In detail: do-it-yourself repairs from a real master for the site my.housecope.com.
Where to start repairing an apartment so that the repair work does not stretch for an indefinite period, and the end result will undoubtedly please you, this is what will be discussed in today's article. Repair in the apartment requires serious preliminary preparation. The most important point is to draw up a detailed plan for future repairs, taking into account the smallest nuances. Consider, point by point, the advice of professionals on the proper organization of repair work in houses and apartments.
First of all, you need to decide on the complexity and scope of future repairs. To make an apartment bright and clean, sometimes it is enough to carry out cosmetic, surface repairs: replacing wallpaper, whitewashing the ceiling, replacing old linoleum, painting walls, etc.
If you want to completely get rid of everything boring and old, decide on a major overhaul with replacing windows, leveling walls, installing new floors, modern ceilings. Your home will be transformed and become new and beautiful.
You should not refuse the help of experienced professionals during the overhaul. This is especially true for creating a modern design for your apartment, including redevelopment and demolition of some walls and partitions.
Plan your renovations according to your budget.
First, decide on the interior and design of each individual room that you plan to change in your apartment. You can seek the advice of a professional designer, which will slightly increase your total financial costs for repairs. For rooms where repairs will be carried out, it is necessary to make detailed drawings of the successive stages of repair work.
Video (click to play).
We recommend that you complete five detailed renovation sketches for each individual room. In the first drawing, display the view of the room from above, and in the remaining four - each wall. Supplement each drawing with a detailed description and a plan for the consistent implementation of repair work, which will avoid omissions and inaccuracies in the work.
When drawing up a repair sketch, it is recommended to indicate:
Think about the location of the furniture. Those walls that will be most striking need to be given special attention and apply the highest quality finish.
Think about where it is best to place lamps and chandeliers so that the light illuminates the room as much as possible.
Considering the location of household appliances, indicate the places for sockets. To then competently design the installation of electrical wiring in all rooms.
Consider the location of the main decorative elements: paintings, mosaics, brick wall.
In the repair plan, you need to indicate the desired finish option: wallpapering the walls, painting, etc. To divide the room into separate zones, designers recommend painting one of the walls with a different color in order to focus attention on it and visually divide the room. These points also need to be reflected in the plan.
According to the advice of experienced professionals, in order to avoid excess dirt and dust during repair work, it is recommended to first carry out repairs in the rooms most distant from the front door. As the final stage of the repair, it is advisable to choose passage rooms and a corridor through which building materials and tools are constantly carried. This is necessary in order not to stain or scratch the finish of the already repaired wall, not to damage the new floor.
Cellophane film (fixed on the outside of the door) can serve as additional protection for the renovated room, which will reliably protect the room from building dirt, dust, plaster, paint, and accidental damage.
Do not carry out all repairs yourself. At your request, all repairs or only particularly complex repairs can be entrusted to qualified specialists. Firstly, experience and knowledge will allow them to carry out repair work quickly and efficiently. Secondly, you do not have to additionally buy expensive tools with which the screed is ideally poured onto the floor or tiles are laid out.
Even if it seems easy for you to install an interior door, the slightest inaccuracy is unacceptable here. Of course, you can hang and arrange kitchen furniture, level the walls and do a little painting yourself. But trust more complex repairs to specialists so that you don’t have to redo it, which can significantly increase your financial costs for repairs.
#one. After the final choice of the design of the appearance of the rooms, furniture and interior, it is necessary to draw up a complete list of the necessary building materials. Their number and total cost depends on the amount of repair work and how they are carried out. If your budget allows, you need to purchase building materials with a small margin.
#2. Separately, make a list of decor items: holders, shelves, mirrors, paintings, etc. Start shopping with the selected decor items. If the planned decor element is not available, you can quickly change or create a new design version of the apartment renovation.
#3. Make a list of the necessary building tools to carry out repairs. To do this, you can use the advice of a sales assistant in hardware stores or qualified repairmen.
When the preparatory work has been carried out: plans and sketches of the repair have been drawn up, lists of necessary materials and tools have been prepared, a decision has been made on the possibility of self-repair or with the help of repair specialists, you will be able to calculate the estimated total cost of the planned repair.
You should not rush to purchase all the materials when you visit the first store. In the compiled lists of materials and tools, put down the prices of different stores, which will allow you to make purchases at the lowest cost. Carefully consider the choice of services of repair teams. Pay special attention not only to the proposed cost of repair work, but also to the reviews of your friends about the quality of repair services.
To protect furniture from damage, construction dirt and dust, collect it in the center of the room. Then carefully cover with plastic wrap. So you free access to the walls and ceiling. Move expensive equipment and clothes to other rooms.
Repair work should begin with the dustiest: replacement of window blocks, window slopes and installation of new window sills. This will avoid dirt and dust during painting work, when it is forbidden to open windows in order to avoid temperature fluctuations and an increase in humidity. When windows, slopes and window sills are installed, cover them with plastic wrap or hardboard to avoid accidental mechanical damage and contamination.
Mark the installation locations for additional sockets, make electrical wires. At this stage, do not install sockets and do not connect them to the shield.
In the case of welding work (for example, when replacing heating radiators), perform them simultaneously in different places in the apartment in order to quickly complete this dusty and difficult stage of work, sometimes including the breakdown of walls.
Before repairing walls, floors, ceilings, it is necessary to check their condition with a laser or water level. Start by applying the thickest layers of mortar. While they dry, you can carry out other minor repairs without downtime.
After completing this preparatory stage, proceed with the repair work, performing them in the following sequence: repair of the ceiling, walls, floor. Initially, work is carried out using putty, cement, gypsum mixtures. Then proceed to work on the installation of the floor, doors, slopes.
Final repair work:
Ceiling wrapping or painting.
Wallpapering or wall painting.
Floor covering installation.
Installation of skirting boards, sills, platbands.
The usual everyday business: the apartment clearly needs repair, but there is not enough money. How to make an inexpensive apartment renovation with your own hands? It seems to be the simplest, obvious way: surface cosmetic repairs. That is, plywood wallpaper, whitewashing the ceiling, painting, fixing the creaky floor; Possibly window replacement.
However, if you calculate the labor costs and consumption of materials, it turns out that by increasing labor costs by half, and spending money by a quarter, you can give the apartment a completely different look, and for a long time. How much you need to invest specifically depends on the prices in the region, but the general methods by which you can make an apartment cozy and elegant inexpensively are the same.
Saving money when repairing an apartment with your own hands is, like the Earth in ancient legends, on three whales and a slowly hurrying turtle under them:
We are not afraid of work. Nothing comes from nothing. Either money or labor.
Wherever possible, we do not change the capital, but the old one that has lost its appearance, but renew it.
We attribute the maximum savings to where it will not affect the quality of work and will not be visible.
We spread the costs of labor and money over time: having conceived repairs in the summer or autumn, we spend a year on preparation, and then we pile on and quickly do everything. To lay out 200-300 thousand rubles at once is a problem, but it is quite possible to break them up in parts for a year. In addition, there will be time to measure seven times - cut once.
The only area where you have to invite a specialist is the alteration and strengthening of electrical wiring if it is old and weak. Here, the only way to save money is to negotiate with the DEZ electrician. He will do the work in pieces, in his spare time, but the likelihood of hack work will be even less than that of “branded” specialists: after all, he will then serve all this.
It is better not to save on electrics and wiring, however, some points, such as installing sockets, can be done independently.
A good specialized tool makes the job much easier and cheaper. But it's hard to buy. Therefore, it is better to rent a tool as needed. In terms of costs, it will come out a little if you decide in advance on the design and draw up an approximate work plan for yourself.
The best time of the year for self-renovation of an apartment is the beginning and middle of autumn. Still warm, you can do outdoor work, and indoor - with open windows. And at the same time, prices for building materials will already fall significantly on the eve of the winter calm. Savings without loss of quality can be up to 15% when selling summer non-liquid products. If, for example, 200 thousand are set aside for repairs, then the savings will be 30 thousand, and this is a hallway or a bathroom - “sweetie”.
Special mention should be made of illiquid assets. A significant proportion of the repair costs will be for finishing materials: plaster, putty, floor leveler, mounting adhesive, sealant. All of them have a limited shelf life, so construction companies, which obviously do not have leftovers from season to spring, are selling them at a bargain price. Therefore, in advance, look everywhere for announcements of the sale of building materials. Professionals do not need 50 kg of Aqualayer for leveling walls, which expires in a month, but you will have enough for two rooms.Savings will be 70-80 rubles. of everything, but the hen pecks grain by grain.
For more ideas about saving on building materials, look here.
A sore point with independent cheap repairs is the replacement of plumbing. If it is still “alive”, only filthy, then it can be cleaned and painted. How to do this will be described below. But if there are chips and cracks, then, if you like it or not, you need to change it.
For such a case, here is some information for you: new settlers, especially in houses above the budget category, often start a major overhaul immediately upon entering, and excellent, completely new faience and cast-iron plumbing equipment ends up in a landfill. Landfill operators (simply - landfill scavengers) have long turned this circumstance into a profitable business.
They do not make direct contact by office phone with strangers, but it is quite possible to get through to them using word of mouth methods. The rate is from a third to a half of the factory price for a household item. And do not think that they will take you to the dump and show you where it lies. In the back room you will be offered a choice of clean, carefully washed products, which you can sit down on at least immediately.
The next sore point is the removal of construction waste. The operation is not cheap, and requires paperwork. Exit: basement, barn, cottage or closet and a few bags of used plastic sackcloth, bought for a penny. Construction debris does not sour and does not rot, it can then be poured into a container in a garbage dump in a bucket. There is nothing illegal in this.
For lathing, various ancillary work and sewing up large surfaces, you will need wooden slats and plywood. You can buy slats not planed, but slabs - waste from sawing industrial wood. The slab goes on sale raw, but if it is purchased in advance, in March-April, and kept in a dry room until autumn, it will not yield to edged lumber in terms of wood quality.
As for plywood, waste packaging plywood from dismantled used containers can be turned into waterproof in the following way:
We buy a 10 l canister or two PVA putties; it looks like very liquid PVA glue and is cheap.
We cover the floor in the country house, in the barn, in the attic or in some other non-residential premises with plastic film. The air temperature is not lower than +13 degrees.
We lay a sheet of plywood on the floor, pour a puddle of putty on its center and disperse it with a brush.
We cover the plywood with plastic, lay the next sheet, putty in the same way, etc.
We put heavier oppression on the PVA-impregnated foot of plywood; better - dispersed over the area: bricks, pieces of metal, concrete, an old TV, etc.
After a week, repeat the procedure, turning each sheet over.
After another two weeks, even waterproof plywood is ready for use. Additional exposure under oppression will improve its quality.
Boards and large pieces of thick timber can also be obtained from used containers - pallets for cargo. Advertisements for their sale are not uncommon.
A very economical repair option is to cover the walls and ceiling of living rooms with laminate; for economical owners richer - MDF. When sheathing on a wooden crate made of slabs, in 80% of cases it is not necessary to level the walls and ceiling, which already eliminates the high costs of labor and money.
You can save even more by sheathing the walls to the waist or to the chest, and pasting up to the ceiling with non-woven wallpaper. The work is simplified and cheaper, and the bottom of the walls, which beats and gets dirty the most, will be reliably protected by resistant material.
The most economical option for flooring is marmoleum. Floor preparation for it is not required in 90% of cases. But marmoleum is not suitable for the bathroom and toilet; here you have to fork out for a tile, especially since it will take a little.
If you want to have a floor in the rooms that looks like a plank, then covering the floor with a laminate will not be much more expensive, but you may have to level the floor.
The walls in the bathroom can be covered with laminated hardboard instead of tiles - it is hygroscopic and does not require surface preparation.
If it is supposed to glaze and insulate the balcony, then it is better to do it separately from everything else and in advance: from the end of March to the beginning of May. Outside, the balcony is decorated with siding, but inside it can, instead of traditional MDF or lining, be sewn up with plywood, pasted over with self-adhesive film.
When deciding how to repair an apartment economically, you need to pay special attention to windows and doors: they account for a significant share of the costs. As for windows, here is the most economical option: self-installation of wooden window frames. It is more expedient to buy them in March-April, when prices for industrial wood fall, and to put them in late spring - early summer, when the tree dries out properly and shrinks. The technology for installing wooden windows in openings is quite accessible to a mediocre home master.
Doors would be better to update. Remember the self-made waterproof plywood? So both fronts of the door are sheathed with it, on mounting glue, laying the door removed from the hinges on a plastic litter and under oppression. At the same time, you can cover the window in the interior door at the same time, if it is not needed.
This will make the door thicker. There are two options here:
Reinstalling hinges is not the best way for the "lazy".
Remove the old lining from the door; it is most often made of building cardboard or thin fiberboard, and put on a new frame, plywood. In this case, the broken corners immediately “leave”.
In both cases, the new door is pasted over with self-adhesive wood-like or with a different texture and varnished. And you will be surprised (pleasantly, of course) by her new look. And rigid plywood cheeks will provide doors durability. It is better to cover the slopes of the doorway with extensions from the same plywood: it will come out cheaper and more beautiful than re-plastering.
Dirty plumbing, if it is intact, needs to be cleaned. The rather expensive active detergents recommended for this can be replaced with much cheaper table vinegar - after all, it is also a weak acid - followed by washing the sagging stains with the most common washing powder. Just do not use detergents with abrasives - they will scratch the icing, and objects, especially the toilet, will get dirty very quickly.
For cleaning with vinegar, they make kvass - a knob of a rag on a stick. Vinegar is poured where it will not leak, or sour milk is dipped into it, and the streaks are cleaned with circular movements with pressure. Particularly "stubborn" spots in the recesses are removed with a small kvass and technical hydrochloric acid. All this, of course, is done in latex household gloves, a plastic apron and with open doors and windows. It is also advisable to wear a respirator, at least a cheap "petal".
Tiles that are not chipped or cracked can be restored using a method well known to motorists; they thus update the worn plastic spoilers and bumpers:
The entire lined surface is washed with pemolux; do not use active detergents on acid!. 1 liter is enough for a bathroom in Khrushchev; for a larger one, respectively, more.
After pemolux, we wipe it with a rag, abundantly moistened with the same table vinegar: pemolux is alkaline, and the vinegar neutralizes its residues.
We wipe several times with a wet rag "until a clean rag"; now we have got rid of the contaminants that have eaten into the surface.
We paste over the edges of the tiles with masking tape (“paper tape”), except for the seams.
We paint the seams from a spray gun with nitro paint in two layers; the second - after the complete drying of the first.
We remove the tape, splashes and streaks of paint on the tiles are removed with a cotton swab moistened with solvent 646 or 647.
We buy a can of liquid silicone grease at the car market or in a car shop, and properly spray the tiles with seams.
If the grease is absorbed immediately, you will have to spray again.
If after 2-3 days silicone is still “taken” on the tile, wipe the surface with a cloth moistened with vinegar.
The meaning of this treatment is that silicone tightens microcracks and pores in which dirt accumulates. Processing is enough for 3-5 years, and then it can be repeated.
A cast-iron capital bath can be restored by repainting with an epoxy or acrylic compound. Complaints about its fragility arise from a violation of the technology for preparing the coloring composition and its application. With strict observance of the technology, the restored bathtub serves for another 10-15 years.
It is not at all necessary to change it to an expensive one made of stainless steel or brass and make a bypass (bypass) for it. The heated towel rail is cleaned to metal after cleaning the bath for painting with the same cord brush in the drill chuck. If no fistulas are found, it is painted with the remains of the compound from painting the bath. The look will turn out no worse than modern branded ones, and the durability is like that of a bath.
