In detail: do-it-yourself apartment renovation of the floor from a real master for the site my.housecope.com.
Repair of the floor in the apartment: complete and partial replacement of the floor covering. DIY floor repair instructions
When an apartment has an ugly, shabby floor, then the whole impression of a good renovation or beautiful furniture will be lost. But this kind of work - replacing the floor covering - is a very time-consuming process, which is not easy to decide on. But a simple change of decorative coating will only give the result of a cosmetic renovation. Invisible processes will continue and, as a result, you will have to spend much more effort and money to restore the damaged coating. Let us consider in detail the algorithm for repairing the floor in the dwelling, the procedure for carrying out the procedure on our own.
If the floor covering is not laid on logs, but on a concrete base, pay attention to the advice of specialists. If the floor covering is worn out and requires replacement, then it is necessary to carry out the following manipulations:
- Whatever material is the base of the floor, you need to remove the damaged fragments. If it's linoleum, there is a fun way to make a patch out of a new one. To do this, the old piece must be attached to the roll and cut along the border of the patch.
- Tiles that move or have fallen off should be removed.
- The places from which the damaged fragments were removed must be freed from debris and dust. Carefully using auxiliary tools, clean the surface of the old material.
- The substrate may be damaged, in which case it is necessary to prepare a new solution and troubleshoot.
- After the concrete has dried, patches can be laid, be it linoleum, tiles or other material. For this, glue, solution or other required mixture is used.
Video (click to play). |
Sometimes it happens that the entire concrete base requires restoration. In this case, it is necessary to perform a screed. If the surface of the concrete base is uneven, bumpy, then it should be leveled, this will affect the finish coating and spoil it. Linoleum will become unusable and may tear, repeating the bends of the concrete pavement, the tiles will sway due to different levels of the floor.
To avoid such troubles, you should level the surface of the concrete slabs on which the floor covering will be laid. This should be done like this:
- first you need to remove the old coating, if any, the substrate, debris and dust;
- ideally, the base of the floor must be waterproofed, it is overlapped and reinforced along the walls;
- if you do not use waterproofing, it is necessary to take into account such an important point - the concrete solution should be poured onto a pre-moistened surface, this will allow the material to "grasp" better;
- when leveling the surface, to give it perfect evenness, beacons and a building level should be used;
- after the concrete surface has dried, it is covered with any material.
When repairing wood flooring, it is necessary to revise the entire floor and remove the damaged boards. The floor area is treated with special solutions against fungus, those places that are exposed to moisture are protected from water using special waterproofing materials. If cracks are formed as a result of the drying out of the tree, you need to do the following work:
- polish the surface with special equipment;
- prime and clean the cracks;
- cover the floor surface with nitro varnish;
- after the solution has dried, cover with a finishing agent.
If laminate or ceramic tiles have fallen into disrepair, you should try to mask minor damage.The wax crayon is capable of repairing scratches on laminate flooring. Specially formulated pastes mask minor imperfections. If the laminate is swollen or damaged, it must be replaced. If chips and cracks form on the tiles, you can try to apply cement laitance and hide the defects. But if the damage is significant, affecting the aesthetic appearance of the room, the tile must be replaced.
When repairing linoleum on your own, you must remember that it is possible to repair the floor surface from such a material.
If the linoleum is swollen, cracked, or torn, you can do this:
- inject the glue with a syringe into the place of damage;
- place the load and let it stand for several days;
- if the result is not satisfactory, replace the site with a new one.
In case of failure of the carpet, you should use spare elements:
- cut out the damaged area, glue the patch;
- edges are treated with special glue to prevent fraying;
- ideally the grain pattern and direction should be considered.
For stone flooring, it is necessary to carry out the following actions:
- cracks, chips are leveled with a grinding technique, after which the surface is polished;
- polishing helps to make the coating protected from dirt;
- it is possible to do such actions with the result when the depth of cracking is not more than half a centimeter.
If you have decided to completely replace the floor covering in your apartment and even change the material, pay attention to the new product on the construction market - OSB panels. Replacing the wooden version of the planks with floors made of this material is a fairly practical result. Floor covering made of OSB boards deserves attention, since the floor is of high quality, durable and practical. The surface is not afraid of moisture and does not accumulate it inside. Using plates, you can achieve the following result:
- perfectly level the surface, which allows you to use any, even the most delicate and sensitive coating;
- high sound insulation allows you to absorb noise;
- two tasks are solved simultaneously - insulation and waterproofing are performed.
OSB boards can be used both on a cement floor and on logs. Covering with material is not difficult. The panels are easy to cut to the required dimensions. For work, you should prepare a tool:
- plane;
- rubber hammer;
- building level;
- electrofreza.
Plates can be a finishing surface or a base for any material.
The advantage of using OSB - boards is:
- ease of use;
- one slab is capable of covering a large area of the room;
- the speed of laying the coating;
- resistance to mechanical stress.
After deciding to replace the floor or overhaul it, it is necessary to decide on the scale of work and the plan of repair measures. If we talk about replacing the floor surface in an apartment, it should be noted that the basis is a reinforced concrete floor slab. Then there may be differences, in some apartments the floor covering is located on the logs, in others it is laid on a concrete screed.
Wooden floors are subject to deterioration and wear. The first manifestations are considered to be creaking, "loosening" of some boards, there may be a smell of dampness, cracks between the fragments of the floor.
Not only the top coating can deteriorate, but also the screed, especially if the quality of work was not of the highest level. Extraneous sound may appear when driving, "walk" the coating.
A complex of manifestations indicates the need to replace the floor.
Provided that the defects in the coating are insignificant, it is possible to replace the floor material in part:
- The surface is cleaned from the old layer of paint or varnish. This is easier to do with the help of a special technique - a grinding machine.
- Damaged boards should be removed.
- After that, the entire floor surface is checked for the quality of nailing. They pull out the old, deformed ones so that the boards hold well, it is recommended to use self-tapping screws.
- In the presence of small distances between the boards, the gaps are filled with a putty for wooden surfaces, it is possible to cover the places where the nails enter the base of the floor.
- If the gaps are large, chips can be stuffed into the gaps, they can also be covered with putty and the place of restoration can be rubbed.
- After the filler material has dried, the floors are sanded manually or with a machine.
- When the work is completed, the floor surface is covered with paint or varnish.
You can restore the floor in the apartment, provided that the floorboards are fastened, in this way:
- first you need to listen in which area of the room the creak is heard;
- wedges must be driven in between the board and the beam;
- this must be done carefully so as not to loosen the floorboard;
- a place for screws is drilled in the floorboards, they are screwed at a slight angle and a beam;
- these manipulations can get rid of the annoying squeak.
If it is necessary to restore only the appearance of the coating, this can be done quickly and easily:
- if it is not possible to take out the furniture and vacate the room, the repair work will be carried out in two stages: first, on one side of the room, then the furniture is transferred to the repaired part of the room and the second half of the room is repaired;
- now it is necessary to use a machine for scraping the floor, it makes no sense to buy equipment for the sake of one time, you can rent it for the duration of the work;
- you can do this work by hand, but it takes a lot of effort, time and sandpaper;
- after sealing small seams and final leveling, I varnish the cleanly wiped and dry floor;
- it is recommended to use two or three coats of varnish, beforehand give time for the layer to dry.
Partial restoration of the floor in the apartment will allow you to get rid of the defect and not spend a lot of time on fixing it.
Before starting work, it is necessary to empty the room completely: take out the furniture, remove paintings, if possible, lamps and chandeliers. The work is very dusty and if it is carried out in stages, then reliable and sealed dust protection for other areas should be provided. It is good if the room has a door, but it is advisable to hang it with an additional damp cloth, place a roller at the bottom. This will help protect the rest of the rooms slightly from dust spreading. This will not give a special effect, and if other family members live in the apartment, it is better to move them to another place during the repair work.
The procedure for dismantling the flooring is as follows:
The most common question that arises during the restoration of the floor is whether it is worth dismantling the entire coating in case of fragmentary destruction of the material. If you are starting such a global business, you need to completely replace the coating. Perhaps the process of decay or destruction has affected all areas of the floor, but so far this is not visually noticeable. So that you do not have to re-dismantle the coating after a while, spend time and energy on the global restoration of the entire room.
Even an inexperienced builder can repair the floor in an apartment with his own hands. Step-by-step instructions in the video will allow you to understand such concepts as partial and complete replacement of the coating when carrying out repairs. After watching the video, there will be no questions left on the correct replacement of the floor or surface restoration.
With the exception of a small percentage of secondary buildings with timber joists, slabs are used in multi-storey buildings. On the logs, either a tongue-and-groove floor covering or a rough floor made of edged boards, OSB, GVL, DSP, plywood or chipboard for other claddings (parquet, linoleum, PVC tiles, cork, tiles, carpet and other materials) are laid.
Therefore, the repair of the wooden floor in the Khrushchev can be carried out in a day (replacing the tongue and groove) or delayed for several weeks (laying soundproofing, insulation, log and subfloor under parquet).
Due to the complex design and the many layers of the pie, repairing a wooden floor in an apartment is varied, time consuming and budgetary. When the appearance is lost, the surface of the grooved board is cleaned of the existing paintwork layer, painted in several layers to give the necessary aesthetics of perception.
In all other cases, partial or complete disassembly of the coating or subfloor becomes inevitable. To simplify the search for the reasons for the decrease in the operational properties of the structure, layer-by-layer dismantling is usually practiced:
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for the restoration of grooved flooring or parquet, you will have to disassemble the entire floor covering so as not to damage the locks of its individual elements;
The reasons for the squeak can be any structural element (floorboard, log or self-tapping screw) when the mutual fixation with another floor part is weakened. Therefore, different methods are used to eliminate the creak - from filling the cracks in the floorboards with talcum powder to replacing the logs or screwing all the boards to the logs at an angle of 45-60 degrees in new places.
The reasons for the squeak are the wear and tear of the elements of the wooden floor.
Advice! During the initial laying of a grooved board as a floor covering, only the first, every fourth and last rows of material are rigidly attached to the logs. After drying, after 3 - 12 months, the floorboards are re-tightened with jacks, clamps or other tools. This operation is not a repair of the floor, it refers to the maintenance of the coating.
When using a multilayer structure, the repair of wooden floors in an apartment becomes necessary with audible and visually obvious defects that sharply reduce the comfort of living. In other words, they walk on the floor covering until the creak gets bored, or the user's leg falls through.
A preventive audit is not economically profitable, since for this it is necessary to take out all the furniture, dismantle the plinth, all or most of the floorboards. Repair is carried out as the structure is disassembled, depending on its complexity, special technologies are used:
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wedging, pulling the floorboards;
Pulling boards from squeak.
Elimination of squeak by additional fixation.
Important! After the revision of the floorboards, boards unsuitable for further use are rejected. Either defective areas are cut out of them (rot, fungus, mold, warping, flying through knots).
In Soviet times, the exploitation of wooden floors in Khrushchev and Brezhnevka was practiced. The logs were laid on the glassine, leveled with wooden wedges. The tongue-and-groove boards were pulled together once - during the decoration of the rooms, users were usually not warned that the floorboards needed to be pulled off again after drying.
The reason for the squeak is the weakening of the mutual fixation of two or more structural elements. Under the load from the traffic of residents, they bend, make characteristic sounds.
To eliminate the squeak, the following algorithm of actions is usually used:
- identifying a creaking area by ear, outlining it with chalk;
- checking for the presence of a fastener (nail or self-tapping screw);
- existing nails can be buried in the wood with a punch;
- with a self-tapping screw with a full thread, the floorboard is fixed in any convenient position relative to the log bar;
- with a self-tapping screw with an incomplete thread, you can tightly press two wooden floor elements together, including if the hole in the floorboard has expanded over time;
- a polymer wedge is driven under the lag hanging above the floor slab;
- upon detection of rotten, turned into dust sections of sawn timber, they are cut out, the timber / board is built up with new pieces treated with an antiseptic.
Planks in rows located far from the walls are very difficult to dismantle without destroying the lock connection. Therefore, their spatial geometry and relative position relative to the floorboards in adjacent rows are regulated by longitudinal wedges:
- a wedge is cut out of a long chip;
- hammered in between the rows of floorboards;
- prevents sagging, eliminates creak;
- is sanded flush with the surface of the floorboards.
After that, local staining of the defective area is carried out or the floors are re-painted entirely.
Read more about the fight against squeak in the article: How to remove the squeak of a wooden floor.
In dry rooms, a complete replacement of the floor covering is usually carried out, since the wear of the boards is the same here. In rooms with high humidity and an abundance of cold water supply, sewage, hot water supply, restoration of individual areas affected by mold, fungus or rot due to pipe leaks is often used. In this case, it is necessary to take into account the factors:
- the lags and the condition of the screed should be carefully examined;
- in case of an unsatisfactory condition of these structural elements, the overhaul of the coating will be cheaper, since the operational resource of the updated section will be much higher than that of existing floorboards, which will also have to be changed soon;
- the grooved board is laid according to the standard technology (fastening to the logs of every 4 rows), after 4 - 12 months the flooring must be pulled off again with fixation to the logs of each row of boards;
- the skirting board is attached exclusively to the walls to ensure high maintainability of the coating and mobility during linear expansion of the wood (about 0.15% for dry sawn timber).
Important! The height of the groove / ridge location of modern sawn timber may not coincide with similar locks of the operated sheet pile, issued during the USSR.
Therefore, the technology of restoration of the floor covering is used according to the following scheme:
- the flooring is laid from the wall into the castle;
- at the junctions of the new flooring with the old boards, a docking bar is mounted;
- on the one hand, a groove of the tongue-and-groove joint is left on the plank, the second is cut along the width of the slot, fastened into the wedge with self-tapping screws or nails without a lock with existing flooring boards, as in the bottom photo.
Restoration of grooved flooring boards.
Advice! It is forbidden to use spacers between the joists and the floorboards of the finished floor, since it is these details that cause the squeak in the future. Plastic wedges should be placed under the logs, control the upper plane of the bars from which they are made.
When repairing an old wooden floor, it may be necessary to replace the worn out subfloor. With a lag step that satisfies the operational loads, these elements remain in place, only the subfloor decking is dismantled and replaced with a new one.
Depending on the finish floor covering, the following materials can be used:
- edged board - under a grooved board;
- multilayer plywood - for any coating, including self-leveling floor, tiles, porcelain stoneware;
Replacing the subfloor with plywood.
The works are carried out according to standard technologies with the provision of natural ventilation in the underground space.
If the wooden flooring has no visual defects, but its surface is uneven, there are creaks and other factors that reduce the quality of living, you will have to dismantle the parquet or tongue-and-groove board completely to provide access to the bars on which the flooring is attached.
Before you repair the logs, you should revise the screed, it is possible to replace the insulation, waterproofing and acoustic materials. In Soviet times, expanded clay or sawdust served as insulation; these materials are less effective than expanded polystyrene, ecowool, basalt heat insulator. Therefore, they are collected in bags and disposed of.
Lag replacement is made according to the technology:
- beating the horizontal line by a laser plane to find the top point;
- drawing horizontal lines on walls at an arbitrary height;
- laying timber near the walls, taking into account the horizontal level.
The joists can be mounted on polymer wedges or special adjustable bolts (adjustable floor system). The bar must be securely fixed to the floor slab (screed) with anchors to prevent squeaking and movement during operation. Therefore, when using wedges, long anchors are used; in systems of an adjustable floor, the stability of the spatial geometry of the structure is ensured by metal studs:
- they pass through the block;
- attached to the base;
- adjustable in height with a nut, positioning the lags at the required level;
- the pins are cut off flush with the grinder at the end of the alignment in a single horizontal plane of all logs inside the room.
Replacing the lag with an adjustable floor.
Advice! The logs have a certain thickness, therefore, in wooden floors (rough and finishing), by default, an underground space appears, in which natural ventilation must be provided. To do this, it is necessary to make cuts in the logs, and install gratings diagonally in the corners of the room into the subfloor and floor covering.