I prefer to play it safe for peace of mind. You cannot lift them single handed (well I can't anyway) and you really do not want them coming off. Whilst possibly over the top but these radiators are seriously heavy and more so when filled with water (they take a lot). With the larger verticals and no feet I found it easier to take down the lathe and plaster and build a studwork frame to suit the radiator fixings before plasterboarding and re-skimming. With the largest of the column cast iron rads I have fitted I removed a horizontal rectangle of the lathe and plaster and fixed timber at the height of the studs before plastering back over. I would strongly recommend buying the Zircon stud detector which I have found excellent and picking up the line of small lathe nails. The radiator stays can go between any of columns to suit the stud spacing. The advantage to the columns is you have much more leeway that with the majority of standard radiators where it will be fixed. In my experience the rad brackets never align with two sets of studs even with the small amount of horizontal play. Still I would want it fixed to the studs. The majority of the weight is being directed straight down.
With the rads like the one pictured I would use feet like mentioned above if at all possible. Current task is a wall hung vertical weighing in a 68Kg dry to lathe and plaster. Ceilings did have covings and ceiling roses.Have had and am still having the same problem as yourself. And the end result was great and there were no cracks in the 6 years we lived there however I am not sure if the ceilings were lath and plaster or had plasterboards already perhaps from the conversion. PS: We bought a period conversion flat (think it was also Edwardian) about 6 years ago and did a complete refurbishment including removing wallpaper and replastering. Perhaps no steamer and only use water spray? Are we likely to encounter problems after removing wallpaper? What are your suggestions/advice? Should we go ahead, get someone to remove wallpaper and re-plaster? I guess they'd need to be really careful when removing wallpaper from ceilings not to disrupt the lime plaster. We are concerned that removing wallpaper and replastering old lath and plaster ceiling might be opening a can of worms. We would like a good finish and something that would last a long time. We have allocated a budget for removing wallpaper, replastering and then decorating/painting. We are not looking to the do any of the work ourselves as it's too much work for us (both of us are very busy at the moment) though we are not afraid to get our hands dirty, we don't think we have the necessary skills. We could potentially do that in some of the rooms but it's not an option in the living room as we want to keep covings and ceiling roses. One guy said it's best to overboard (brining down the ceilings is out of the question) where possible. Couple of the plasters said it's fine and they can put fiberglass mesh if there are cracks. We've had quotes from a few plasterers and couple of them said it's risky removing wallpaper off old lath and plaster (especially the ceilings) and replastering as the old plaster under the paper could be already cracked, could get damaged, could crack in the future and will show through the new plaster, parts of the ceiling could collapse, etc. We want to retain period features like covings and ceiling roses. Both my partner and I have an eye for detail and we would like the walls and ceilings to be smooth before they are re-painted so we are thinking of removing lininng paper and re-plastering.
On some of the walls and ceilings, lining paper has come off, can see the joints/lines, has bumps and has some halls (house used to be rented out to a family with kids). It's most likely lath and plaster underneath the lining paper. A few of the top reasons include: You might notice a lot of settling cracks in the plaster that are threatening the structural integrity of the wall. There's lining paper on all the walls and ceilings in 3/4 of the house (apart from the extension and loft conversion). We recently bought an Edwardian property (built around 1910).