I have hot water heating and I even have drapes in front of some of the rads they do not get hot enough to do anything close to damage .Do you have the covers on the rads I do not seem them in the pics they cover the top of the rad and then all the heat comes out the front I do think they are very tight in the space how much space do you have there I probaly would have left 6" from floor to base of cabinets and more would be better

Cabinets can be built over baseboard heaters if given air circulation. Mount cabinet several inches above the heater. If possible, leave a space behind that allows air to rise. Use reflective insulation on the bottom of the cabinet to keep warmth off the cabinet and in the air. Install well-vented toe-kicks or add decorative legs for maximum circulation.

I am not sure how to rectify this now but it needs to be addressed if those heaters get that hot.

Thank you for your response. The space is tight at only 4”. The plan was to box in the rod with molding that will have slats to vent and match the cabinets. We cannot increase the space vertically. We can have the contractor remove the toe kick that is behind the rod.

I have hot water heat and have kick space heaters in the kitchen and one bathroom. They have a built-in fan that turns on/off automatically based on the temperature of the water in the unit. But that's hot water heat and my boiler water temp limit is 180 degrees. You have steam heat which is hotter. I do not know if kick space heaters are available for steam heat. There are experts here who can comment. You may also want to head over to the Terry Love plumbing forum boiler topic and post the question there.

Behind the pipe is a toe kick with aluminum drilled over it. His idea was to protect the wood from the steam heat. Overall this doesn’t make sense to me if the air need to circulate.

Another option might be to disconnect what you have and cap it off. Install an electric kick space heater with a separate wall mounted thermostat in your kitchen. You'd have to investigate what that would do to your electricity bill.

@ wishiwereintheup, We have stronger considered your suggestion. For a few reasons we are trying to avoid the electric toe kick heater as a source of heat in the kitchen. However, that is our fall back plan if nothing else works. Thank you!

What I can't help but think about is the fact that you've lost the space where your feet usually go when you stand in front of cabinets! Like, if you stand here when the heat is on, could you burn your toes?

There seem to be to be a range of solutions, all of which should have been planned in advance. This is going to be nontrivial to set right!

A contractor/plumber who we trusted designed this. I discovered the issue when I turned on the heat. This was prior to him boxing in the steam heat pipe using molding that would contain louvers. So now, I cannot use my heat and the job is not finished from an aesthetic standpoint as well. Unfortunately, this idea doesn’t work and I need an alternative plan. In addition, I now will not turn on my steam heat in my house until this is rectified. With the colder months coming soon, I need a solution.