DIY repair of an old St. Petersburg apartment

In detail: do-it-yourself repair of an old St. Petersburg apartment from a real master for the site my.housecope.com.

We are inspired by examples of rebuilding apartments in the old fund. The owners did most of the alterations with their own hands, and they did it stylishly, beautifully and functionally. Take note!

The owners of this apartment in Stalin are a young couple of enthusiasts. They make repairs themselves, starting from the rough work. One of the ideas was a brick wall in the bay window. Only the owners were not lucky with the initial data - in some houses of the old fund, the walls are built of real bricks and they can be preserved in their natural form in the interior. Here I had to upload it myself. In a new building, it is much easier to make a brick wall - in stalinka, you first had to remove a thick layer of perennial plaster and only then lay out the brick.

Photo: Instagram kutuzovatvorit

This apartment has been renovated by the owners themselves. And they spent on everything ... 185 thousand rubles. For an apartment of 70 square meters. Agree, more than budget. Because of this, the decisions had to be made difficult. As with the decoration in this room. It was possible to break down the walls and build new ones (they often do this in the houses of the old fund), but the budget did not allow it. So I had to remove the many years of oil paint and clean the surface to cover it with new paint. It would be more difficult with wallpaper - the stucco molding on the ceiling did not allow them to be glued smoothly and beautifully. Despite the difficulties, the owners managed to create a bright and pretty space, and the stucco moldings and vintage furniture, overtightened with fabric, added a special flavor to the interior.

Video (click to play).

Photo: Instagram viraiva_home

This story is about how to make a new comfortable place to live out of a dirty and cramped space. The small room accommodates a bedroom, a living room and even a work area. To do this, the owners had to redevelop the apartment, and now the bed is separated from the living room by a curtain. This is a good solution, since in a room that is too small, blank walls only make the space heavier.

Photo: Instagram persitskaya

In general, the resulting interior can be described as a Russian Scandinavian style with successful bright accents. Feel free to be inspired for such transformations.

Photo: Instagram persitskaya

On five square meters, it was possible to place a corner kitchen set, a small dining table and at the same time leave the space cozy and uncluttered. Take note of this idea - an extension of the kitchen countertop to the windowsill. A great addition to your kitchen workspace.

Photo: Instagram persitskaya

In this apartment, the owners got the renovation "from the developer", and he, as you know, is rarely beautiful and functional. The hostess managed to do without major repairs with the help of staining the tiles and spectacular color accents. By the way, we wrote about how to paint tiles in this article. Take note.

Photo: Instagram alenaolenevod

Another example of budget, but beautiful solutions. The builder finished the kitchen with lurid floral wallpaper, installed the stove and sink. But the owners have their own views on a comfortable space. Thanks to a simple light headset, monochromatic wall decoration and cute accessories, that very home comfort is created.

Photo: Instagram alenaolenevod

Photo: Instagram thespoiledhome

This example demonstrates how a cluttered room of two teenagers turned into a spacious and bright bedroom for an adult girl. If desired, there will be enough space for a second person.

Photo: Instagram thespoiledhome

Here, only the windows remain from the old room. The hostess repainted the floors, removed the old wallpaper and painted the walls, and bought new oversized furniture. The rest was done by decor and textiles. By the way, removable Khrushchev is a good example for those who are afraid to start transforming a rented home. There is always a chance to negotiate with the owner of the apartment on favorable terms.

Photo: Instagram persitskaya

After the transformation, this corridor in the Khrushchev became smaller. But that is how it was intended. Part of the space was set aside for the expansion of the bathroom, and another part for the built-in wardrobe. Nevertheless, the functional requirements are 100% fulfilled. There is a storage space, a small sofa, which is convenient to sit on in order to take off or put on your shoes. The light colors in the decoration and the correct accent of the tiles on the floor made the walk-through room not boring.

I can say that during our renovation, 3 teams were replaced, and this despite the fact that we called specialists separately for plumbing, electrics, windows, heating. But there were pretzels that volunteered to make "turnkey" (a nightmare word that I hate!) The kitchen and the bath, although initially they were only required to lay the tiles. So they made a good kitchen, put the tiles in the bathroom tolerably, but they messed up with a shower stall. In general, the question of the shower cabin has become one of the most difficult. On the advice of the workers, we ordered a cab of the wrong side in Kiev, then we changed it for a long time, almost went broke in the shipment, then we could not find specialists to install it. Brrr!

Read also: DIY boiler repair

Dear readers, for a long time we have not had such extensive posts-tutorials on apartment renovation. I am pleased to offer one of the manuals for reading.

This summer we did a phased decoration of a two-room apartment. First, all the furniture and things were dragged into one room, locked and sealed. After the renovation of the adjacent room and kitchen, everything was moved to the finished premises and the remaining room, corridor, bathroom and toilet were completed. In general, it is not the most convenient repair option. Task: to make good-quality inexpensive repairs from budget materials. Terms: June 10-July 24 - the first stage, August 4-September 10 - the second stage. Estimate: 295800r (only work + stretch ceilings) All work, except for the installation of interior doors and the installation of two of the three windows, was done on our own. There are a lot of photos, so I will post as much as I can and free time appears. So, this is how the “object” appeared before us

the parquet fell off by itself, dismantling consisted of collecting it from the floor and folding it into bags.

This pipe leads to the coil in the bathroom.

Here is such a horror object, we dismantle everything that is possible

First of all, the windows are installed, this window was installed by another company with which the customer agreed earlier

a cold cupboard can be seen under the window, and a radiator hangs behind a door leaning against the wall. The logical solution was to insulate the cabinet and install a new radiator in its place.

on the Perlfix assembly glue we glue the extruded polystyrene foam, then the gypsum board on the same glue

Getting started plastering

first of all, we put our branded beacons

in some places we use the combined technology of leveling the walls, from above the gypsum board is glued to Perlfix, and from below the layer is plastered less

Waste plasterboard can be embedded in a thick layer of plaster

we change the hot water and cold water pipes, the piping to the coil, fill the grooves with plaster

When plastering corners, do not forget about 90 degrees, and of course, verticality

we form the entrance opening using a plank box

We install the window sill and slopes

We bought a special grinder for sanding the walls, it connects to a vacuum cleaner, a great thing

before leveling the floors, we fill in all large defects of the DSP floor

We level large differences without beacons with a semi-dry screed

In the corridor we break part of the old screed with a large crusher

vacuuming, priming, making a rough leveling, vacuuming priming.

we divide the corridor into parts using scrap materials.

slippers for “walking on water” are made of OSB, self-tapping screws and a glamorous strap with rhinestones

And this happened due to the fact that a thick layer of soft seal was laid between the gypsum wall and the ceiling

the cracks were repaired with pearlfix, putty and the ceiling was put on. That is why it is better to stretch ceilings before wallpapering. Another reason why you should stretch the ceilings before finishing the walls is a possible hit during the installation of the baguette into the electrical wiring (for example, as in this video) And finally, even with the most careful installation of the ceiling, there is a risk of damage to the wallpaper, therefore, we glue the wallpaper only after the stretch ceiling, and we lay the floor coverings after them too.
This miracle of technology is called construction stilts, with their help, all work at a height, including stretch ceilings, is done many times faster. In Russia, these are practically not sold, and if they are sold, they are expensive. We bought it via e-bay. We want to buy something else later, but more on that later.

a mandatory attribute for finishing, this is a vacuum cleaner. As they say, cleanliness is a guarantee of quality

At this stage, stage 1 ends, we open the sealed room, we give the customer time to transfer things. Since the customer has little time and can only do this on weekends, we leave for another facility for 10 days. The object is a kitchen in the old fund, where we made cosmetic repairs, later I will also post a photo report.
So, we are back, the middle room is empty, again dismantling (((

After the wedding, Alexandra and Sergei settled in an old 1950s house. The apartment, which had not known repair for a long time, made a painful impression, the lining on the walls was especially depressing. Slowly, the newlyweds began to put their new housing in order: they sewed up the walls with plasterboard, installed an electrician, glued wallpaper and laid linoleum. Some of the works were entrusted to the masters and were seriously "burned": the crooked tiler not only spoiled the material, but also did not return the money ...

We are a young family. My husband and I are 26, the child is a year and a half. Having got married in 2015, we began to live in a two-room apartment renovated from the times of the USSR. Old wallpaper, tiles, creaky floors, window frames with holes in the finger, and most importantly - we got a clapboard, a sea of clapboard (corridor, toilet and kitchen). She darkened everything. There was a feeling that you were not in an apartment, but in a bathhouse. Only there were not enough brooms. Without thinking twice, we began to make repairs, living in an apartment. There was not much time left: I was in the 5-6th week of pregnancy and I wanted to finish everything before the baby was born.

First of all, they decided to get rid of the most hated - the lining. It was horror. Dust, dirt, debris. But the most interesting was ahead of us. There was a shingle under the clapboard. She sprinkled from the slightest sneeze. We realized that it would be impossible to glue wallpaper on it. Tearing down walls and laying blocks is not an option either.We lived in an apartment and made repairs in stages, as salaries arrived. Plus, the walls were very crooked - the height differences reached 17 cm. And we decided to sew up the walls with plasterboard. Yes, we understood that we would lose a little in space, but at the exit we would get smooth walls, not shingles.

The height from floor to ceiling is 3.2 meters, plus "stucco", with which it was still not clear what to do. We bought a 3-meter drywall and a profile in parts - first the kitchen, then the corridor and the rooms in turn. By the way, with the storage and movement of drywall, everything is not so simple. Try walking in your apartment with a sheet of 3000 x 1200 mm.

To carry out the work, the minimum necessary tool was purchased - a screwdriver, an ordinary level, a perforator. We started installing drywall from the kitchen. The whole theory was gleaned from the Internet. Due to our inexperience, we miscalculated and forgot to put the reinforcing beam in the place where the kitchen would be mounted - we had to remove the sheets and mount it.

Having reached the corridor, we realized that we would not be able to create smooth walls over a long length with the help of a regular level and threads with weights. We bought a laser level. With it, laying drywall has become much easier and faster. In general, working with this material was not difficult. They exhibited the profile: I held it, my husband screwed it on, the joints and corners were putty. Slowly but surely, with the hope that it will end soon. Yes, they "screwed up", sometimes twisted, cursed ... I think the one who went through the repair understands us.

Since we were waiting for the birth of a child, the main requirement for the floor was the presence of a canvas of the same height throughout the apartment, with the exception of the bathroom and toilet. Initially, we planned to remove the old wooden floor, fill in the screed, and use laminate as the flooring. But upon the first "in-depth" examination of the situation, our plans collapsed - it turned out that we had wooden floors between the floors in our house. After that, we decided to leave the old floor, slightly strengthening it (we tried to remove squeaks and strong irregularities). Heat and sound insulation and 15 mm thick OSB boards were installed on top of the old floor. Linoleum was chosen as the floor covering. The installation of insulation and floor slabs did not cause any particular difficulties.

But with linoleum I had to tinker a little. We decided to keep the number of separate parts of the cover to a minimum. Because of this, it was necessary to mark and cut some parts on the street, since we cannot turn around with a canvas measuring 8 by 4 meters in our apartment.

Since we have an old house, the question of wiring arose sharply. We began to ask the electricians how much it costs to build a new one. The price for us turned out to be exorbitant - in my opinion, $ 300 for work alone, plus wires, corrugation, a shield and much more. My husband has an engineering degree. And YouTube to help him.

We figured out where the sockets and switches would be, and began to install them. We led the wires along the ceiling, putting them first in the corrugation, making junction boxes as necessary. All sockets and switches have been moved to a convenient height. Then they asked a friend, and for the "chocolate" he disconnected the old wiring and connected a new one.

Wallpapering began in the kitchen. After the dark lining, we wanted light. We chose white wallpaper (for painting) and a yellowish kitchen with plastic facades. Since we do not have hot water supply in our house, we really wanted to hide the gas water heater.

The next in line were the toilet and bathroom. We did not dare to make repairs in these rooms on our own. We started looking for performers, and then a good friend offered his help. We agreed. We replaced the pipes with polypropylene, moved the heated towel rail, made an additional drain at the place where the shower stall was installed. The walls in the toilet were sewn up with plasterboard.

A good friend decided to level the walls in the bathroom with magnesia glass. We bought all the necessary materials, rented an apartment for a week and moved out.At first glance, everything looked good. They paid for the work and began to wash the fugue. Upon closer examination, we saw microcracks on the tile, which became more and more every day. The tiles were torn apart, and not at the seams. We contacted a friend. He first admitted his mistake and promised to fix everything, then he could not come for very important reasons, and then he made a verdict that we were to blame, because our bathroom is humid.

It turned out that the problem is in magnesia glass - it was fixed to the glue pointwise and not in a level, it was also not primed. Under the weight of the tile, the sheets of magnesia glass began to slide down.

Due to the imminent appearance of a new addition to our family, we did not have much time to wait and we decided to redo everything. They disassembled the shower stall, removed all the tiles and glass magnesite, found a contractor with an official contract and a guarantee. Probably, many people would like to reproach us that the miser pays twice, but the cost of repeated work on laying tiles and plastering walls turned out to be even less than in the case of the first option.

The second area of work, where we could not do without the help of professionals, was stretch ceilings.

We bought Belarusian wallpaper in the corridor, parents helped to glue it. By that time I was already well pregnant and I was dismissed from any work.

The rooms were next in line. We went to the Zhdanovichi market for wallpaper, and we bought cornices there as well. Before installing the interior doors, I had to tinker with the width of the openings, since the old doors were of a non-standard size. Our furniture is mostly Belarusian. The tables, however, are from Ikea. Now we are slowly settling in.

This is how our hallway and corridor look today:

Sometimes it seems that it is unrealistic to turn an old "grandmother's" apartment into a stylish and comfortable space. Using the projects of Russian designers as an example, we will tell you how to transform an old kitchen in a Khrushchev building, transform a “dead” bathroom into a bright bathroom and make a convenient redevelopment in a “bare” new building.

Designer Katya Chistova's two-room apartment is located in a typical house with very low ceilings and small rooms. But she managed to compensate for the shortcomings of the premises through competent redevelopment. For example, in the kitchen they decided to get rid of the old pantry and thereby freed up space for a spacious storage system.

In the design, Katya gave preference to bright, cheerful shades: rich yellow kitchen walls, tiles on the apron, blue walls in the hallway - a colossal contrast with what was here before the renovation.

The advantages of a one-room apartment on the secondary market include its low cost - many can afford to buy it. True, most likely, major repairs will have to be done.

So, Marina Sargsyan organized a kitchen, a living room, a small workplace and a full bedroom in the limited area of the one-room apartment. The living room was zoned with a plasterboard partition, and storage systems were hidden in a niche - it turned out conveniently and functionally.

For the owners of a two-room apartment in a new building, it was important to create a cozy place to relax. Why not use a glazed balcony for this purpose? Designer Katya Chistova removed the window sill from the bedroom side and made a French window with sliding doors. After warming, the balcony became a little narrower, but due to light finishing materials and furniture, this is almost imperceptible.

The interior of the kitchen in a typical apartment in the house P-22 left much to be desired when the designers from ToTaste Studio took over. It was necessary to do without redevelopment and equip an open, light space with a well-thought-out storage system exclusively through clever design solutions and non-standard techniques.

Mirrors in the floor helped to visually expand the boundaries of the room, and a fresco with the texture of an old board was glued to the ceiling - this way the height was preserved.The necessary household appliances were hidden in the built-in wardrobes - there are enough of them here.

The Enjoy Home studio team, led by designer Nadya Zotova, is not afraid of large-scale alterations. Work on the interior for a young family began with the merging of two separate apartments into one large one. Here there was a place for a spacious kitchen-living room with a dining area, a bedroom, a nursery and two dressing rooms.

In the kitchen, additional wardrobes were added and a kitchen island was added, in the bedroom they made floor-to-ceiling windows. A bright color palette, interesting finishing materials and author's decor - the transformation is evident.

High ceilings, thick outer walls, large windows, as well as the correct shape of the rooms and kitchen - designer Katya Chistova examined the merits of this apartment in a Stalinist house, even in “old clothes”.

The minuses were easily dealt with: the load-bearing beam, located at a strange angle across the corridor, was increased and received a beautiful ceiling with caissons, and the front double doors with transoms and bevelled glass inserts allowed light to enter the dark hallway. Also, a narrow and deep pantry was attached to the bathroom, gaining space for the sink; and a spacious dressing room was organized in the bedroom.

Before the wedding, the customers lived in this two-room apartment, and they were not very happy with it: there was not enough storage space, it was cramped, and the space was used illogically.

The designers of the ToTaste studio moved all the utility rooms from the windows into the so-called functional cube - the space was immediately filled with air and light. In the decoration, they took a warm cream color for the walls as a basis and filled the apartment with bright furniture and objects, interesting decor - not a trace of the previous furnishings remained.

The original interior of the office was not conducive to fruitful work at all. In order to let light into the room and create several functional areas, designer Inna Usubyan attached a balcony to the office, arranged a reading area near the window and thought out a convenient storage system. The color palette also added "lightness": the designer chose neutral beige shades in combination with black elements, and white details became the finishing touch.

The designers from Studio 40 began work on the project of this two-room apartment by dismantling the extra walls: as a result, a single kitchen-living room space and an isolated bedroom were created. They refused from the corridor - from the hallway you immediately find yourself in the living room. The main decorative technique is an abundance of mirrors and reflective surfaces: with them, the space immediately became lighter and more voluminous. The facades were made glossy for the same reason, and transparent chairs are just a godsend for a minimalistic interior.

When they first visited this apartment, the designers from the ToTaste studio were unpleasantly surprised: with an area of 70 square meters, 15 of them were allocated for corridors and unused dead-end zones. As a result, almost all partitions were demolished and an open plan, characteristic of a loft, was made. They also cut down the window sills, replacing ordinary windows with French ones, and the balcony doors with swing doors without lintels. A second level has appeared in the bedroom: a balcony-study is one of the wishes of the customer.

In this topic - a photo history of repairs in a two-room apartment - "Khrushchev", you can evaluate what was and what has become. The author with the nickname Andruha 338. Further - the original text of the author.

Good day!
So far, as they say, the memory is fresh, I want to share the overhaul with partial redevelopment of the 2-room Khrushchev.

I won't tell you how many times we asked ourselves a question ... .. after the purchase -))) .... "Why did we buy it?", "What to do about it?" and "how to live here?" ……… so many nuances emerged that were not initially visible.

So, the original (repair was only during construction)

Digging the vastness of the Internet in order to determine the redevelopment option for ourselves, we settled on one option, which, by the way, we saw here-)))

however, then they abandoned this option, it was a painfully risky idea of a bedroom with no windows and a scanty nursery ... ... ... the bedroom was removed

Considering that we did not encounter such an action as redevelopment and did not initially know many of the subtleties ... ... what can be done during redevelopment, and what cannot be ...……. any company to which we applied for the loot to legitimize the desired redevelopment option in the BTI, refused, after we reported that the apartment in the svao of Moscow
Having weighed all the pros and cons, we decided to make minimal changes in the layout, which, of course, is the end result. had a positive effect on the volume of work and, most importantly, on the cost of the entire venture (otherwise it would have flown into the pipe) and settled on the traditional version

which they brought to life

and, as they say, I WASTE-)))

5 containers of rubbish, rubbish of old walls, floors, etc. were taken out.
We got rid of the decoration of the load-bearing walls along the pyremeter as much as possible, as well as the walls of the sanitary unit, all the old internal engineering went into the container.

Implementation of the scope of work on the construction of new interior partitions according to the plan

All the walls are leveled with plaster and the walls are channeled for air conditioning and electrics

The wiring for the power outlets was laid in the floor, the light was thrown in the ceiling .... all the wiring was routed into the 36th modular box.

Installation of hot water supply, cold water supply systems and sanitation ... ... arrangement of a sanitary cabinet

The floor in the entire apartment was poured along the lighthouses, they paused for a week and a half so that the floor grabbed.

Further, finishing plastering work on all walls, arranging the ceiling and gypsum board (the kitchen-corridor ceiling was lowered by 4 cm and completely sewn up with sheets behind which the wiring was hidden), boxes and gypsum cortex were made in the rooms around the perimeter for spotlights and wiring

We lay the tiles on the floor of the kitchen / corridor, as well as in the bathroom / toilet.

In the meantime, we ordered a kitchen, after leveling the walls and plaster.

Video (click to play).

Wallpaper gluing, laminate flooring and installation of stretch ceilings in rooms, installation of sockets and switches, installation of doors, installation and connection of sanitary ware in the toilet.
Kitchen installation, connection of household appliances, installation of a sink with a mixer and, most importantly, installation of a refrigerator-))))) …………. you can live everything
KITCHEN