DIY repair in a two-room apartment

Oksana shared her experience in arranging an apartment. Further, the story is based on her words.

My husband was engaged in the repair of the acquired new two-room apartment; only the replacement of windows, doors and the installation of stretch ceilings were entrusted to the specialists.

Before starting one or another work, the husband carefully studied the materiel: he watched training videos on YouTube, carefully read articles on the Internet and sat for a long time on specialized forums.

The repair began with the electrical, there were no particular difficulties with this. After that it was the turn of the plumbers.

We started laying the tiles in the kitchen, so we had to rent a tile cutter. And after the rough finishing and laying of the tiles, we ordered a kitchen set, and we also developed a project for it ourselves.

Almost all the furniture was made according to our sketches - they developed the project themselves and gave the materials for cutting. This is how the sideboards in the living room and wardrobes in the bedroom appeared.

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, were done on their 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:

Hello to all. My name is Tucha, and today I will tell you all how I helped to make repairs to my owners.
It all started with an approved mortgage from Sberbank

And so we bought an apartment, if I knew what I was about to, I would run away during the move

These are the gray and sad walls

but such a boring and gray door, remember it

here the owner puts the plumbing. i like to swim

here he is. Name is Andrey

well, now after installing the bathtub and toilet, you can move

we begin to unload our modest belongings acquired in 2 years of their life together with the hostess.

a lot of work, but they plan to make repairs in 2 months ... goofs)

and here is my mistress Tanya. this is our first day at the apartment and we are celebrating housewarming

and here they are going to sleep. I'm shocked

Well, the repair has begun. we demolish the walls, work with a grinder and a punch

we combine a bath with a toilet

everything is destroyed and we begin to build

do not forget to put the invisible hatch

put the bath under the tap, washed, cleaned. eerie sight

and since blogs absorb moisture well, we plastered them with a cement-polymer composition.

and now a new bath has arrived. the owner installed it for 6 hours. equalized and tried)

and then the owner took the tile cutter in his hands for the first time and began to lay tiles

and here we level the floor. and why didn't they make it heated ((

ahh…. where is the toilet ?? I drink water from there!

well, it seems so fun it turns out. guess where you got the fan from

and here they have already begun to make the ceiling.

yes, three months have already passed and then I was sad in full

Well, the bathroom is ready. then I'll show you how beautiful it looks.

and here we begin to make a dressing room.

a piece was torn from the room

the dressing room is ready and immediately some rubbish began to accumulate in it

and this is the hostess pretending to be gluing the wallpaper.

and immediately we laid the laminate flooring and now we will make shelves

sheets purchased at leroy merlin

Here's a dressing room turned out. and not expensive.

Well, since we cut off a piece from the room, now we need to break the balcony.

here everything is just blackened. glue the insulation to the foam, and then plaster these sheets)

and yes, there are never too many outlets.

insulation is also placed on the floor, it is also glued to the foam. and then plywood is glued to it. and we are already putting laminate on the plywood

Well, if you say a lot, it means a decrease. here we align the walls

well, one room is ready for wallpapering

after a hard day, you can watch TV

there is no way without a washing machine. even jump into it yourself

well, the room was also plastered and wiped down. move on to the living room. she is both the hall and the kitchen

well, who will be the first to find a cat?

to say p… .ts is to say nothing.

we begin to make a box. They did not want to do it, but the wiring in the apartment had no voltage in the sockets. fake wiring. I had to hide all the wires in the box.

poor neighbors. 250 holes in the ceiling in one evening.

and the wall is perfectly smooth. I had to smear it with concrete contact and make badges, otherwise the tile just slipped

this is a flower for mistress Tanya

and I also had to put 4 bags of plaster on the ceiling. 4 see slab drop

and this is my favorite closet. it has a lot of goodies for me.

and here the ceiling is already painted. the kitchen was brought in, but they still had no horse lying around

Well, it's already more decent than it was. there is hope

like this. the owner is glad. now he can eat even more

and this is electrical wiring, we decided not to cut the walls, but just glue the cables to the wall, and then put a couple of cm of plaster

we spent the whole day with the flap and ended up lighting up our phones

I can see well, but for some reason the owner swears

Here you go. everything is ready and hasn't even killed anyone.

network wires hang from below. there is a hub under the flap. each room has 2 power outlets. and yes, they all came in handy.

and here the projector will hang.

how i love the warmth intel i7

the owner puts the hood in one mug. says I only get in the way

our kitchen is located in the place where the hall should be. and that is why they set up such a shaitan machine. for pumping water. 4 years normal flight

move on to the second balcony. the principle is the same. see the photo

there are already plastered sheets of insulation. we glue plastic panels on it

well, let's see what happened. exactly two years have passed

bathtub and sink made of cast marble of Russian production.

already in the eyes of the first time rippled

problems with white plumbing. there is a white tap, there is no white soul. we buy everything in parts. what we find white - we buy.

and this is the master's bedroom, they won't let me there

the battery on the balcony, of course this is not correct, but we do not tell anyone. and the balcony is well insulated

the owner sewed the curtains himself. and I helped him to put puffs, but he did not check it out

dressing room is a good thing

while this is my room. no one lives here yet

The curtain is made of a bar and painted with acrylic varnish.

the machine is in the room. later there will be a large wardrobe.

remember the front door? its owner trimmed with bamboo and painted. built a lock on the remote control and decided not to change it))

but this joke I like the most

nush favorite site) but mostly movies. sorry 3d glasses won't fit on me (((fall off

the sofa was specially taken based on its weight, so that with a slight movement of the hand it turns into a cinema seat

and this is such a loop to the TV and audio system. so you can move)

and this we tried the oven, which the owner put on) I have everything, now the owner will write a few more words, and I say goodbye to you. all meow

well, I hope you enjoyed the report. everything that you saw everything was done by me personally. photographed for themselves. just now decided to share with you. about 1.3 million were spent on repairs, but I think this with furniture, appliances and even curtains. And I also want to say thank you to my beloved wife, who steadfastly withstood the entire repair and helped me do it.

a motorized screen hangs behind the box. it is black and opaque. and yes, 2 balconies.

Own housing periodically requires renovation. The difficulties associated with this are simple and understandable - often it’s just a lack of budget. In addition, the lack of knowledge about a particular technology makes one think about inviting specialists. Nevertheless, the best way to save money on renovating an apartment is to opt for an expensive budget finish and do some of the work yourself.

Before deciding on the implementation of a budget apartment repair with your own hands, you should familiarize yourself with the upcoming difficulties that will surely arise at many stages of work. What are they:

So, having decided on an independent budget apartment renovation, having estimated their own strengths and funds, they begin to work. Here is an algorithm of actions, following which time is spent rationally:

• The desired plan rooms. The position of communications - heating radiators, electrical outlets - depends on it. If you like, the space is divided into zones - recreation, active life.
• Old coatings are being removed from all surfaces - floor, walls, ceiling. If the windows and doors do not change, then they are also cleaned for the upcoming decoration. For work, you will need a perforator, dissolving liquids, spatulas - depending on the raw materials being dismantled. It is recommended to immediately impregnate the walls with antiseptics - mold is not uncommon in apartments, and moreover, such an opportunity is not expected anymore.
• Laying a new concrete roughing screed on the floor - without it, it is impossible to arrange a smooth floor covering, partitions, and wallpaper the walls with high quality.
• Arrange communications - electrical wiring hidden in the walls, sockets and sockets are brought to the surface. They are installing plastic water and sewer pipes, changing the heating system. If the plan provides for - arrange frames for plasterboard partitions.

The room now looks like a rough finish. Solutions vary depending on the previous state of the apartment. It is important to keep in mind that for the duration of the renovation, residents must have the opportunity to have a "alternate airfield" for at least a month. Especially when the apartment is small.

Now the prepared apartment is trimmed with inexpensive materials. For flooring, they choose boards, multilayer plywood - it is environmentally friendly, inexpensive and beautiful, with appropriate processing. In wet rooms, tiles are indispensable - consider substandard or battle offered in stores. It's always inexpensive or even free.

For walls - traditional wallpaper or painting. The ceilings are whitewashed and painted. Gives an unusual look to a city apartment - drywall. Arches, portals, partitions are made from it. Doors and windows are painted and subjected to many design techniques - they are aged, decoupage, decorated with frosted or mosaic glass inserts. So the work begins:

The repair is over. It remains to give the room a finished look - to install lamps, arrange furniture, lay carpets. Sit on a soft sofa and calculate how much beauty cost you without the participation of professional craftsmen.

We bring to your attention options for budget repairs - before and after photos. Perhaps there will be one worthy of repetition among them.

The usual everyday business: the apartment clearly needs repair, but there is little money. How to make an inexpensive do-it-yourself apartment renovation? It seems to be the simplest, obvious way: superficial cosmetic repairs. That is, plywood wallpaper, ceiling whitewash, painting, fixing squeaky floors; possibly - replacement of windows.

However, if we calculate the labor costs and the consumption of materials, it turns out that by increasing the labor costs by half, and the expenditure of 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 costs, like the Earth in ancient legends, on three whales and a slowly hurrying turtle under them:

1. We are not afraid of work. Nothing happens out of nothing. Or money or labor.
2. Wherever possible, we do not change the old, which has lost its appearance, but renew it.
3. We attribute the maximum savings to the place where it will not affect the quality of work and will not be visible.
4. We distribute the costs of labor and money in time: having conceived repairs in the summer or autumn, we spend a year on preparation, and then we pile up and quickly do everything. To lay out 200-300 thousand rubles at once is a problem, but breaking them up in parts for a year is quite possible. In addition, there will be time for seven times measure - cut once.

The only area where you will have to invite a specialist is 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 free 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, but some points, such as installing sockets, can be done independently.

A good specialized tool makes the job much easier and cheaper. But buying it is expensive. 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 plan for the production of work for yourself.

The best time of the year for self-repairing an apartment is early and mid-autumn. It's still warm, you can do outdoor work, and indoor work 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% in the sale of summer illiquid assets. If, for example, 200 thousand are postponed for repairs, then the savings will amount to 30 thousand, and this - a hallway or a bathroom - "candy".

Special mention should be made of non-liquid assets. A significant share of the cost of repairs will be spent on finishing materials: plaster, putty, floor leveler, assembly glue, sealant. All of them have a limited shelf life, so construction companies, which clearly do not have leftovers from the season to spring, are selling them at a bargain price. Therefore, look everywhere in advance for advertisements on the sale of building materials. Professionals do not need 50 kg of Aquaslayer for leveling the walls, which expires in a month, but they will be enough for you for two rooms. The savings will be 70-80 rubles. everything, but the hen pecks by the grain.

Find more ideas on how to save on building materials here.

A sore point for cheap self-repair 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 whether you want it or not, you need to change it.

For such a case, here is information for you: new settlers, especially in houses above the budget category, often immediately start major repairs at the entrance, and excellent, completely new faience and cast-iron plumbing 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 with strangers by office phone, but it is quite possible to reach them using word of mouth methods. The rate is from one third to one half of the factory price for a household item. And do not think that you will be taken to the dump and shown where it lies. In the back room you will be offered a choice of clean, carefully washed products, which you can sit on even right away.

The next sore point is the removal of construction waste. The operation is not cheap and requires a lot of paperwork. Exit: a basement, a shed, a summer residence or a closet and a few used bags of plastic sackcloth, bought for a penny. Construction waste does not sour and does not rot, it can then be poured into a bucket in a bin in the house. There is nothing illegal in this.

For lathing, various ancillary work and sewing large surfaces, you will need wooden battens and plywood. You can buy slats not planed, but a slab - waste from sawing industrial wood. The croaker is on sale raw, but if it is purchased in advance, in March-April, and kept in a dry room until autumn, it will not be inferior to edged timber in terms of the quality of wood.

As for plywood, waste packaging plywood from disassembled used containers can be turned into water-resistant in the following way:

• We buy a 10 l canister or two PVA putties; it looks like a very liquid PVA glue and is cheap.
• We cover the floor in the country house, in the shed, in the attic or in some other non-residential premises with plastic wrap. The air temperature is not lower than +13 degrees.
• We lay a sheet of plywood on the floor, pour a puddle of putty on the center of it 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 plywood soaked in PVA; better - dispersed over the area: bricks, pieces of metal, concrete, old TV, etc.
• After a week, we repeat the procedure, turning each sheet over.
• After another two weeks, the smooth, waterproof plywood is ready for use. Additional exposure under pressure 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 - sheathing the walls and ceiling of living rooms with laminate; for thrifty owners richer - MDF. When cladding on a wooden lathing from a slab, in 80% of cases, alignment of walls and ceilings is not required, which already excludes large expenditures of labor and money.

You can save even more by sheathing the walls up to your waist or up to your chest, and pasting them up to the ceiling with non-woven wallpaper.The work is simplified and cheaper, and the bottom of the walls, which breaks and gets dirty the most, will be reliably protected by resistant material.

The most economical floor covering option is marmoleum. Floor preparation for it is not required in 90% of cases. But marmoleum is not suitable for a bathroom and toilet; here you will have to fork out for tiles, especially since you will need a little of it.

If you want to have a plank-like floor in the rooms, then laminate flooring will not be much more expensive, but the floor may need to be leveled.

The walls in the bathroom can be covered with laminated hardboard instead of tiles - it is hygroscopic and does not require surface preparation.

If you intend 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, instead of traditional MDF or lining, you can sew it up with plywood, pasting it with self-adhesive film.

When deciding how to make an apartment renovation 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 commercial timber fall, and to put them in late spring - in early summer, when the tree dries out and shrinks properly. The technology of installing wooden windows into openings is quite affordable for an average home craftsman.

It would be better to update the doors. Remember your homemade waterproof plywood? Here it is sheathed both sides of the door, on mounting glue, laying the door removed from the hinges on a plastic mat and under oppression. At the same time, at the same time, you can cover the window in the interior door, if it is not needed.

This will make the door thicker. Two options are possible here:

1. Reinstalling the hinges is not the best way for the lazy.
2. Remove the old lining from the door; it is most often made of building cardboard or thin fiberboard, and put on a new, plywood frame. In this case, the chipped corners immediately "go away".

In both cases, the new door is pasted over with self-adhesive wood or with a different texture and varnished. And you will be surprised (nicely, of course) with her new look. And the hard plywood cheeks will ensure the door's durability. It is better to cover the slopes of the doorway with doborks from the same plywood: it will come out cheaper and more beautiful than re-plastering.

Dirty plumbing, if 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 off the sagging deposits with the most common washing powder. Just do not use abrasive detergents - they will scratch the glaze and objects, especially the toilet, will get dirty very quickly.

For cleaning with vinegar, make kvash - a knob made of a rag on a stick. Vinegar is poured where it does not leak, or sour milk is dipped in it, and the drips are cleaned with circular motions with pressure. Particularly "stubborn" spots in the grooves are removed with small kvash and technical hydrochloric acid. All this, of course, is done with latex household gloves, a plastic apron and with doors and windows open. 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 renew the worn-out plastic spoilers and bumpers in this way:

• The entire lined surface with my pemolux; it is impossible to use active acid detergents! For a bathroom in "Khrushchev", 1 liter is enough; on a larger - 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 it several times with a wet cloth "to a clean cloth"; now we got rid of the dirt stuck into the surface.
• We glue the edges of the tiles with masking tape ("paper tape"), except for the seams.
• We paint the seams from a spray bottle with nitro paint in two layers; the second - after the first is completely dry.
• We remove the tape, splashes and drips 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 need to spray it again.
• If after 2-3 days silicone is still "taken" on the tile, wipe the surface with a rag moistened with vinegar.

The meaning of this treatment is that the silicone tightens microcracks and pores in which dirt accumulates. Processing is enough for 3-5 years, and then it can be repeated.

The cast iron capital bath can be repaired with epoxy or acrylic resin. Complaints about its fragility arise from a violation of the technology for preparing the coloring composition and its application. With strict adherence to the technology, the restored bath will serve for another 10-15 years.

It is not at all necessary to change it to an expensive stainless steel or brass and make a bypass (bypass) for it. The heated towel rail is cleaned to metal after cleaning the bathtub for painting with the same cord-brush in the drill chuck. If no fistula is found, it is painted with the remains of the compound from the bath painting. The look will be no worse than modern branded ones, and the durability is like a bathtub.

On fasteners during repairs, you can save up to 1000 rubles by using not galvanized or cadmium plated (shiny), but phosphated (black). The heads of self-tapping screws and dowel-nails still have to be repaired, and in the apartment there is no rain or frost.

To make cheap repairs, you first need to know what and how to do, how the apartment should look after renovation. Do not be lazy to confer with the whole family several times, see more pictures of ready-made apartments. Design is not something incomprehensibly sublime; artistic taste is endowed with most people. The professionalism of a designer in most cases comes down to understanding the client's taste and guessing what he wants. And you, since you are doing for yourself, you need to understand what you want. Up to 50% of the costs for self-repairs arise due to the fact that they start at random and then correct and redo along the way.

And, finally, carrying out the work in the correct sequence contributes to the savings on repairs: we start from a distance from the front door, and in the course of work we gradually approach it. The living room, bedroom and nursery can be renovated in any order. Then comes the turn of the kitchen. We make the hallway the penultimate one, and complete the renovation with a bathroom. Savings are obtained on the amount of construction waste (and, after all, half of it is waste of materials for which it was paid) and on the alteration of the soiled and beaten with unreasonable organization of work.

Guided by the above, you can make a comprehensive renovation of an apartment with an original design, spending little more than a cosmetic repair.