is one of the few jobs where the materials genuinely must be on site before the tradesperson starts, because a plumber who arrives to find half the radiators missing will simply go elsewhere for the day. Merchants operate trade hours and are frequently shut or on reduced staffing at weekends, and our own depot on Tilley Street is open Monday to Saturday from 8am until 4pm and closed on Sunday. Work backwards from the fitting date, allow for the merchant needing to pick the order, and get the collection done the day before rather than on the morning itself.
Getting Heavy Items Into an Occupied House
A heating replacement happens in a house people are living in, usually in winter, which means carrying cold wet items through carpeted rooms. Lay something down on the route in before you start rather than after the first trip. Radiators are best carried by two people with one at each end rather than hugged by one person, both for the panel and for your back. If the old radiators are coming out and going with you, keep them entirely separate from the new ones, because they will be full of black sludge that finds its way onto everything it touches. Drain them properly outside before they go anywhere near the van.
Collecting the Van From Cockhedge
We are on Tilley Street at the main entrance to Cockhedge Shopping Centre next to Asda, which puts us close to the trade counters around the middle of town. There is free secure parking on site so your own car can stay here while the van is out. Bring your photocard licence and a DVLA check code generated on the DVLA website beforehand, and note there is no deposit needed on most of our vehicles and no credit card required at the counter. Customers coming in from Penketh van hire bookings often combine the merchant run with the drop at the property in a single trip, which our central position makes straightforward. Anything you want to check first is likely covered in our van hire FAQs.
Taking the Old Radiators Away Afterwards
The return leg is the part nobody plans for. Ten old radiators have to leave the house, and they are heavier than the new ones because they are full of water and years of sludge, and they cannot go in a wheelie bin. Scrap metal merchants will normally take them, which turns a disposal problem into a small return, but they want them drained rather than dripping. Drain each one outside over a drain or a bucket, tip it to get the last of it out, and give it a few minutes upside down before it goes anywhere near the van floor. Sheet the load area if you can. Black heating sludge stains and smells, and once it is on a floor it transfers to everything you carry afterwards. If the collection and the disposal are happening on the same hire, do the new radiators first while the van is clean and the old ones last, then go straight to the scrap yard rather than home.
Tell us how many radiators are coming and the length of the longest one and we will point you at the right body rather than the biggest one. Call the depot on 01925 396 222 and we will hold a van for the day before your fitter is due.
