Do-it-yourself budget repair of the floor in Khrushchev

In detail: do-it-yourself budget repair of the floor in Khrushchev from a real master for the site my.housecope.com.

Repair of floors in Khrushchev: do-it-yourself replacement options, what to do if they creak, dismantling old parquet

Before proceeding with the repair of the floor, it is worth studying the theoretical part of the Khrushchev process - these are apartments that have become the result of mass buildings in the last century. Due to the large volumes and high pace of work, such apartments were built in haste. Therefore, today, almost everyone living in small-sized Khrushchev houses is faced with the problems of uneven walls and floors. In addition, over the past time, the surfaces have become very worn out, which led to the appearance of unpleasant creaks on the floor when walking. How to deal with common floor defects in Khrushchev-era apartments on your own - on the site below.

Self-repair in a small-sized Khrushchev can be major and cosmetic (surface). The type of repair required depends on the condition of the floor, the desired result, and the finish that will be used in the final stage of the work. So, for example, for laying parquet or laminate, the floor will need to be leveled. In addition, the floor covering also affects the type of repair (the floor in Khrushchev can be covered with tiles, parquet, boards).

An excellent solution is to repair the floor using logs.

If the wooden floor does not creak and is well preserved, then you can limit its repair to sanding, sanding and processing with colored varnish.

You can eliminate the gaps in the wooden floor with putty, sealant. In wider slots, plywood or a composition based on PVA glue and sawdust is usually hammered. Rotten and crooked wooden floor boards can be locally replaced with new ones.

If the floor creaks, then it will have to be disassembled and the state of the lag checked.

You can remove the floor yourself. In this case, it is not necessary to purchase new boards for coating. You can cover the logs with an old coating if the boards are suitable for use. To do this, they will need to be numbered and laid again. Defective lags, while replacing them with new ones, since they cannot be repaired. In order to further level the old boards, plywood can be laid on them.

You can repair a creaky floor on your own without resorting to professional builders. But in order to do this, you need to determine why the floors creak.

Video (click to play).

There are the following reasons for the creaking of floors in Khrushchev and options for their repair:

If the board bends under weight and creaks, then you can eliminate the sound without parsing the floor by making holes in the floorboard with a diameter of 0.5 cm and pouring cement mixture into them. You can try fixing the board to the joists with screws or nails. But for this you need to know exactly the location of the lag.
The squeaky board can be changed. But in this case, the replacement board must be selected so that the coating comes out monolithic.
If the board is loose and creaks, then its fasteners just need to be tightened better.

So that the floors in Khrushchev do not creak, a substrate should be placed under them

You can try to cycle the floor and varnish it in several layers with intermediate drying. The varnish will penetrate into the pores of the wood and seal it. The sound may disappear. But this method is unreliable. The only option that guarantees one hundred percent getting rid of an unpleasant creak is the dismantling of the floor.

Ceilings in Khrushchev are reinforced concrete slabs. In order to obtain an even and solid base, a sand-cement screed is performed for any type of finish.In addition, such a procedure may also be necessary if it is planned to install an additional heating system "warm floor" in the room.

It should be borne in mind that a warm floor with water heating can only be installed on the first floor: this is due to possible system leaks.

For pouring the screed, the floors are disassembled to the slabs. Before the screed, builders recommend foaming the joints of the plates and covering them with plaster. Expanded clay can be used as a heat-insulating material. A waterproofing layer (for example, polyethylene) should be laid under the expanded clay.

In order to perform a high-quality floor screed, you should evenly set the beacons using the level

After that, you can begin to prepare and fill the screed:

First you need to paste over the room around the perimeter with intercontour construction tape.
Then lay fiberglass or reinforcing mesh on expanded clay
Next, you should set the beacons, focusing on the highest place in the room.
Pour the cement-sand mixture over the beacons. In this case, the filling should be carried out quickly: the solution begins to solidify within half an hour after kneading. The cement layer should be 4-5 cm thick.

You need to level the layer immediately after pouring. To do this, you can use the rule. The evenness of the coating should be controlled using a laser level. You can quickly fill the floor with your own hands using a construction concrete pump. Leveling the floor in the apartment can also be done using a polymer bulk coating.

Which finish flooring to choose for the renovated floor depends on the design of the room, financial possibilities and taste preferences of the owner of the apartment.

Under new floors it is recommended to put thermal insulation material

You can replace the old coating in Khrushchev with:

Linoleum. This is the most affordable material, the laying of which does not take much time and effort. The range of linoleum today is extremely large, so there should not be any problems with the selection of a model.
Laminate. This material has an attractive appearance and a long service life, it is absolutely harmless to health and fireproof. But the laminate is not advised to lay in rooms with a high level of humidity.
Parquet. This is a natural material that looks expensive and stylish. Parquet will last at least two decades without the need for repair. The main thing is to choose the right material. For rooms with high traffic (hall, hallway), it is advised to choose hardwood parquet (oak, beech, ash). Soft varieties (pine, cherry, birch) are suitable for bedrooms.

Floors in non-residential premises (in the bathroom, in the kitchen) can be tiled.

Alteration of the floor in Khrushchev may be necessary if the base is uneven or has visible defects, creaks. Restoration of the floor depends on the degree of damage and what kind of finish the owner of the apartment wants to lay (many modern coatings require a perfectly even base). In most cases, you can repair or re-lay the floor on your own. The main thing is to clearly define the defect and how to eliminate it!

From the author: Hi all! Any person of average income dreams of his personal housing, but it is not always possible to purchase a cozy apartment in a new building. We have to look for compromise options, for example, "make a nest" in an old house. I was, so to speak, lucky and my grandmother bequeathed me an apartment. At first I thought that it would be enough to buy new furniture and wallpaper, and you can move in, but after starting the renovation, something terrible was discovered that required immediate attention. Of course, it is possible to fix the floors in Khrushchev with your own hands, but for this you need to sweat. Read more about how to deal with this problem in my article.

Khrushchevs are five-story houses built in the middle of the last century.During construction, it was assumed that the service life of such buildings would not exceed a quarter of a century, but, since residential facilities have always been in short supply, their service life is extended to this day. This explains such a decadent state of apartments and, in particular, floors in Khrushchev houses, the repair of which is simply inevitable (in my article I will post a video on which I learned how to correct imperfections in flooring).

Thanks to poor-quality materials and tight deadlines, now, when we enter old houses, we see dried, swollen and creaking floors, which have to be repaired with terrifying regularity. But you should not immediately get upset and refuse to buy the chosen apartment, because repairs in Khrushchev on your own are real and, if you carefully read the article, you will understand that there is nothing complicated here.

If you have already decided that you will do the repair yourself, then before changing the floor, I recommend that you familiarize yourself with the arrangement of floor surfaces of those times:

Base (concrete or wood).
Waterproofing (made of roofing material with bituminous coating).
Heat and sound insulation (should have been made of glass wool or slag, but construction waste was used in many houses).
Cement screed (in the oldest buildings it may not be).
Wooden flooring in the living rooms, tiles in the bathroom.

If we consider that the buildings were designed for 25 years of operation, and more than 60 have already passed, it becomes clear why they have such an unsightly appearance. Therefore, if you decide to move to Khrushchev, then the first thing to do is to start the repair by replacing the wooden floor.

It is possible to determine the list of measures for working with the coating only with the help of preliminary diagnostics. Building materials and equipment should be bought only after you decide what kind of floor repairs you will do - major or cosmetic.

Basically, the apartments are landscaped with plank flooring. Over time, the wood dries out and, when pressed, begins to creak. If you, like me, value your nerve cells, then I recommend taking your legs in your hands and running to change floors. Such small flaws can be easily eliminated with cosmetic repairs. Here are some helpful tips for doing it:

in dried boards, recesses and cracks always appear over time, which not only spoil the appearance, but also interfere, elementarily, with putting things in order in the house. Don't put off fixing this problem until later. You can level the wooden floor with both ordinary putty and other building mixtures;
if the coating structure itself is damaged, then one or more boards will have to be replaced. To do this, remove a piece of the coating (having dismantled the plinth, pull out the nails with a tool and lift the boards), check the logs for strength, and only after that we can proceed with the replacement. You need to fix the new flooring with nails or self-tapping screws very tightly;
you can get rid of the annoying creak by strengthening the fixation of the boards to the lags;
any wooden flooring will sooner or later begin to spring, and such a problem appears due to the fact that a gap is formed between the lags, or the board is too thin to blame. Here cosmetic repairs of floors are not always able to help, sometimes a complete replacement of the coating is required.

Performing work between the lags, you will need to additionally install the bars. Do not forget to unfasten the baseboard first.

I present to your attention a video that clearly shows how you can restore the flooring in Khrushchev:

If the boards are well preserved, then you can take a few simple steps to extend their service life:

We cycle.

We grind.

We tint.

We cover with varnish (do not save on varnish, especially if you are making repairs in an apartment on the ground floor).

If your floorboards are not in a critical condition, then small defects, up to 5 mm wide, are removed with a putty mixture. Do not even think about covering up larger irregularities with it - the material will simply crumble over time, and in the end you will get not only a gap, but also garbage. Wide holes must be hammered with pieces of plywood, then coated with sealant and sanded. Excess sealant is removed with a special grinding tool.In old houses, reinforced concrete slabs were used as the base for the floor, so the main component of the overhaul will always be a cement-sand screed. And it doesn’t matter in which Khrushchev room you decide to overhaul the floor - in the bathroom or bedroom, this preparation procedure will consist of approximately the same steps:

We dismantle skirting boards, logs and boards (tiles in the bathroom).

We clean the surface of the plates from dirt and debris, vacuum.

We determine the highest section, focusing on which we will mark the coverage (a laser or water level will help us with this).

If there are deep defects on the plates, we close them with a cement mixture.

We prime and wait for the complete drying of the base.

We carry out a screed.

The screed must be done in tandem with a partner. If the room in which the work will be carried out has a fairly large area, then it is recommended to use beacons made of a metal profile. When the solution has completely hardened, you can safely proceed to the finishing coating of the floor surface.Cement screed has long been a traditional method of leveling surfaces. The joints of the plates should be covered with gypsum or foam, then covered with expanded clay or simple sand, then covered with heat-insulating material (I covered it with polyethylene, but it is also possible with foam plastic). Fasten insulation tape, mesh and beacons between the walls and flooring. Everything, the preparation is behind - you can proceed to the screed.Plywood is perfect for flooring if you do not have enough free funds in the family budget. With its help, you can not only save money, but also time, plus - the old coating does not have to be dismantled. In the video below, you can see how easy it is to make repairs in a stalin / Khrushchev:

It is necessary to demolish the floor, there is a bonus in the form of 10-12 cm. You remove the garbage, level it with plywood and lay whatever your heart desires)))

The cheapest and most labor intensive way. Rip off the paint with a cycle (manual), chisel, knife. The paint was removed and sanded by hand. You can tear off what is torn off and puttied. You can cover with argolite.

Dimas71 wrote:
It is necessary to demolish the floor, there is a bonus in the form of 10-12 cm. You remove the garbage, level it with plywood and lay whatever your heart desires)))

Uh-huh, only it doesn't fit into $100-$150. No side

Plywood itself is already flying in more than this money.

I'm afraid there's nothing you can do

with such a floor, absolutely nothing worthwhile can be done. I went through it. eventually covered with 10mm plywood.

but if you need to move and urgently need to do something - I would not bother with peeling off the paint, but would buy the cheapest Soviet felt-based linoleum and lay it on.
I had linoleum lying on such a floor for about 7 years. Of course, on the hillocks, the pattern got up, it failed in the pits, but so far, in general, there are no cracks or breaks.
so peel off the paint where it comes off, sweep the floor, lay a CHEAP linoleum (it makes no sense to lay it dear!) And until better times it will be enough for you.
it will be enough for 5-7 years, although of course there can be no question of the quality of European-quality repairs

Depends on your plans for this apartment. If you plan to live there for more than 5 years, then save up / borrow money and do everything wisely (compared to the price of an apartment / mortgage, these are such trifles).

If up to 5 years, then the truth is better to find linoleum on felt or ordinary linoleum with a backing. True, in a year or two, irregularities will make themselves felt, but maybe get used to it.

There is an even cheaper option - we used it, knowing that we would live in this one-room apartment for a year or two (also a mortgage and zero money). They laid carpet and bought a powerful vacuum cleaner. Although there are many opponents of such decisions, it turned out to be just right for us. It is cheaper than linoleum, very easy to clean and looks neat. Just on it, all the waves and holes of the old floor will not be visible, unlike linoleum.

This is in the room, and cheap linoleum was thrown in the hallway and kitchen. It lasted for a year, although cracks in the wooden floor began to appear. The buyers of the apartment, of course, did not even notice them.

2Romik
Telling my story about wood flooring

The condition of the paint is about the same as yours. True, boards 50 mm thick lie dead, do not creak. The only thing is that they turned dark in some places and the joints parted slightly.

I cleaned off the old paint with a hair dryer and a spatula. Believe me, it's not hard and not long. For a room of 10 sq.m. it took half a day of slow work. 1000 r. hair dryer + 10 rub. putty knife. need good ventilation!
I pierced the fastening nails to the lags with a dominator 5 mm deeper than the floor level. Additionally, I screwed all the boards to the logs with 95 mm self-tapping screws.You will need a powerful screwdriver, but you can borrow it from someone. Spend about 300-400 rubles on self-tapping screws.
Scraping the floor with an electric planer. The price of the device is 1000-2000 rubles, but you can also rent a more powerful one + a couple of sets of knives from a quick cut. steel (not hard alloy, they can split from a nail!)
Actually, I'm at this stage right now. If the floor is even and the boards are not warped, then this item can be skipped. in the next room and the kitchen did so.
Laying MDF boards 6 mm thick and often screwing them with self-tapping screws. 300-400 r for self-tapping screws
then whatever you want I laid a 2 mm underlayment and a laminate on it.
PS. buy a screwdriver, it's a cool thing, without it I'm like without hands. Weight the rest of the power tool can wait

Khrushchev houses are called houses erected in the middle of the last century. The buildings have 5 floors and are distinguished by a non-standard height of the ceiling beams, which is 20-40 cm higher than in ordinary apartments. Often the buildings were crowned with a sloping roof on the last floor. Characteristic features influenced the condition of apartments in general and flooring in particular. A dozen years later, repairing the floor in Khrushchev became inevitable, as the entire structure consistently swelled, shrank, delami- nated and began to creak. The reason is poor moisture removal, carelessness in laying the slabs and the complete absence of waterproofing material in the interfloor space.

Before starting repairs, you need to understand what the floor is in the apartment of the Khrushchev house and what work will have to be done. If you look at the photo, the floors in Khrushchev have 5 layers:

concrete or wooden base;
waterproofing (not always) from sheets of roofing material with a bituminous coating;
a layer of slag or glass wool as a noise and heat insulating material. In most cases, ordinary construction waste/garbage is poured;
cement screed only in new houses, in old buildings there is no layer;
the final wooden flooring in the rooms, in the bathrooms instead of the plank flooring, tiles were laid out. Often the kitchen also had a tiled finish, without a wood layer.

The presence of all 5 layers is not the norm for Khrushchev, in many cases there were only rough concrete-type floors and a wooden covering, plus construction debris between them. The photo of the floor device in Khrushchev clearly and eloquently shows the deplorable state of all elements: cracked logs, cracks, cracks in wooden slabs, baseboards and, as a result, creaking, subsidence of floors and a disgusting aesthetic appearance.

All negative defects are typical for any Khrushchev, so floor replacement is one of the main points in the repair and decoration of an apartment. But first you need to establish a list of necessary procedures, and it is determined during the preliminary diagnosis of the condition of the floor. Redecoration, major alteration or restoration of individual rooms - this will be prompted by the master, whose call will cost $ 70-100, but the final amount of work depends only on the volume and complexity of the task.

But there is a more budgetary option - do-it-yourself repairs. To do this, you need to look at what types and types of floor repairs are in obsolete buildings.

With all the shortcomings, the floors in Khrushchev have advantages: they can be replaced! Sometimes your own efforts, perseverance and small financial costs are enough. Compared to the floors in older houses with hardwood floors, Khrushchevs are much easier to repair, completely replace the floor or patchy renovation. Cosmetic or capital - you decide. If the first type of repair eliminates minor flaws, then the second is designed to completely reconstruct the existing coating, give it a new life.

Creaking, cracked boards, worn paint are amenable to cosmetic repairs. The price of the service in companies will cost from $15 per m².
The disgusting condition of the floor, especially if the old parquet is lying, does not require renovation, but a major overhaul with the dismantling of the coatings and pouring a new base, replacing the log. Service price from $40 per m².

Repairs are made in different ways:

Renew the coating, strengthen the existing wooden floor material, putty cracks, replace rotten elements and paint the floor;
Dismantle all elements, re-concrete the screed, make normal insulation. Professionals advise laying GVL slabs;
Renovation of the coating with sheets of plywood or chipboard. But this is possible only when the entire floor is in a neutral state, if it does not fail and does not completely rot.

Before buying materials or calling a specialist, see what exactly needs to be changed and fixed so that the floors stop annoying. So, cosmetic floor repair in Khrushchev eliminates the following problems:

Cracks. They are puttied, scraped and you can cover the base with an engineering board or laminate, as shown in the video. The floors will stand for another 5-6 years. Service price from $10 per m².
Wide holes/holes. The wood flooring is already required. To do this, you need to tear off the skirting boards, remove all the boards in turn, replace the logs that have rotted or otherwise deteriorated, then return everything to its place, pressing the boards tightly against each other. Most often, such a defect suffers from the kitchen. After rallying, there will be a certain distance from the board to the wall, it is covered with a plinth, having previously been foamed with mounting foam from a cylinder.
Creak. There are two options: the lags themselves loosened or the boards were attached to them. You can solve the problem with your own hands: fix the logs firmly to the base with anchor screws, fix the boards, for example, with self-tapping screws.
Spring floor. Reason: incorrectly selected floorboard, joists located far away. Fixing the problem requires opening the floor, and then you need to measure the gap between the lags. The optimal distance is no more than 60 cm, which means that you will have to mount additional logs and return the floor boards to their place.

Cosmetic repairs will cost the services of professionals in the amount of $ 15-25 per m². By hiring an individual worker, you can save up to $5-7 per m².

It is recommended to overhaul the floor in Khrushchev with 60% wear of the coating. Leaving rotten logs, supports after cosmetic restoration, after a year or two, you can again encounter problems. With the complete impossibility of replacement, it is better to do with sheets of plywood. You can see how this is done and what is needed, as well as get acquainted with the stages of work and the price of the material, on the video. The main advantage is that you do not have to dismantle the old floor. It is enough to remove the plinth, lay the plywood on the surface, adjust the sheets against the wall (the distance should be at least 1 cm) and fix the material with self-tapping screws. After - walk on the plywood with a primer with water-repellent properties, and then lay the flooring.

Overhaul of a wooden floor in Khrushchev is possible in three options:

New self-levelling compound screed, new floor covering;
Installation of new logs and coverings from boards;
Installation of the floor on adjustable logs.

As the video from practitioners shows, with sufficient "flatness of the floor", the first option looks the most convenient and preferable. The price for the service in companies and private owners starts from $15 per m². Despite the fact that the concrete screed will still have to be removed.

The algorithm for carrying out a major overhaul in Khrushchev with your own hands or through hired professionals is one:

Dismantling of the old coating;

Removal of garbage;

Inspection and diagnostics of the integrity of the floor;

Filling cracks with gypsum, leveling;

Garbage collection after a rough primary repair;

Laying polyethylene, and the pieces are overlapped, fastened with construction tape. The height of the pieces reaches the planned height of the screed;

The presence of waterproofing material is required.

Laying new logs on the screed and sheathing with chipboard sheets

Advice! It's a good idea to fix the height beacons before starting to pour the screed. They will serve as a guide for the evenness of the surface of the screed. It is better to remove the beacons for 2-3 days of the screed or leave them completely filled with the mixture.

Drying of the screed requires 3-4 weeks. In this case, the drying solution must be moistened with water.

After a month, any type of coating can be laid on the floor. The choice depends on the personal preferences of the customer. For example, a kitchen would look better with standard tiles, as would a bathroom. For bedrooms and living rooms, laminate, carpet or any other covering is suitable.

You can make repairs in Khrushchev with your own hands, after taking into account all the advice from professionals. The price of a major overhaul from specialists is from $40 per m². By choosing a specialist-individual, you can save about $3-7 per m².

Video (click to play).