Features of repair in an old apartment. Repairs in the old foundation: assessing the scale Walls must breathe
SERIES №1 BEGINNING Good day to all readers of this wonderful site! I recently discovered it for myself and now I can not tear myself away. I read projects of professionals, ideas and personal experience. P...
SERIES #1 BEGINNING
Good day to all readers of this wonderful site!
I recently discovered it for myself and now I can not tear myself away. I read projects of professionals, ideas and personal experience. I try to learn something, draw information, learn from experience... I am happy for those who have already gone through this long and difficult process of repair, and enjoy the excellent result. I understand those who have just started ... and whose head is spinning ... and a bunch of ideas that cannot be put together and will fall apart. I hope for the experience of professionals and just good, practical advice from those who will not pass by my blog.
Ten months ago, my husband and I became the happy owners of a wonderful four-room apartment in the old fund, with an area of 91.3 m2. (After "Khrushchev" with an area of 44.3 m2, this one seemed like just a stadium to us :)) House built in 1958 (this fact scared me very much), brick walls, huge windows, high ceilings, the third floor of four, a bedroom, an office and a nursery to the south .... In short, a lot of advantages for us, except for the upcoming grandiose, expensive and very long repair!! But this did not frighten us, since the desire to live in a bright, spacious and comfortable apartment was stronger than fears about the upcoming renovation.
Here is the original layout:
initial layoutAnd then the hour X came, and the work began to boil ... To begin with, we had to get rid of all the old finishes. Namely, dismantle all wooden floors, demolish all non-load-bearing interior partitions. By the way, they were also made of wood. To beat off all the old plaster from the walls to the brick, to dismantle the bathrooms. There was so much work to do that I was already scared. But dreams of candy brought me back to my place. In addition to all this, my husband and I had to do the whole dismantling process together !!
Tons of rubbish were taken out, dozens of pairs of gloves were torn, more than one wound received from sharp and treacherous nails in the walls was sealed and smeared with brilliant green ...
And now the apartment is bare to the ground. And what we got as a result of dismantling: curved walls with a difference of 4-5 cm, or even more in some places. Terrible floor slabs on the floor with sagging from the old mortar, with 5 cm gaps between them, with holes and potholes. The ceiling was in the same condition. No geometry. Pipes and wiring are also in poor condition, everything needs to be replaced.
We gathered strength, patience and, if possible, funds ... and proceeded to repair. Now our Candy was waiting for a new wrapper and delicious filling.
Even at the stage of choosing our future housing, and this search continued for more than 4 years, my husband and I had certain requirements for our future apartment. These are the windows to the south, high ceilings, the possibility of combining the kitchen with the living room, the middle floor in a low house. And this option suited us right away, as soon as I entered there, I immediately understood where and what I would break, and what I wanted to get in the end. And this is what happened after the redevelopment, and the construction of new walls from Sibit:
“I want to get a new apartment as a result of the repair. Even if earlier it was a Khrushchev or “Stalinka” with a communal past, done by previous residents,” say the designers’ clients who bought an apartment in the old house. If the old dwelling is “heavily used”, in addition to painting the ceilings and wallpapering, it will be necessary to level the walls, replace the floors, communications, windows and door blocks. Is there a difference in the renovation of old apartments of "different generations"? We will tell you where to start a major overhaul in an apartment, what to pay attention to and what cannot be neglected in houses of different constructive types.
Overhaul of an apartment in the "old fund"
Today's clients of realtors call almost any "killed" apartment "old fund". But this is wrong. The old fund is still pre-revolutionary houses, those that were built before 1917. For example, in St. Petersburg, apartments of the old stock account for almost 10% of the housing market offers. In Moscow and other cities of the European part of Russia, their share is noticeably smaller.
The focus of our article is the design features of such apartments. For the old foundation, these are massive exterior walls made of ceramic bricks, narrow window openings, plank ceilings with wooden or metal beams. Some old houses have been overhauled, which could be comprehensive or selective. With selective rotten beams, they were strengthened and partially changed. With the complex - only the outer walls remained from the building, the historical interiors were lost, but prefabricated reinforced concrete floors appeared.
The designers of the houses of the old stock could not foresee that someday, instead of rare cabbies, buses would smoke under the windows and trams would rumble; stoves and fireplaces will be replaced with central heating, chimneys will be eliminated, and ventilated wooden frames will give way to sealed double-glazed windows. Everything new is a serious burden on the old walls.
In winter, such houses are generously warmed up from the inside, but condensation accumulates in the under-roof space, and frost forms on the roofs.
As a result, attic floors, the main fillers of which were soil, slag and construction debris, become breeding grounds for mold. And the only way to get rid of the smells inherent in almost any old apartment is to renovate.
Advice: Before starting the repair, it is necessary to conduct a selective opening and examination of the structures of ceilings, floors, walls and partitions, primarily in the areas where beams adjoin external walls, as well as in wet areas: in kitchens and bathrooms.
Floor
The most expensive part in the estimate of apartment renovation in the old fund is the floors. If the parquet has dried out, it will most likely not be possible to restore it, do not even try. Yes, and the classic "herringbone" has no artistic value, you just need to replace the parquet with a new one. And before that, it is imperative to completely change the filling (previously, parquet was laid on logs, and the space between it and the subfloor could be filled).
Most likely, you will see ordinary construction waste: shavings, chips, broken bricks, soil, sometimes coal slag. Over the years of operation, the contents have absorbed all the liquids spilled on the floor (from water to mercury from broken thermometers) and turned into an ideal "garden" for fungal mold. Hence the smell that almost always haunts us in old houses.
Walls
Wall repairs will have to begin with a thorough cleaning of many layers of wallpaper, newspapers, paint and plaster. All this has also absorbed the aromas of communal life and poisons the atmosphere.
Aligning brick walls with restoration drywall is not the best solution. Again, due to the condensate, which is typical for the old fund. The preferred option is natural lime or clay-based plasters, which give the walls the opportunity to "breathe". And when you get to the brick, you can generally make a fragment of a brick wall a decorative element of the interior.
Ceiling
With the ceiling, everything is not easy. Stucco, which has artistic value, is rare in ordinary houses. Usually the ceilings in them were decorated with standard overhead plaster cornices and rosettes, which were then puttied and whitewashed many times. And to clean off whitewash layers from decorations and putty potholes is a Sisyphean job. Plaster work under the ceiling is a difficult and, as a result, expensive business for highly qualified craftsmen. At the same time, it is almost impossible to keep the ceiling updated by their efforts without cracks at increased vibration loads in urban conditions.
A compromise option for retro-style repairs is a suspended ceiling made of two layers of drywall: neatly puttied, painted, with plaster or polyurethane cornices and rosettes. With a barely noticeable decrease in height, it will be possible to maintain the proportions of an old room with high narrow windows and at the same time create the illusion of a perfectly preserved ceiling.
Window
Wooden frames, of course, have served their purpose, I want to order new ones. But the binding of the plastic frame is wider than the wooden one: in deep window openings it looks dull - like in a budgetary state institution. The “correct” window block in an old house should consist of two frames. Internal - wooden with a double-glazed window, and external - with single glass (it can also be wooden or aluminum profile). In terms of deglazing and color, it must correspond to the facade solution.
Fact: The air gap between the frames serves to further isolate street noise.
After buying an apartment in an old building or a Stalinist building, repairs are almost always an inevitability. The matter, most likely, will not be limited to new wallpaper and whitewashing of ceilings. How to assess the scope of the task?
We note right away: it is almost impossible to name the cost of modernizing an antique property in which several generations of residents have changed. Each landlord has his own tastes, appetites and opportunities.
Disastrous "Quick Repair"
The cost of high-quality repairs with redevelopment and restoration of historical interiors can be comparable to the price of an apartment. At the same time, the result of a plasterboard-plastic “quick repair” in houses with a solid history and a rich past looks defiantly ridiculous. So, doors of standard sizes and window frames with double-glazed windows in a metal-plastic profile completely kill the details and proportions characteristic of historical interiors. At the same time, a modern approach to repair, when the entire contour of the room (floors and walls) is completely sealed, can only accelerate the wear of structures.
In an apartment with a communal past, in which several generations of residents have changed, it will be necessary to change the electrical wiring, pipes and plumbing, windows and floors, restore or replace doors.
But when modernizing an apartment in an atypical building, a high-quality working project is always needed. These are additional costs that will ultimately allow you to manage costs and result in significant savings.
To turn an old apartment into a more or less comfortable home, you need to at least rid it of odors that give rise to unpleasant associations
The main source of discomfort in any old apartment, hastily refreshed or has not been renovated for a long time, is musty smells. It is because of them that the one who enters such a dwelling has associations with dilapidation and the feeling that everything is about to fall apart.
At the same time, houses of pre-revolutionary construction and the Stalin period almost always have high ceilings, and living quarters have decent areas and volumes. Brick walls are usually quite strong, but lime plaster, layers of newspapers and wallpaper have absorbed all the fumes of communal life for many years. Another source of odors that always betrays the advanced age of a building is rotten subfloor boards and moldy contents of the floors.
The hardest part is floors and ceilings.
Floors and ceilings are the most costly components of repairs in houses of the old stock, residential buildings of the constructivist period and some types of post-war stalinok (for example, in the so-called German cottages) with ceilings having wooden or metal beams.
The degree of safety of load-bearing structures is different everywhere. To assess whether their reinforcement is required, it will be necessary to do a selective opening and control inspection of the beams. Particular attention in this regard will require wet areas of kitchens and bathrooms, as well as corners in which cracks in floors and ceilings converge.
Parquet floors in ordinary apartments laid in a herringbone pattern, as a rule, have no artistic value. If the oak or beech parquet in the rooms has dried up and gone in waves, it will not be possible to save it. Therefore, the floors will need to be dismantled. It will be necessary to dismantle not only the coating, but also the plank subfloor.
After removing the boards, you will be able to assess the state of the inter-beam space. As a rule, during construction, all the garbage turned out to be under the subfloor - broken bricks, chips, sawdust, trimmings of boards. And in rooms with high humidity (for example, on the lower floors), all this content sometimes resembles a rotted peat bog and must be eliminated during repairs.
What about ceilings? This is also a difficult question. Removing layers of whitewash, restoring gypsum stucco rosettes, as well as a full range of plastering and puttying works today will cost a lot, and qualified craftsmen cannot be found in the daytime. If the stucco decor is not of artistic value, but is a set of standard plaster elements, it makes no sense to restore it. In addition, in the city, in conditions of increased vibration loads, it is not easy to keep the updated ceiling without cracks.
By sacrificing 10-12 cm of the height of the room, you can create the effect of an impeccably preserved ancient ceiling at minimal cost.
The most common solution for the old foundation today is a plasterboard suspended ceiling on a reinforced frame. It can be carefully puttied, decorated with fillets and rosettes imitating stucco molding.
Walls must breathe
Let's go to the walls. Layers of wallpaper and newspapers will have to be removed layer by layer. This is laborious work, but the result will not be slow to affect - the atmosphere in the room will become noticeably better. It is necessary to knock down the plaster first of all in the places of leaks (but there it usually does not hold so well). It may turn out that, having reached the brickwork, you decide to make it part of the interior. Brick coated with a colorless primer can be left in the finish in the form of fragments - for example, in corners or arched openings.
Remember that walls need to "breathe". Therefore, washable vinyl wallpapers and glossy paints are not suitable for them. A more suitable option is lime-based plasters on a natural basis, as well as wallpaper in classic colors (including paper-based ones - in retro style, from collections of previous years).
What about windows? For houses with massive walls, windows of the so-called Finnish design are best suited: inside - a double-glazed window in a wooden frame, outside - a single windshield in a thin aluminum frame, corresponding in color and deglazing to the facade solution of this house.
Irregular massive doors are also likely to require restoration or replacement. But in spacious rooms, changing the configuration of openings to fit modern standard doors into them is not the best solution. The preservation of antique doors can be different; as a rule, there are potholes in the places of locks and handles, which will have to be repaired with inserts. If the doors are not made of solid oak with carved decorations, but ordinary, pine, it is more profitable to order the same ones, only new ones.
Repair without a project - money down the drain
So, the scale is estimated. But starting repairs without a plan and with a vague idea of what the end result should be is always a waste of money. If we are talking about a typical home, in the vastness of virtual networks you can find many ready-made projects of design solutions, “home-made” with pictures, material calculations and even estimates. If you think you have impeccable taste and spatial imagination, you can try to make the visualization yourself with the help of special computer programs. But you should not get involved in computer modeling. Still, it will take more than one month to master the art of visualizing your interior fantasies, and the repair will be delayed.
To see how harmonious the interiors will turn out, how the furnishings will fit into them, and also where you will place electrical sockets and switches (and this is also important), you should contact the designers. The fees of recognized masters are estimated at five- and sometimes even six-figure numbers. But among practicing interior designers, there are students or advanced amateurs who work remotely and offer their services through acquaintances or social networks.
If we are talking about repairs with redevelopment, a dismantling plan and a plan for installing new partitions will be added to the composition of the project documentation. But this is the case when not students will have to be involved in the creation of a working project, but representatives of local construction organizations who will take care of coordinating the project in supervisory authorities and obtaining permission from the regional interdepartmental commission (we covered in detail the issues of coordinating redevelopment in other publications) .
Having made a plan for arranging furniture and household appliances, you can complete a plan for wiring and installing electrical equipment (switches, sockets, outlets for wall and ceiling lights).
Foresee everything
Ultimately, a renovation project, even in a small apartment, should take on the form of an album with several dozen sheets. When the entire range of works from a sketch to a turnkey repair is performed by a construction company, a detailed specification should become an annex to the project, in which the construction volumes of all materials are calculated - from primers and dry mixes for plastering to tiles. If you are your own designer and foreman, you will have to make lists and do calculations yourself, using estimated calculators and recommendations on the websites of manufacturers and suppliers of materials.
What else needs to be taken care of before starting to repair an apartment in a house that has floors with wooden or metal beams? If you are planning to rebuild the floor or demolish partitions with subsequent restoration, you will have to ask for a visit to the neighbors below. The specialists of the service organization must draw up an act of inspecting the premises of the lower floor with photographic fixation of their condition (this is necessary so that the neighbors from below do not oblige you to repair the long-cracked ceiling at their own expense).
We will come to evaluate the work for free
And the next day we will send a detailed estimate. It's free and there's no obligation.
Materials at wholesale prices
We will purchase high-quality roughing and finishing materials at the best price in Moscow!
Full repair control
The personal foreman communicates with the master every day and comes to check the work personally 2-3 times a week.
Repair of apartments in the old fund has significant differences from the finishing of housing in a new building. Worn-out engineering networks need to be replaced, which can only be done by highly qualified builders. Here we need experienced professionals who are familiar with the features of outdated technologies and modern solutions and are able to make the living space cozy and comfortable.
Repair of a 1-room apartment in Khrushchev 33 sq.m.
Using the free service of our company to call a specialist measurer, you will receive detailed advice on all issues of the upcoming repair, as well as make an estimate directly for your project.
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How professional repairs are carried out in the old fund
The engineering networks in the old housing are outdated and worn out, so you cannot do without changing to new ones. The masters of RVT lay communications using new methods. Partitions, walls and ceilings are also in urgent need of updating. It is difficult to carry out such a volume of work on your own. Special knowledge is required about the features of old buildings, construction technologies of the past. The only reasonable way out is to contact the craftsmen who know the intricacies of repair and construction work in the premises of the secondary housing stock.
The price of services of builders and designers depends on several factors. This is the state of load-bearing structures, engineering networks, the need for thermal insulation and redevelopment. The work of RVT employees will lead to a result with a guarantee at an adequate price.
Find out the cost of your repair
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The toilet and water supply remains in working condition.
Prepayment is not required. Repair takes place in 3-4 stages, each is paid separately as it is ready
We adapt to your schedule
We work at your convenience. Tell them to carry out repairs from noon to eight, and we'll do it.
Repair of housing from the secondary fund of various types
Panel or brick houses built by Khrushchev were built in Moscow and other cities of the USSR from the 1950s to the 1980s. Khrushchev- a common type of housing. Significant disadvantages of Khrushchev-built buildings:
- small living space;
- the presence of walk-through rooms;
- low sound insulation;
- small kitchen area;
- combined bathroom
- low ceiling.
Despite these disadvantages, thanks to thin partitions, the room can be easily rescheduled. Employees of the RVT company will perform a competent repair of an apartment in Khrushchev and transform the home, changing it for the better.
Houses of the P-111M series
Large-panel buildings are distinguished by apartments of various layouts enlarged in area. In Moscow, they are located in the areas of Pechatniki, Golyanovo, Biryulevo, Kuntsevo, Zhulebino, Yuzhnoye Butovo, etc. In the Moscow region, they can be found in Golitsino, Mytishchi, Balashikha, etc. Currently, the construction of houses of this series in Moscow has been stopped.
Houses 137 series
Panel structures have important advantages: the speed of construction and the adequate price of housing, smooth walls, separate rooms, utility rooms, large kitchens. Such premises do not require additional rough finishing. The disadvantages of buildings of the 137th series include low sound insulation and inconvenient layout. They also have insufficient air permeability and thin floors, problems with the tightness of panel seams. To redevelop and repair an apartment in a panel house is a labor-intensive process that only qualified specialists of the RVT team can do.
Houses 502 series
Buildings of the 502 series were erected during the reign of Leonid Brezhnev. As a rule, these are five-story buildings with small apartments. Ill-conceived layout is the main drawback. Since most of the internal walls are load-bearing, only professionals can do the redevelopment.
Houses 504 series
These are apartment buildings that were built in 1959-1972. They are similar in layout to ship houses, but the windows are lower. The disadvantages of housing in such buildings include a small kitchen and inconvenient location of the bathroom. However, the houses of the 504 series have excellent sound insulation, and there is a built-in wardrobe in the hallway. Redevelopment is easy to perform: internal partitions can be demolished. But the load-bearing walls are thick and reliable. We use quality building materials and new technologies to achieve a successful transformation.
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