How Much Does It Cost To Cover A Baseboard Heater?

Options

When covering a baseboard heater, you’ll find that it comes down to two options:
1) New baseboard heater (dummy) covers, similar to what already exists on your baseboard heater 2) Slip-on heater covers, available from a few different brands (of course, we think Veil are the most tasteful)

Dummy Covers



Dummy covers are usually found for hydronic baseboard heaters. A similar equivalent for electric baseboard heaters would be a replacement of the whole unit, since the electrical elements are fixed to the backplate and end caps, and the electric heaters are usually cheaper than hydronic.

Dummy covers are called such because they contain all the pieces of your existing baseboard heater, minus the actual heating element. Which leads us to the cost, which should take into consideration a few things.

Cost of Dummy Covers

Depending whether you’re in the US or Canada, the actual cost may vary but we’ll use US prices for an example comparison. At the retail value, it would seem that dummy covers are the cheaper option. Dummy covers range from about $9 to $12 per foot.

The catch with the cost of dummy covers is the installation. These aren’t a simple, tool-less installation. It can be done without hiring labor, if you already own the necessary tools (eg: a reciprocating saw) or are willing to invest in them.

The alternative to investing in a few tools and practicing your handyman skills is hiring a master plumber to install your dummy covers. According to Homeadvisor.com, a plumber in the Seattle, WA area will charge you between $80 and $130 hourly (with the possibility of added transport costs and service fees to add to the project total). Therefore, if you include the cost of labor at approximately 20 minutes per foot, you’re looking at a labor cost of $27 to $43 per foot (according to HomeAdvisor’s master plumber labor estimates for Seattle, WA)

In total, the cost of renovating your baseboard heaters with dummy covers would range from $36 to $55 per foot.

Tool-Free Baseboard Covers

The first perk of our aluminum baseboard covers is of course that they are a tool-free, DIY installation. They’re easier in all ways, due to the fact that you don’t need specialized tools to remove the existing structure.

The second perk is that they work for both electric and hydronic baseboard heaters, so you can match whatever your rooms are equipped with.

A third perk is that they are guaranteed rust-free, so you don’t have to account for the cost of upgrading at the end of this product’s lifespan. Find out more about our product guarantees.

Cost of Baseboard Covers

The cost of our aluminum baseboard covers varies between styles, but rounds out to a range of $20 to $37 per foot.