Do-it-yourself quick home repair

In detail: a quick do-it-yourself home repair from a real master for the site my.housecope.com.

Repair in the apartment is now an expensive pleasure. Some save up for it for years, while others give away their last savings and fall into a debt hole. Regardless of the financial situation, everyone is trying to save money, but in practice, not everyone succeeds in doing this. We will analyze what materials you can save on, and which ones are better not to, and learn how to expose hired repairmen who are trying to cash in on the ignorance of the owners.

The final estimate will depend on the type, size of the room and the complexity of the repair. There are three types of repairs: cosmetic, major and renovation. The cosmetic option is the most economical. This repair usually includes painting, wallpapering, sanding the floor. Such work is easy to do with your own hands, saving on calling a specialist. If some specialized tool is missing, it is not worth purchasing it for one-time purposes. Rent it. Make a preliminary estimate for repairs in order to adjust it in advance and find cheaper options. When deciding to hire a private specialist, redecorating an apartment will cost you, on average, 1,500 rubles per 1 m 2, and through a construction company - 2–2.5 times more expensive.

It is much more difficult to make major repairs on your own, since many of the works require special skills and abilities. Stages of such repair: rough finish, floor screed, leveling walls, demolition and installation of partitions, dismantling of the old coating and decoration, complete replacement of water pipes, plumbing and electrical wiring, replacement of windows, doors, garbage disposal. The price for calling a master during a major overhaul increases to 6,000–15,000 rubles per 1 m 2. And that's not counting the cost of consumables.

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Here are four tips to help you save money on major repairs:

  1. 1. Remove old wallpaper, tiles, dismantle the flooring, clean and take out the garbage yourself. Such work does not require special skills and tools, and the savings are significant - 5000-8000 per 1 m 2.
  2. 2. Do not rush to spend money on finishing an expensive ceiling. Just level and paint it with inexpensive chalk paint. When money appears, sheathe the ceiling with drywall or make a stretch ceiling.
  3. 3. Do not remove plaster completely. Remove it only in those places where it exfoliates. However, take into account the peculiarity of the finish. If you plan to stick photo wallpaper, the surface must be perfectly flat. It may be necessary to completely replace the plaster, in which case it will not be possible to save money.
  4. 4. In order not to waste time on paperwork and extra money for garbage disposal, collect the waste in bags and send it to the basement, shed or leave it on the stairwell in a specially designated place, it is provided. Throw away one bag every day in the general trash can, there is nothing illegal about it.

Renovation practically does not differ from overhaul. The cost increases due to the purchase of expensive and natural materials from well-known manufacturers. The price of materials is automatically reflected in the cost of the master's work, which starts from 25,000 rubles per 1 m 2. .

If you decide to involve an experienced team of repairmen in the repair, be prepared that you may be deceived. To test this for sure, pay attention to a few important features. The information will be useful for both beginners and experienced homeowners who decide to start a renovation.

Preliminary estimate for apartment renovation

To display the exact cost of repair work, the foreman measures the parameters of your room with his tape measure. It seems that everything is fine and there can be no catch. In this case, we recommend that you give your own tape measure for measurements. Often, cunning repairmen cut the tape measure, for example, by 50 cm, and fasten it to another part of the tape, stepping back 20-30 cm or more. From a real size, for example, 2 m, your room increases to 2.3 m and, accordingly, the price increases, because the cost of work is calculated based on 1 m 2.

Upon receipt of the estimate, carefully study all positions. Often, repairmen duplicate the cost of services under the guise of other work. For example, leveling walls - preparing walls for wallpaper. Read each item carefully so as not to overpay.

Pay attention to the price for 1 m 2. Compare it with other construction companies and individuals beforehand. Prices below average should alert you. Usually, in the course of work, the repairmen who initially offered you a low price raise it and ask you to pay extra for additional services. The owner gets into a dead end, as the work is already in progress, and the estimate is automatically increased by 2-3 times.

Saving materials and increasing the cost of work is another trick used by dishonest repairmen. For example, you can put a 1 cm layer of plaster for the price of 3-4 cm, shorten the planned route for laying electrical cables or plumbing pipes, and take the rest of the material for yourself. In fact, you are overpaying for material that does not “work” for you. To avoid such mistakes when performing a turnkey repair, ask the repairmen to photograph the completed work process in detail in stages and send it to you by mail.

If you decide to put a warm floor, remember that it is not placed around the entire perimeter of the room. An unscrupulous foreman will offer you to put a warm floor under the furniture, where it is absolutely not needed, which will also increase the cost of the project.

Complete wiring replacement is another service that almost every foreman will offer you without making sure that you really need it. You can make good money on old wiring made of copper and aluminum cores.

And the last piece of advice: buy materials yourself, do not trust this business to the repair team. As a rule, they buy building materials in the market, where the storage conditions for many goods do not meet the standards. In addition, there repairmen can ask for a blank receipt with a seal, enter a list of goods themselves and their cost with an extra charge.

It is better to start repairs in the off-season - in early or mid-autumn. This period is suitable for both external and internal repairs. It is still warm outside, and prices for building materials are gradually decreasing by the winter season. Savings on summer goods reach 15-20% without loss of quality. Therefore, if you were planning to spend 250,000 rubles to renovate a room, know that in the fall and winter you can save about 30,000 rubles, which can be spent on renovating the hallway.

Promotions and special offers are a special type of service where you can save. Pay attention to non-liquids. They have a limited shelf life and do not last until the next season. Hardware stores do a good discount on such goods. If you are going to make repairs right now, look at putty, plaster, glue, sealant at a bargain price, below the market average.

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Replacing plumbing affects a large part of the repair budget. If it is in good condition, without chips, cracks, and only the surface with an old coating makes you think about its dismantling, we advise you to clean and restore the plumbing. We replace expensive detergents with a mixture of baking soda and vinegar, which destroys stubborn plaque well. The budget option for the transformation is the restoration of the bath.You can cover the bath yourself with enamel, liquid acrylic or order an acrylic liner to fit the dimensions of your plumbing. Restoration will reduce the cost of buying a new bathtub by about 4 times and, depending on the option chosen, will extend the life of the old bathtub from 5 to 20 years.

Replacement of plumbing elements

If you still decide to change plumbing, consider buying a budget option from the so-called landfill entrepreneurs. Often, upon arrival at a new house, the owners change faience and cast-iron plumbing, which is in good condition, and throw it into a landfill. Resourceful businessmen have come up with an easy way to quickly and easily make money on this. They pick up plumbing in good condition from the landfill, wash and put it in order. They do not expose their contacts directly, working on the principle of word of mouth. In the auxiliary warehouse of such entrepreneurs, you can pick up the right plumbing and save a third or even half of the factory cost.

Laying the floor is one of the most important stages in the repair of an apartment.

To save money when cladding walls, we advise you to buy not edged (planed) lumber, but slabs (wood sawing waste). The croaker is sold raw and does not correspond to the quality of the usual materials. It is easy to fix this if you purchase it in advance in March-April and keep it in a dry room until autumn. In addition, slab sheathing saves money on leveling walls. In 80% of cases, it completely hides all the irregularities. Not only to save money, but also to make wall decoration practical, the option of wall cladding with croaker to the waist and pasting the walls to the ceiling with non-woven wallpaper will help. The lower part is resistant to wear and dirt, and the upper one completes the overall picture.

The most budget option for laying the floor in dry rooms is marmoleum. This material requires leveling the floor in only 10% of cases. However, for rooms with high humidity (bathrooms) marmoleum is not suitable, you will have to lay classic tiles. An alternative to marmoleum is laminate. This option is also inexpensive, looks beautiful and is suitable for laying under a plank floor. True, the floor will have to be leveled.

For wall decoration in the bathroom, choose laminated hardboard. Such material is less familiar than tile, but cheaper. The ceiling is better sheathed with plastic panels. Don't skimp on waterproofing. The money spent on it will pay off and extend the life of even the cheapest finishing materials. Instead of gypsum plaster, use a cement-plaster mixture to level the walls. It is not inferior in quality and is cheaper. When deciding to tile walls and floors, buy a solid color finish. Such a tile does not need to be often adjusted and compared with the pattern, less material is used, which automatically affects the purchase price.

When carrying out major and European-style repairs, it is impossible to do without replacing the wiring. At this event, it is better not to save money and entrust the work to a professional. It is especially important to pay attention to Soviet wiring due to the high power of modern devices, which sometimes the old cable cannot withstand. During the replacement, you will have to ditch the walls with a wall chaser in order to lay new wiring with high quality. Workers charge for this service from 100 rubles per 1 m 2.