Do-it-yourself overhaul of the balcony

With the arrival of warm spring days, many residents are faced with the question - it's time to repair the balcony. And not only refresh the look. Sometimes a balcony or loggia is brought almost to an emergency state.

Repair of such structures is a very serious issue and requires a competent approach to its solution. By insulating and updating the decorative finish, you will give a fresh look, but will not add to the strength of your loggia. It is imperative to conduct a survey of the balcony and restore its base plate, possibly with reinforcement.

And what can happen if you do not make timely repairs to the balcony? The photo below shows the sad ending.

Collapse of the emergency balcony

To avoid the sad outcome described above, it is necessary to constantly monitor the state of the entire structure. It is quite possible to carry out major repairs on your own.

Let's look at how to repair a balcony with your own hands in stages.

The first thing you should do is carefully examine the condition of the balcony base plate, parapet. What do you need to pay attention to?

1. Strong destruction, exposure of reinforcement.
2. Base plate tilt.

Where to start repairing a balcony? After a visual inspection, we make a list of what destruction was found, is it possible to restore it with our own hands. If you find very severe damage, you can contact the management company.

According to the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 491 of 13.08.2006, according to the Rules for the maintenance of common property, it includes balcony slabs and load-bearing walls in an apartment building. Consequently, the overhaul of the emergency balconies must be carried out by the management company.

But in order for these works to be completed, the balcony must be recognized as emergency. To do this, you need to write a letter addressed to the director of the management company with a request to repair the balcony structure with photos attached.

Attention: attach to the letter statements from neighbors demanding that they be protected from damage if the balcony collapses.

After consideration of your application, it will be decided at whose expense the restoration of the structure will be carried out. If the solution to the issue is delayed, you can repair the balcony yourself and, with the presented estimate, seek help from the courts.

We will not dwell on this option for solving our problem. Let's carry out the repair work ourselves.

The base plate can be destroyed very badly. In this case, you will have to strengthen it.

Small balcony slab in need of restoration

To do this, remove the waterproofing layer, clean the surface of the slab and, if necessary, make notches on it. We wet the stove with water.

With a small degree of damage, reinforcement with a metal mesh filled with expanded clay concrete solution is sufficient. It is necessary that the thickness of the mesh is located in the middle of the poured solution.

Restoration of the balcony slab

In case of large damage and partial destruction of the reinforcement, it will be necessary to strengthen the slab in a more complex and laborious way.

After preliminary cleaning of the slab, lay out the reinforcing mesh and make a concrete screed on top of it, covering all defects. If your balcony has tilted more than the permissible 10˚, you need to level it with an additional screed.

Do not forget that all work carried out will increase the weight of the stove. To prevent a collapse of the balcony, its fastening must be strengthened.

One of the types of strengthening the balcony - strapping with a channel

With a strong destruction of the reinforcing base, the balconies are reinforced by installing additional cantilevered beams.

Support plate on cantilever beams

Reinforcement is also used when expanding the area of ​​the slab during repairs. In this case, you can use stretch marks that hold the supporting plate, tied with channels, as shown in the diagram and in the photo below.

One of the options for strengthening the base plate

Strengthening the core slab as it expands

Wooden balconies can be reinforced with lower struts during repairs. It is preferable to use aluminum - lighter with sufficient strength and having a beautiful appearance.

By the way: firms that manufacture cast and forged parapets for balconies can make beautiful struts according to the customer's sketch.

Beautiful struts at the wooden balcony

With great attention it is necessary to approach the repair of the balcony in the Khrushchev. The fact is that the houses of the old project have light open balconies. It is undesirable to overload them with additional reinforcing materials. The maximum load over the entire area of ​​the balcony should not exceed 200 kg / m 2, the strip load on a 0.8 m wide section along the railing is 400 kg / m 2 (SNiP 2.01.07-85). How much weight the balcony can withstand is easy to calculate, knowing these requirements.

Therefore, after strengthening the base plate, when making cosmetic repairs to the balcony in the Khrushchev, use lighter materials (do not stop at the traditional heavy lining), use modern finishing technologies. Before glazing, recalculate how many kilograms the frames with double-glazed windows will weigh, whether the total weight will exceed the permissible load.

Renovation of a balcony room made of light materials

When repairing a parapet, pay attention to its deterioration and damage.

In case of severe damage, it is possible to completely replace the parapet with a new one made of lightweight foam blocks reinforced with a metal mesh. We replace the metal parapet without changing the design.

In case of minor damage, we carry out local repair of surfaces, seal cracks and cracks. How to cover up blind cracks? You can use polyurethane sealant Germoplast or Emfi.

How to close up the cracks on the balcony is shown in the picture below. A metal sheet is used to protect the polyurethane foam from direct sunlight, from which the foam is destroyed.

Sealing the gaps between the parapet and the balcony slab

Overhaul is not only about strengthening the balcony slab. No less important work - glazing, sealing, waterproofing, insulation and decorative finishing of the balcony room inside.

Let's make a quick overview of the above works.

For glazing, it is preferable to use metal-plastic frames with double-sided double-glazed windows. They have good sound and heat insulation properties.

Do not forget about the so-called. seasonal backlash. It is present when glazing with a width of more than 3-4 meters. With seasonal backlash, gaps will form between the double-glazed windows. We'll have to restore the sealing of the glazing.

Sealing and waterproofing is carried out on all types of balconies and loggias using the same technology. We will not consider these operations in detail - information about them can be read by clicking on the link. Especially carefully seal the roof - otherwise, in the future, you will observe how water flows from the ceiling.

When repairing a balcony in a panel house, it must be borne in mind that it needs more thorough insulation than, for example, in a brick house. This is due to the higher thermal conductivity of the panels.

The most common material for insulation during repairs is extruded polystyrene foam. Sealing of seams between sheets is made with polyurethane foam.

DIY loggia repair (insulation)

Additional heat sources can be either mounted or free-standing oil radiators. But the most effective and economical will be an infrared film heat-insulated floor.

The interior decoration depends on your taste. The design can be developed by yourself or found on the Internet.

We've looked at how to fix the balcony ourselves. What issues need to be treated with greater responsibility. How to properly distribute the load on the slab.

To clearly see the difference between the balcony before and after renovation, we offer you two photos below.

Photo of the balcony after renovation

Finally, look at the renovation of the balcony. The video was shot in a rather interesting style.

Repairing a loggia is a rather laborious thing. I'm not talking about cosmetic repairs, but about REPAIR. You can probably restore the stove with your own hands. You just need to imagine what to do and how.

Why are you upset? If you decide - about the repair of loggias and balconies, photos in the internet are filled up. I myself found and did the repair of the plate from below.

I have a Khrushchev. Something after the article is scary to do a screed on the stove. And repairs can no longer be postponed. Can apply to housing and communal services?

And you think you can shake something off of them? Do the repair yourself, and let the specialists calculate.

Balcony repair, photo examples will demonstrate the whole process in stages, it is associated with many technological features. And if in new houses it is enough to insulate, make waterproofing, glaze and decorate the room inside, then in the old fund, often, the balconies are in disrepair and pose a danger not only for owners, but also for passers-by, therefore major repairs are required.

To avoid falling out of pieces of concrete or collapse of the structure, it is necessary to reinforce, strengthen, correct the roll, close up the cracks or restore the slab again. Next, we will give detailed instructions on how to conduct a survey, we will tell you at whose expense the examination and restoration work is being done, and we will analyze in detail the question of how to repair a balcony with our own hands.

The balcony slab is a common property, the management company is responsible for its condition. Everything inside the balcony is the property of the apartment owners, so the burden of responsibility for the repair and maintenance of these useful areas rests on your shoulders.

• that the balcony tilted, and the normal slope to ensure the natural outflow of precipitation is 3% from the outer wall to the inner one;
• cracks appeared at the junction between the slab and the load-bearing wall;
• pieces of concrete fall off from the slab or reinforcement is exposed;
• the parapet has rusted and is wobbling.

It is urgent to write a statement to the housing and communal services with a demand for repairs, in which all the problems are reflected in detail. If you do not, then all responsibility for accidents will rest with you. The response to your complaint should follow within 4 weeks: a commission is created, an examination of the balcony is done, and an act on the emergency condition of the slab is drawn up.

After the examination, a conclusion is issued, as a result of which you will simply be prohibited from using this design. Although all the costs of repairing the stove should be borne by the management company, they will notify you in writing about the lack of funds for these purposes, and you will simply lose part of your usable area. Therefore, repairs will have to be done on their own and at their own expense. To get back the money spent, you need to collect all the checks, and claim reimbursement of expenses through the court.

Attention: If, after a written ban, you continue to use the emergency balcony, then in this case you will be responsible for accidents too.

Balcony repair, photo of the slab before reconstruction

If a decision is made to repair the balcony with your own hands, first of all you will need a project that can only be carried out by a design organization that has permission for these types of work.Specialists visit the site, assess the condition of the extension, on the basis of which the necessary measures for the restoration of the slab are determined, and an estimate is drawn up. It is important to note here that it is better to carry out work related to the reconstruction of the balcony through an agreement with specialists. Only in this case, you delegate all responsibility to them, even if during the repair process something falls off and falls down, causing damage to property and health.

Of course, the involvement of professionals in the repair entails significant costs, so many refuse services and restore the stove on their own. And then we will analyze in detail how to repair a balcony with our own hands, in stages:

• restore the stove;
• strengthen the structure;
• close up the cracks;
• seal the joints;
• fix the parapet.

Repair of a balcony in a panel house by reinforcing the console with a reinforced concrete beam

Before making repairs on the balcony, you should clear the area, take out the trash. Then, with an ordinary hammer, with a handle about half a meter, we begin to knock on the concrete, the blows should be of medium force. Such manipulations will remove all weak solution. Listen to the sound of the blows, it should be deaf, if a hum appears, it means that inside the void, in this place we break concrete in order to subsequently eliminate the defect.

When the entire surface of the slab is cleaned, we examine the cracks using an ordinary metal ruler. We put it in the joint, if it rested, then the gap is superficial and does not pose a danger. And if, after increased pressure, it slips deeper, then a break is possible, so it will be necessary not only to repair, but also to strengthen the slab.

Tip: To make a major overhaul of all elements of the balcony, it is recommended to negotiate with the neighbors above and below, since the structures have common elements, and it is better to repair them together.

Repair of loggias and balconies, photo how to increase the usable area when restoring the slab

If, after the inspection, you are convinced that the slab does not have significant damage, it is enough to weld its perimeter with metal corners, and reinforce the interface with the wall with anchors.

If the slab is tilted by more than 3 degrees, and most likely a crack has appeared at the wall / slab junction, the balconies need to be reinforced:

• Installation of supports is possible if the balcony is located on the lower floors. A concrete platform or columnar foundation is poured under the balcony. Metal pillars with a diameter of 100-150 mm are installed on it, a circular strapping with a corner is made along the upper heads, this structure will support the plate.
• If you need to repair the balcony on the upper floors, you will have to mount the upper or lower brackets or mensoles.
• The upper reinforcement is a metal cable tie with a diameter of 20-24 mm, which is fixed with long anchors on the sides of the balcony. One end is fixed on the outside of the slab, and the other on the wall at a height of 900-1200 mm from the floor. The slab / wall joint is additionally pulled together with a metal corner.
• The lower reinforcing mensoles are preferable, but they go into the territory of the neighbors, so in order to install the mounts, you will need to obtain their consent. Rectangular corners are welded from a metal profile, which are fixed with long anchors into the wall.

Ways to repair a balcony slab

If you want to restore the lost slab or in the case of expanding the area of ​​the balcony, the best solution would be to introduce channels into the body of the wall, which will become the basis of the extension. For these works, it is necessary to involve specialists, since the integrity of the supporting structure is affected. 2-4 deep holes are made in the wall, a channel or high-strength reinforcement is inserted into them, then concreted, and a steel sheet is usually welded on top, which serves as the basis and at the same time as a formwork for pouring a new concrete slab.

How to make a new reinforcing frame to renovate a balcony

The destruction of a concrete slab is inevitably associated with the exposure of the reinforcing frame. After the surface is cleaned, all signs of rust are removed with a stiff brush, you can additionally treat it with vinegar. After that, the rods are treated with an anti-corrosion primer and poured with concrete.

If some of the rods are lost, you should especially pay attention to the strength of the reinforcement at the wall / slab junction, then the metal frame will have to be welded up. For repair, remove the concrete layer with a hammer drill to the reinforcement, cut off all rust-damaged metal parts. Punch some holes in the wall. Then insert new rods into them, concrete and weld to the remains of the frame. Next, a concrete screed is made on top, and for strength, you can additionally lay a reinforcing mesh.

To hide the reinforcement at the edges of the slab, it is recommended to weld the perimeter with a corner, make a formwork and fill the structure with concrete.

Preparing the slab for the screed

It is better to close the gap between the slab and the wall in a complex manner, together with the neighbors from below. And if the balcony is being repaired in Khrushchev, then the roof of your balcony is the floor of the neighbors on top, so in this case you will have to use them too, so you can not only restore your own balcony, but also avoid leaks during precipitation.

The joint is well cleaned and embroidered in a V-shape, coated with liquid bitumen, on which a fiberglass or roofing material tape is glued, with a 100 mm approach to the slab and wall. The patch is again coated with bitumen, a metal corner or a galvanized strip folded at an angle is laid on top, which is drilled onto the anchor for strength. Then you can do the general waterproofing of the slab and further repairs.

Balcony repair, photo example of how to properly seal the cracks in order to ensure the structure is tight

If the parapet is dilapidated, and especially in front of the balcony glazing, it must be reinforced. This is usually done using an equilateral metal corner:

• scald the plate around the perimeter;
• fix several vertical posts to the lower trim - be sure to fix 2 on the sides with anchors to the wall, and 2 on the outer corners of the slab;
• scald the vertical posts from the top with handrails from the corner.

Repair of the balcony, the option of reconstruction of the parapet with the subsequent removal of the glazing

To expand the balcony, the racks are not welded vertically, but at an angle. For glazing, it is recommended to make the upper railings 100 mm or more wide. Below is an instruction on how to repair a balcony, the video will help you understand the technology of strengthening the parapet.