After reading the recommendations, cosmetic repairs can be done even by those who have never held a spatula in their hands. The article is written based on personal experience. If a non-professional woman was able to update the room, then you will succeed all the more.
Not everyone has the means to hire a construction team to carry out repairs. In addition, people who are not always found on the ad will really do everything in good faith. If you do not need a global reorganization of the premises, you can do the cosmetic repairs yourself. This is a very fun and easy process. The main thing is to purchase everything you need, follow the phased work, do everything carefully and with soul.
Necessary materials, tools
Here's what you need to purchase before you start your redecoration:
- Spatulas - wide and narrow;
- Primer;
- Putty (dry or ready-made);
- Wallpaper;
- Ceiling tiles and glue for it;
- Flat brush, rag;
- Skirting boards for floor and ceiling;
- Floor covering (linoleum, laminate);
- Roller on a long handle;
- cuvette;
- Glue for linoleum (if you lay it);
- Film, adhesive tape for covering furniture.
Preparatory work, wallpaper removal
Remove furniture to free up space. Put things from the cabinets in large bags, bags and also transfer them to another room. If the cabinet is heavy, there is no way to tilt it to another room, disassemble it by carefully folding the components. If this method does not suit you either, move the cabinet away from the wall, cover it on all sides with a wide cellophane film, secure it with a stapler or tape.
After everything unnecessary has been removed from the room, proceed to dismantling. First tear off the old skirting boards. If they are wooden, it is convenient to remove them with a nail puller. If these are plastic skirting boards with screws, a screwdriver or screwdriver will help.
If you are doing Khrushchev repair with your own hands, you want to save money, you can lay linoleum on the floor. To do this, it is rolled out, put with the wrong side up, allowed to rest, then glue is applied, turned over and glued to the base. If the floor is uneven, you can lay a solid underlay, such as plywood.
When the wallpaper is completely dry, drape the top of the wallpaper with a ceiling plinth. To do this, apply glue for PVC tiles on its wrong side, attach to the desired place and hold for 10-15 seconds. Once you've glued the first one, move on to the second one.
You will remove the wires in the wall part of the floor plinth, screw it onto the screws. After that, put on the top of the plastic plinth.
- Read the article about yourself.
Video about cosmetic repairs in 3 days:
From this article you will learn:
- What are the stages of a room refurbishment?
- How to prevent the recurrence of cracks after cosmetic repairs
- How to save money by renovating a room
- How much does a room refurbishment cost?
Quite often, the redecoration of a room in Moscow drags on for many months, it begins to seem too costly, impossible and boring. However, any routine can be turned into an interesting and even exciting activity. Redecorating a room is not as difficult as it seems at first glance. The main thing is to think carefully in advance and strictly follow the plan.
Stages of redecorating a room
Redecoration of the room involves only updating the finishes. The refurbishment of the room does not include any major changes in the heating, electrical, air conditioning and ventilation systems. Minor repair work on the replacement of door and window blocks is possible.
Carrying out the correct redecoration of the room is subject to several principles:
- Redecoration of a room is always done from the ceiling to the floor, that is, from top to bottom.
- Sequence of operations "from dirty to clean": first the most time-consuming and dirty.
- If repairs are made in a multi-room apartment, you should start from the room farthest from the front door and gradually move towards the exit, the final stage is a loggia or balcony.
- You can start repairing a one-room apartment immediately from the kitchen or room.
First, draw a sketch of the room
The sketch will help to imagine the future interior and draw up a plan for redecorating the room.
If you are unfamiliar with a 3D rendering software, you can simply print out a photograph of the room and place a piece of tracing paper over it. Then, with the help of pencils and felt-tip pens, experiment and choose the right shades for the ceiling and walls. Decide what color you want to get in the room: warm or cold, colorful or plain. Decide if ornaments are needed in the future interior, and if so, what kind and size.
Probably, drawing a sketch, you will want to rearrange the furniture, change the upholstery or curtains. The resulting drawing will help you see where you need to focus, complement or diversify the space with decor items.
In the drawing of the future interior, it is desirable to indicate:
- Location of furniture. Highlight the walls that will constantly be in your field of vision in order to decorate them with the highest quality, pleasing to the eye, finishing materials.
- Optimal placement of lamps and chandeliers for the best lighting.
- Availability of electrical outlets in the places of installation of household appliances, so that later it would be possible to design a competent installation of electrical wiring in all rooms.
- Carefully thought-out arrangement of various decor items(for example, paintings, posters, mosaics, etc.).
The correct room redecoration plan contains information about the chosen finishing option: wallpapering, painting, etc. The division of rooms into separate zones is also reflected in the sketch. For example, for visual zoning, sometimes they focus on one of the walls, painting it in a different color.
Prepare your room for a makeover
Before starting cosmetic repairs, you need to take out the furniture or cover it with plastic wrap, moving it to the center of the room.
In order to additionally protect the already repaired room from construction dirt, dust and damage, a polyethylene film is hung and fixed from the outside of the door.
Before redecorating the room, it is necessary to prepare all surfaces that are planned to be painted or wallpapered. Old wallpaper after their abundant wetting is removed with a spatula. The paint is also peeled off with a spatula. If irregularities, cracks or dents are found, they are puttied. After that, the surface is primed.
The walls and the stream for painting are prepared especially carefully. Sometimes you have to putty several times, followed by sanding with sandpaper (dry) or a damp sponge (wet).
When redecorating a room involves finishing with overhead building materials (drywall, panels, plywood, etc.), it is enough to make sure that the surfaces do not need additional leveling.
In preparation for the redecoration of the room, the frames are removed from the electrical outlets and the plinth from the floor. Window sills, door and window panels are sanded with sandpaper, puttied and primed if necessary.
How to make an inexpensive redecoration of a room with your own hands
Not everyone has enough money to hire a construction team. In addition, where is the guarantee that the specialists found on the ad will perform the work efficiently. Therefore, if a radical “coup” of the interior is not planned, then you can make cosmetic repairs with your own hands. This is a fairly simple and interesting job. The most important thing is to buy the necessary materials in advance, strictly follow the sequence of actions and do everything carefully and in a good mood.
Before starting the redecoration of the room, you must purchase:
- Wide and narrow spatulas.
- Primer.
- Dry putty or ready-made.
- Wallpaper.
- Flat brush, rag.
- Skirting boards for ceiling and floor.
- Floor covering (linoleum, laminate, etc.).
- Roller with a long handle.
- cuvette.
- Glue for linoleum (if necessary).
- Plastic film and adhesive tape to cover furniture.
Preparatory work, wallpaper removal
To make it more convenient to carry out redecoration of the room, it must be freed from furniture. Non-lifting cabinets can be disassembled or moved away from the wall and carefully covered with a film, fixing it with tape or a stapler.
When everything superfluous is taken out of the room, you can start dismantling. First of all, skirting boards are removed: wooden - with a nail puller, and plastic - with a screwdriver or a screwdriver.
Then remove the old wallpaper, prying them with a spatula below. If they are difficult to remove, then with the help of a roller they are moistened with hot or warm water. After about ten minutes, the wallpaper comes off with a “light movement of the hand”. Now a special tool is being sold that can be used to facilitate this work.
Wall alignment
This process is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. Besides, it's quite entertaining. With self-decorating the room, you can verify this. The required amount of primer is poured into the cuvette, the roller is lowered into it. The primer is applied to all walls.
The primer composition dries quite quickly, after an hour you can proceed to puttying the walls. In the store you can buy a ready-made mixture. It is sold in sealed bags.
Dry putty is also sold in paper bags. Before use, it is poured into a bucket, filled with water in the ratio indicated in the instructions, and thoroughly mixed with a construction mixer. In the absence of a mixer, the putty mixture is prepared in small portions with a spatula.
After a short infusion of the composition, you can begin to level the walls. To do this, with a small spatula, the mixture is applied to the entire blade of a large spatula, then applied to the wall and smeared evenly over the surface. So continue to do until the complete elimination of irregularities.
At the end of the alignment of the walls, the putty should dry out within a day. The cracks that appear at this time are moistened with water and rubbed with a spatula. After 24 hours, you can start pasting the walls with wallpaper.
- Ceiling renovation.
Without wasting time, while the walls are drying up, you can do a redecoration of the ceiling. The easiest way is to paste over it with PVC panels. They start work from the center, having previously drawn a straight line that divides the ceiling into halves.
It is necessary to apply glue to the back of the tile around the entire perimeter and in the center. After attaching the panel to the marked line on the ceiling. Then, having smeared the second tile with glue, install next to the first, trying to make the seam less noticeable. If the redecoration of the room is performed by one person, then it is more convenient to apply the adhesive on several tiles at once and then attach them to the ceiling.
Seeing that a solid tile does not fit near the wall, you need to cut off a piece of the desired size. The tile is easily cut with a construction knife. The tiles near the window and on the opposite side are cut in the same way. After gluing, the tiles can be painted with paint, water-based or latex. Such a coating retains its original appearance longer and attracts less dust.
wall decoration
Having planned the redecoration of the room, they purchase wallpaper for pasting the walls in advance. You need to buy taking into account a small margin, so that you definitely have enough. If the wallpaper is patterned, their consumption increases to fit the pattern.
The industry now offers a huge range of wallpapers. Before buying, it is a good idea to read information on the Internet and see samples. This will help determine what is needed for the redecoration of the room: paper wallpaper, non-woven, vinyl or paintable. For each of these types, special adhesives are sold. There is also a universal wallpaper glue suitable for any type of wallpaper.
Wallpapering begins by measuring the height of the wall from ceiling to floor. It should not be forgotten that you need to glue the wallpaper from the window to the right.
The resulting wall height is set aside on the wallpaper and cut off. In accordance with the instructions, the adhesive composition is prepared and applied with a brush to the wrong side of the wallpaper. When gluing wallpaper that is dense in texture, it is recommended to coat with glue the section of the wall where the prepared segment is applied.
Doing a redecoration in a room with your own hands, it is more convenient to glue the wallpaper together. In the case when the redecoration of the room is carried out by one person, you can move the table closer to the wall to be glued or put a stepladder.
The upper part of the wallpaper is applied to the top of the wall, carried out over this area with a clean, dry soft cloth. Then, using the same rag, carefully press the wallpaper in the middle and, making movements from the middle down at an angle of 45 degrees, glue the middle and lower parts. Then, having adjusted the pattern, measure and cut off the next piece and paste it in the same sequence.
So all the walls are pasted over. Particular attention is paid to the places where the wallpaper joins. It is better to stick wallpaper not overlapping, but end-to-end - this way the seams are less noticeable. Insufficiently high-quality gluing of joints can be corrected with a special glue for seams.
When pasting wall sections where electrical sockets and switches are located, turn off the mains voltage and remove the housings of electrical appliances. At the end of the cosmetic repairs of the room, they are mounted in their original place.
floors
When redecorating a room where the floor parquet boards are in excellent condition, but the varnish is already outdated and uneven, the floor is cycled. It is quite difficult to work with a manual cycle, so it is better to buy or rent an electric one. After removing the old varnish, the parquet is thoroughly vacuumed. Then, to improve its appearance, a piece of paint mesh is drawn along the boards in the direction of the fibers.
Parquet cycling must be carried out after all cosmetic repairs in the room, but before wallpapering. Otherwise, it will be possible to scrape the floor only with a manual scraper or glass, and this is too laborious a process. The thing is that during the operation of an electric cycle, a lot of dust is formed, which is almost impossible to remove from the wallpaper.
It is better to cover the parquet floor with a water-based varnish. It is odorless, dries quickly and is not as harmful as synthetic. After applying the first layer of varnish, it is allowed to dry for 40 minutes, then covered with a second layer. Four hours later, the parquet is varnished for the third time.
Laying laminate flooring is a great alternative for redecorating a room when there is no way to scrape the floor and buy expensive construction equipment. By the way, the laminate can be laid on the old base, if it is sufficiently even.
With independent cosmetic repairs in a small room (for example, in Khrushchev), you can save money by laying linoleum. Before laying, he is allowed to straighten, then glue is applied and glued. For irregularities on the floor, use a solid substrate (for example, plywood sheets).
Skirting boards
When redecorating the room, after the final drying of the wallpaper, ceiling plinths are mounted. PVC tile adhesive is applied to the wrong side of the plinth, pressed against the wallpaper in the right place and held for 10-15 seconds. Then glue the next one in the same way.
The floor plinth is fastened with screws, wires are laid in its groove, then the upper part is put on.
How to prevent cracking after redecorating a room
As practice shows, cracks quite often appear on ceilings with rust (joints of floor slabs) after cosmetic repairs. Therefore, experts recommend using a "spider web" - this is fiberglass wallpaper, the loose structure of which prevents cracks. It has a thickness of up to 2 mm and is sold in rolls.
With wooden floors or large irregularities, it is recommended to completely cover the surface with a masking grid with 2x2 mm cells before gluing the "spider line". It is puttied, sanded, primed with diluted wallpaper glue and pasted over with a "cobweb". Such a "pie" reliably protects the ceiling from cracking.
How to save money by redecorating a room
To save money when redecorating a room, you must adhere to the following rules:
- Work hard and not be lazy, and also not be afraid of new types of work.
- Everything capital that has lost its appearance, if possible, does not need to be changed, it can be slightly retouched, updated.
- When redecorating a room, you should try to extract the maximum savings where it is not conspicuous and does not impair the quality of work.
- Distribute cash and labor costs over time. For example, when planning a redecoration of a room in the summer months, up to this point you need to gradually prepare in order to do everything quickly at the appointed time. In addition, the cost of cosmetic repairs of 200-300 thousand rubles is quite tangible for the budget, and breaking them down into parts and investing small amounts throughout the year is quite feasible.
Tools
It's no secret that good professional tools make work easier. However, they cost a lot of money, so buying them is unprofitable. It is less expensive to rent all construction equipment for redecorating a room.
Season
The best time of the year for redecorating a room is the beginning and middle of autumn. It is still warm outside during these months, and you can do outdoor work, while interior decoration - open windows. In addition, before the winter recession of repair work, the cost of building materials is significantly reduced. Consequently, savings can be up to 15% when selling summer non-liquid items. These are considerable sums. For example, with the planned cost of redecorating a room at 200 thousand rubles, you get a good “bonus” of 30 thousand.
Construction sales
Separately, mention should be made of illiquid assets. The main expenses for redecorating a room are for finishing materials (putty, plaster, mounting glue, sealant), which have a limited shelf life. Construction companies try to sell them before the expiration date. Sometimes the prices are just “symbolic”, stay tuned for sales. For example, professionals will not take a package of 50 kg of Aquasloy, which will become unusable in a couple of months, and this amount is quite enough for you to redecorate a room, and even save it.
Plumbing
When redecorating a room with your own hands for beginners, one of the most pressing issues is the replacement of plumbing. If it has lost its aesthetic appearance, but functions normally, it can be cleaned and painted. But if there are cracks and chips, you will have to change it.
Often, new settlers (especially in elite new buildings), entering a new apartment, make major repairs and change the installed plumbing to more prestigious and expensive ones. And absolutely new equipment ends up in a landfill. On this landfill scavengers have created a profitable business.
Of course, they do not consult strangers over the phone. Only through "ours and ours" they are invited to the back room and offer a choice of carefully washed sanitary ware at a cost equal to 1/3 or 1/2 of the market price.
Construction garbage
An equally acute issue that arises when you independently perform a major overhaul of a room is the removal of construction debris. The procedure is quite costly, besides troublesome. An easier and easier way is to collect garbage in bags of plastic sackcloth and put it in a barn, closet, etc. at the end of the redecoration of the room. Then gradually throw it into the house garbage container, there is no crime in this.
Laths, boards, timber and plywood
During the redecoration of the room, plywood and wooden slats will be required for the crate. In order to save money, you can buy non-planed slats, slabs. The croaker is sold raw. It is necessary to purchase it in advance in March-April and keep it until autumn in a dry room. Then you will get raw materials that are not inferior to edged lumber in terms of wood quality.
For redecorating a room, plywood may be required. Waste packaging plywood from used containers can be made water resistant as follows:
- We buy a ten-liter canister and two PVA putties; it is cheap and the consistency resembles a very liquid PVA glue.
- We cover the floor in non-residential premises (in the country house, in the barn, etc.) with plastic film. The air temperature should not be lower than +13 degrees.
- We lay the plywood, pour a puddle of putty into the center and disperse it over the entire sheet with a brush.
- We cover the plywood with plastic, lay the next sheet, putty, etc.
- On the resulting stack of plywood impregnated with PVA, we put a heavy load (pieces of concrete, metal, bricks, etc.), evenly distributing it over the entire area.
- A week later, we repeat the procedure, turning each sheet of plywood over.
- After two weeks, the waterproof flat plywood will be ready for use. Additional exposure under oppression will only improve its quality.
Quite often they post ads for the sale of used cargo pallets. It is easy to get thick timber and boards from them, which may be needed when redecorating a room.
Materials for redecorating a room
Sheathing walls and ceilings with laminate or MDF is a very cheap option for redecorating a room. When using a wooden slab crate, in most cases, surface leveling is not required, which also saves money, time and effort.
You will get an even more profitable option for redecorating a room if you sheathe the wall with laminate only up to half, and paste it over with non-woven wallpaper up to the ceiling. Here there is savings, simplification of labor and practical benefits - the most problematic sections of the wall are reliably protected by durable material.
To cover the floor during the redecoration of the room, the most advantageous material is marmoleum. In the vast majority of cases (90%) no pre-treatment is needed. However, it is categorically not suitable for bathrooms and toilets.
If you want to have a floor in the room that looks like a plank, you can use a laminate. It is slightly more expensive and requires leveling the base.
The walls of the bathroom during cosmetic repairs can be pasted over not with tiles, but with laminated hardboard. It is quite hygroscopic and does not require preliminary surface preparation.
Where it's hard to save
When carrying out cosmetic repairs of a room, there is a type of work where it is impossible to do without specialists - this is the replacement of electrical wiring. You can hire an electrician to service your home. Then it will turn out to save a little, and hacking is not in his interests.
Cooperate with the company "My Repair" - it is reliable and prestigious. The specialists working here are professionals of the highest level. The company "My Repair" operates throughout Moscow and the Moscow region.
February 16, 2018 No comments
When the environment on their own squares ceases to please the eye, there is a need for change. It is easy to implement them: it is enough to figure out how to make cosmetic repairs with your own hands. The most important point here is the sequence of actions that the owner will have to get acquainted with. A person who is far from the construction and installation sphere is not immediately able to understand the features of the selection of materials and their application. This article will help you get rid of unnecessary costs and clearly plan the further course of changes towards enriching the interior.
Preparatory work is an important stage of repair, containing the durability of the finish and the safety of the property located on the territory of the housing. Determine from which room you will start the repair and free it from all household items, furniture. If there are fixed parts of the situation here, then use film and tape to isolate them from dust and splashes.
If finishing the floor is not included in your plans, cardboard or fiberboard sheets will help save the coating, with which you need to tightly cover the entire flooring. The plinth will help protect the masking tape, which will not leave marks and close the porous material from dust.
Next, you should de-energize the room, remove the sockets and switches (linings), and seal with a film or masking tape. The main principle of the wall processing sequence is from top to bottom, where the dirtiest and most labor-intensive types of work are always performed first.
If repairs are planned for all rooms, then the most distant from the exit from the apartment should go first, you should move towards the corridor. If the apartment is one-room, then you can start both from the room and from the kitchen, since there are no walk-through options here.
After removing old wallpaper, paint, plaster from the walls, washing off the whitewash from the ceiling, you can start dismantling old doors and windows, if this is included in your plans.
In order to get rid of old paint or enamel, use a narrow steel spatula. After complete removal of paint residues, the walls must be treated with sandpaper to improve the adhesion of all subsequent layers. Whitewash is also removed with a spatula, after soaking with water. For this, it is better to choose wider versions, since it is removed easily and quickly. Wallpaper made of paper can also be soaked, other materials are removed dry, and their lower layer on the glue does not need to be removed.
This approach is relevant in relation to vinyl or textile wallpaper containing a multilayer structure. If old varnish is present on windows and doors, it is removed strictly in case of cracking. For this, a special wash or a building hair dryer is used in conjunction with a spatula. If the surface is smooth, it is subject to the surface application of another layer to refresh the product.
After the complete removal of all remnants of the old finish, it is necessary to eliminate all minor surface defects. Potholes, cracks, chips, all the moving parts of the old plaster are removed with a spatula, in other words, they go astray. Then a deep penetration primer is applied.
After it has completely dried in a few days, you can prepare an alabaster mortar or apply ready-made gypsum plaster, which is evenly applied to the entire periphery of the walls. This manipulation is carried out with a wide trowel, as the masters call it.
Again we give time to dry, and apply another layer of primer. After soaking and drying of the primer, finishing with putty follows. It is more subtle, filigree. Aimed at leveling the wall, this do-it-yourself redecoration work is the most responsible. The layer here is small - only 2-3 mm, so rough transitions between strokes, protrusions and depressions are excluded.
When this layer is dry enough, you can start wallpapering the room. If it is planned to paint the walls, then another important and very dusty stage lies ahead - grouting the walls with a special grater. Such grinding makes its surface perfectly smooth, which is necessary for painting.
Before the final stage of finishing the walls, it is necessary to put the ceiling in order. Whitewashing is rarely used in modern interiors, but still, this method is considered the cheapest.
The ceiling can be covered with wallpaper, expanded polystyrene tiles, covered with decorative plaster or painted. If you are not able to carry out cosmetic repairs to the ceiling with your own hands, then the option with a tension structure will be the most beneficial. But here you can not do without the help of specialists.
To paint the ceiling, you will need a special roller with an elongated handle, with a pile of 1-2 cm. A convenient stepladder is a mandatory attribute of this procedure. At the same time, it should have a platform for the location of the bath with paint. Water-based paints are usually applied in two layers. The lower one is carried out with a slightly diluted composition, the upper one is concentrated.
Finishing the renovation and enjoying the results!
There are a lot of options for wall decoration today. We need to choose exactly those, the application of which does not require the use of expensive equipment or specific skills. Wallpaper is an option for all time. Don't choose prints that are too complex, so you don't suffer from picking up a small pattern and throwing away a lot of waste. Dilute the glue slowly, pouring it into a container of water in a thin stream - then there will be no lumps in it.
Start gluing from the window, then the “overlap” application option will not show seams. Expel air bubbles from the center to the edges, it is convenient to do this with a special wallpaper roller. To avoid tearing at the baseboard and ceiling edge, cut the wallpaper under the metal ruler using a special wallpaper knife.
Wall painting can be carried out using any collection of interior paint offered by the market. There are smooth and structured types that look interesting and apply very easily.
Painting is a creative process, here you can play with shades, depict geometric shapes and drawings on the walls. You can give different walls a special flavor, thus modeling the room. Here everything is in the hands of the performer. And if you don't like it, you can always change it!
Decorative plaster is one of the most popular finishing materials. Its texture allows you to depict any ornament on the wall, and some types contain mineral chips, pigment. In this case, it remains to simply apply and dry. The advantages of such a finish include an attractive appearance and speed of application, the disadvantages are the high cost and more thorough preparation of the walls before application.
All of these tips are only part of the practical experience of the masters. Surely you will come across a number of personal features that are specific to your apartment. In any case, nothing is impossible, and the main thing is to believe in your success!
Video: Renovation of the apartment:
Reading time ≈ 4 minutes
Quite often, we are faced with the fact that when moving, our new housing needs repairs, and the budget does not allow us to aim for major changes in the situation. In this case, you can carry out cosmetic repairs of the apartment with your own hands.
Preparing for a cosmetic renovation
Before you start redecorating an apartment, you need to designate the scope of work. To determine how you want to see your apartment after the repair is completed, we recommend that you look at photos of apartments with cosmetic repairs - you may find decoration ideas that did not occur to you. In the photographs, you can explore the options for redecorating one-room or two-room apartments.
The first stage of cosmetic repairs - windows
Inspect the windows carefully - if you are planning a redecoration in Khrushchev, the frames can be wooden and cracked. In this case, be sure to replace the double-glazed windows with plastic ones, otherwise it will be very uncomfortable in your apartment during the cold season.
Replacement of double-glazed windows should be carried out in the first place, because this is the dirtiest and hardest job. It is quite possible to make it with your own hands, but it is easier to order installation from the company where you purchased the double-glazed windows.
If the condition of the frames inspires optimism, repainting can be dispensed with.
During the renovation of your apartment, do not forget about the ceiling
We recommend paying attention to the ceiling. There are a huge number of ways to finish the ceiling. Often in apartments there is a danger of flooding by neighbors from above - in this case it is better to install a stretch ceiling, but such work no longer applies to minor cosmetic repairs of the apartment. Therefore, if you are confident in your neighbors and the ceiling does not require special attention, you can get by with painting or whitewashing, or sticking wallpaper on the ceiling. Before any of these works, the ceiling must be prepared - cleaned of the previous coating (remove chalk, old wallpaper, if any), cover up the defects of the ceiling tiles, prime the ceiling.
Working with walls
It would seem that during the redecoration of an apartment, the walls will require the least attention. What could be easier - to paste the wallpaper, and that's it. Before sticking new wallpaper, be sure to remove the old coatings, clean the walls of adhesive residue, and treat with a primer. Modern wallpapers do not require any additional wall preparation. Carefully study the recommendations for gluing the selected wallpaper, in some cases it is required to glue only the wall with glue, in others - both the wall and the wallpaper. When wallpapering and for several days after, the room should be free of drafts.
However, very often in old houses the walls in the rooms are uneven, which is very striking and this cannot be hidden by simple wallpapering. In such cases, it is recommended to combine wall decoration methods. For example, a wall that is characterized by strong irregularities can be finished with chipboard or plastic panels, and the remaining walls can be pasted over with wallpaper that matches the color. It should be borne in mind that if you are going to make a stretch ceiling, then the panels are installed in advance. In any other case, the ceiling is repaired first, and only then the walls.
Floor coverings
Most often, redecorating an apartment does not involve changing the flooring, but if such a need exists, then it is better to do this after work with the ceiling and walls.
If it is necessary to replace the flooring during the redecoration of the apartment, remove the old coating and inspect the floor. Use mounting foam to get rid of gaps at the joints of walls and floors and in corners. If the floor is plank, cover the gaps between the boards with a primer. Subsequently, the floor can be painted or covered with linoleum or laminate. The easiest option for redecorating an apartment with your own hands is painting. If you decide to use linoleum, do not forget that before cutting the purchased piece of material to the size of the room, it needs to lie down in an unfolded state for at least a day.
Minor cosmetic repairs
These are the basic jobs that you will have to face when redecorating your apartment. Upon completion, you will need to screw on the cornices, glue the ceiling moldings and install switches and sockets.
Photos of apartments with cosmetic repairs
The photo shows apartments with cosmetic repairs.
Even the most sophisticated interior begins to get bored over time, and you want novelty. No matter how expensive finishing materials were used earlier, they all have their own “age”, that is, they begin to deteriorate, lose their attractiveness, decorative and operational qualities. Other unforeseen circumstances can also bring their own “negative adjustments” - leakage of the roof or from the upper neighbors, walls torn off or painted by children, indelible stains accidentally placed on surfaces, mold, etc. That is, there can be a great many reasons to think about interior renovation.
This is said to prove that redecoration in the apartment, the full instructions of which will be presented in this publication, sooner or later have to be carried out by each owner. Therefore, most owners have a fair question about what activities are included in this process, where to start putting the rooms in order and in what sequence to perform finishing operations.
What is cosmetic repair and its features
What is the difference between cosmetic repairs and when it is carried out, what work does it include, and what are its features? In this section of the article, we will look for answers to these questions.
Cosmetic transformation of the premises is carried out after a certain period after the overhaul. Of course, there are no set deadlines for its implementation, and there cannot be. It is usually planned in cases, one of which is faced by every owner of any housing:
- If you want to change the design of the interior.
- During the period of operation of the rooms, the flooring was damaged, the design of lighting fixtures, sockets, furniture and other interior elements became obsolete.
- It is required to put the apartment in order before selling it, in order to give the premises a more respectable appearance.
- Decorating surfaces after a major overhaul.
For comparison, it is worth mentioning the work that is included in the overhaul of the apartment - this is the need to make their heat or sound insulation of surfaces, cleaning the walls of old plaster, leveling the walls and ceiling, with plastering and arranging the floor screed, with preliminary cleaning them from old coatings, replacement of electrical wiring, sewer and water pipes and much more.
It is quite obvious that there are stages that can be included in the list of both major and cosmetic repairs. For example, this is the dismantling of old and the installation of modern doors and windows that match the design of the new interior and create more comfortable living conditions.
Features of the repair work:
- Works can be divided into preparatory and finishing. Each of these two stages must start from the top, gradually moving down.
- First, all dirty and labor-intensive work is performed, that is, the principle of their implementation is from dirty to clean processes.
- If cosmetic repairs are carried out in a multi-room apartment, then it should be started from the room that is farthest from the front door. The final step is. It is advisable to follow this sequence in order not to damage the lined surfaces in the rooms where the repair has already been completed, when building materials are carried through them, and not to spread dirt through the already finished premises.
- The doors of the room in which the repair has already been completed, when working in other rooms of the apartment, it is recommended to hang with plastic wrap or an old wet sheet.
To know where to start putting the apartment in order, you need to figure out what stages the cosmetic repairs consist of, and in what sequence they are carried out:
- Drawing up a work plan, that is, a complete list of what is planned to be done.
- Development of sketches of the desired interior.
- Taking measurements and preparing estimates.
- Purchase of materials.
- Clearing the room of furniture.
- Dismantling of old windows and interior doors and installation of new ones.
- Cleaning walls, floors, if necessary - and ceilings from old coatings.
- Surface priming.
- Ceiling finish.
- Puttying and re-priming the walls.
- Wall decoration with selected decorative material.
- Installation of sockets and switches, as well as lighting fixtures.
- Floor covering flooring.
Of course, this order is not a dogma at all - there may be certain changes in the sequence in it. But they still try to maintain the general “direction” of works approximately the same.
Instructions for cosmetic repairs - step by step
The main stages of work on the cosmetic renovation of rooms were named above. But in each case there are nuances associated with the characteristics of a particular room. Some of them will be described in the instructions presented in the table below.
| Illustration | Brief description of the stages of work |
|---|---|
 | The first thing to do when starting repairs is to draw up a general plan, including everything that needs to be done. If at this stage the design direction has not yet been finally determined, it is advisable to make several sketches for the design of each of the rooms. This will help to personally assess the appearance of the premises after completion of work. It is best to think over even two or three similar "mini-projects" and execute them in different colors and with possible options for arranging furniture. |
 | Next, measurements are taken of the areas to be updated. The linear dimensions of each of the walls, ceiling and floor are determined. Separately, the area of door and window openings is calculated so that, if necessary, it can be subtracted from the total area of \u200b\u200bthe wall. In addition, it is necessary to count the number of electrical outlets, lighting fixtures, switches, faucets, door handles, locks and other items that need to be replaced. |
 | Based on the data obtained, as well as after studying the average prices for materials in local stores, an approximate estimate of future repairs is drawn up. The resulting amount should be increased by another 15÷20%, since usually, even with marginal savings, the costs exceed expectations. The estimate includes the name and quantity of materials, as well as their approximate cost. It is best to perform it in the form of a table, so it will be easier to make calculations. If some or even most of the operations are planned to be carried out with the involvement of craftsmen, you will have to take into account the payment for the work, which is usually no less than the cost of materials. So it is more profitable to focus initially on your own capabilities. |
 | The next step is to free the room from everything that will interfere with the repair or can be damaged by building materials. Items that cannot be removed from the room should be covered with plastic wrap. If it is not planned to replace the flooring, then it is recommended to cover the floors with cardboard, and then with a film that can be fixed around the perimeter with masking tape. |
 | After the space is vacated and prepared, the old window frames are dismantled and new window frames are installed, if this is included in the redecoration plan. a special article of our portal will help the reader. Usually such work is carried out by teams of the window manufacturer. But the owners need to prepare for a sufficiently large amount of garbage, which will also have to be immediately removed from the premises. |
 | When the windows are installed, the exterior and interior slopes are finished. Technological gaps between the window frame and the wall are filled with mounting foam, which is sensitive to ultraviolet radiation. Therefore, finishing the external slopes is no less important than putting in order the internal walls around the window. It should be noted that finishing slopes, especially external ones, is not an easy task, therefore, if there is no experience in carrying out this process, then it is better to entrust it to professionals. The outer slopes of the windows of high-rise buildings are finished with plaster mortar for external work. Internal walls can be decorated in different ways - this is leveling with plaster, and then with putty, plastic panels or, for example, pasting with cork sheets. |
 | If it is planned to ennoble the slopes with a plaster mortar, with further painting, it is recommended to purchase fiberglass "spider line" for reinforcing the surfaces, and for the outer corners of the openings - a metal or plastic perforated corner, it is possible with "wings" fixed on it from a sickle mesh. First, metal corners are fixed at the outer corners of the opening with the help of finishing putty. Like the corners themselves, so perforated or mesh "wings" should be hidden under the plaster. |
 | After the final alignment of the slopes and the drying of the putty, fiberglass is fixed to the slopes with special glue. After impregnating it with glue, it will not only hide minor flaws in the putty layer and strengthen the surface, but also give it a pleasant roughness. When the glue dries, the slopes can be painted with water-based paint. But painting is usually postponed until later - when the walls of the room are brought into the final form. |
 | Drywall is also an excellent choice for finishing slopes, as it performs several two functions at once - this is surface leveling and additional thermal insulation. The sheets are easily cut and fixed to the wall with a plaster-based adhesive. On the primed drywall, it will be possible to subsequently stick wallpaper or cork, paint the slopes with water-based paint. |
 | Another option that has become increasingly popular in recent years is cladding slopes with plastic panels. The convenience of this material is that its installation is quick, since there is no need to wait for the solution or glue to dry. But, in addition to the panels, for their accurate installation, it will be necessary to purchase special profiles - the starting one, fixed to the window frame and the corner that decorates the outer corner of the opening. Since the panels are fixed to the crate, and free space is formed between the wall and the panels, it becomes possible to insulate the slopes. But before choosing this cladding method, it is imperative to check whether the window will fully open after installing the panels. Much more detailed is considered in the special article of our portal. |
 | Further, the interior doors are dismantled - this process can be done independently. The first step is to remove the door leaf from the hinges. For convenience, you can use a nail crowbar as a lever. This tool will also be required when removing the door frame, which is dismantled after removing the canvas from it. If you do not plan to reuse the door frame, then the easiest way to remove it is by sawing the vertical posts in the middle part in two. |
 | You can also install a new door yourself if this service is not provided by the manufacturer of the product. The door frame, together with the door, is placed in the wall opening above the threshold height by 3 ÷ 5 mm and aligned with the building level. To fix the structure in the required position, in the gaps between the wall and the box, in two places on each side, linings are installed - pieces of timber or boards, depending on the width of the resulting space. These additional details must be prepared in advance. The wooden inserts must be wide enough for a fixing screw to pass through each of them when fixing the box to the wall in a predetermined position. After the box is securely fixed in the opening, the gaps around it are filled with mounting foam, the excess of which will need to be cut flush with the wall surface, after it expands and dries. The gaps around the door frame are masked by decorative overlays - platbands. For safety, it is best to immediately cover the hinged door with plastic wrap for the rest of the repair. If planned, then the instruction article to which the link leads will help. |
 | Now you can proceed to work on the preparation of the ceiling surface. If a decision is made to install a plasterboard structure or a “stretch ceiling” system, and the surface is not damaged by mold or fungus, and there are no unstable fragments of the finish or ceiling visible on it, then it is not necessary to clean the old coating. But when wallpaper, paint or ceiling tiles are chosen as the finish, the old coating will have to be removed. Whitewash can be scraped dry or wet with a spatula, depending on the thickness of its layer and the strength of its adhesion to the surface. The wallpaper will also need to be removed, since the ceiling must be absolutely clean to finish with all the above coatings. |
 | In order to finish the most dirty work as soon as possible, after cleaning the ceiling, it makes sense to immediately move on to and to free the walls from the old finish. There are several ways to carry out this process, the one that is more suitable for a particular case is selected from them. Sometimes it is enough to pick up the wallpaper with a spatula, and it is completely separated from the wall. In other cases, you have to soak them with warm water, moreover, applying it several times, after which the wallpaper is also cleaned off with a spatula. Another commonly used way to separate the canvases from the wall is to treat them with wet hot steam. For this purpose, a special steamer or an iron with a steam supply function is used. The process of removing old wallpaper is quite tedious, but even a small piece of material should not remain on the walls, otherwise it may show through the new finish. |
 | It's harder to get rid of the old paint still covering the walls in some kitchens and bathrooms. It is especially difficult if it is oily. But for this purpose, there are also several ways. The simplest, but at the same time dirty and time-consuming method of cleaning is abrasive, that is, using metal brushes, manual or in the form of attachments for power tools. You can use a chemical wash - applying a special compound to the wall that softens the paint, after which it can be easily cleaned off with a spatula. |
 | Another way is to heat the coating with a building hair dryer. P Under the influence of high temperatures, the paint also softens and separates from the surface, so it can be easily cleaned off with a regular spatula or the nozzle included in the dryer kit. |
 | Now that the entire room has been cleared of the old finishes, it remains to remove the flooring, if, of course, it is planned to replace it as well. The first step is to dismantle the skirting boards that hold the material around the perimeter. A mount is also suitable for this purpose. If linoleum is laid on the floors, it will be easier to remove it than any other coating, even if it is fixed with special glue. The flooring must be separated from the floor on one of the narrow sides of the room, and then, peeling it off the surface, immediately rolled up. |
 | Dismantling the parquet will take more time, but it is also easy to remove it - just hook on one of the lamellas. For this work, the mount is also suitable. If the parquet is in good condition, then it should be removed more carefully, as it can be reused for flooring. |
 | A more difficult task is to remove ceramic tiles from floors or walls, especially if they were laid on high-quality glue. This work can be done manually, using a hammer and a special chisel for this, or using a puncher, on which a similar nozzle is also installed. After the decorative coating is removed, the floor surface must be thoroughly cleaned of glue and debris, as the surface must be clean. |
 | When the surfaces are cleaned, they should be inspected for cracks that need to be repaired, otherwise they will definitely appear through the new finish. Cracks widen and deepen as far as possible. Then they should be cleaned and treated with a primer - it is better to do this with a spray gun, so the primer will penetrate the damage on the wall to the full depth. After waiting for the soil to dry, narrow cracks are filled with concrete or putty mortar, and wide ones, more than 15 mm, can be filled with mounting foam with an average expansion coefficient. When the foam expands and dries, its excess must be cut to the level of the wall. The process is very messy and tedious, but should not be ignored or simplified. Read more about this in the article to which the recommended link leads. |
 | Before proceeding to the next stage of work, it is necessary to de-energize the room and remove sockets and switches. The empty sockets remaining from them are best sealed with masking tape. Now that the room is ready for pre-treatment for decorative coating, a deep penetration primer is applied to the ceiling, walls and floors. It is able to bind the surface of the base material and penetrate to a depth of 10 mm. If you apply two or three layers of soil, then the quality of processing will only increase. Each subsequent layer is applied after the previous one has completely dried. |
 | If the ceiling is even, and it needs to be prepared for painting, wallpapering or foam tiles, then it is covered with a thin layer of putty, which will hide minor flaws. The work is done with a wide spatula. Further, the surface prepared for wallpaper is polished using a construction grater with an abrasive nozzle (mesh or sandpaper) having a medium grain, approximately P160. We will not describe the details here - a separate article of the portal is devoted to this. |
 | If the ceiling is planned to be painted, then it is recommended to stick a fiberglass “spider web” on it. This will greatly simplify the process and improve the quality of the finish. |
 | Then, after painting, the ceiling will have a pleasant texture, uniform matte surface, which is quite difficult to achieve by applying putty, especially in the absence of experience in this work. We advise you to pay close attention to this interesting material -. He will help out more than once! More about it - in a separate publication. |
 | The next step is to putty the walls. The number of applied layers and the quality of processing depends on the selected decorative coating. Before painting, the surface of the walls should be perfectly smooth, but if something went wrong, then the same “spider line” can save, which will disguise small errors. For wallpapering, the wall should be even, but perfect smoothness can not be achieved. |
 | To ensure that shortcomings are clearly visible during puttying, experienced painters use backlighting. Properly set light will reveal even the smallest unevenness, as it will cast a shadow. |
 | After the putty layer has dried, it is sanded with a construction float. The process is carried out in a circular motion, counterclockwise, without strong pressure on the surface. Sanders are also used, belt, vibration or eccentric. But since they give a huge amount of dust, such an operation should be carried out only if it is possible to connect the equipment to a construction vacuum cleaner. It is written simply, but in fact subtle is a very difficult task. To deal with it - read the recommended article-instruction. |
 | Finished puttied and sanded surfaces are recommended to be primed again. This layer will increase the adhesive ability of materials, so the paint on the coating will lie more evenly, and the wallpaper will be easy to stick to the wall. |
 | Further, if it is provided for by the plan, a stretch ceiling is mounted. The process is complex and unsafe, and it requires special equipment, so this stage of work is best left to specialists. |
 | If it is planned to paint the ceiling or paste over it with wallpaper or tiles, then a ceiling plinth is marked and glued along its perimeter. To fix it, one of the polymer adhesives is used, and many craftsmen even use a diluted solution of finishing putty. Framing will limit the areas on which decorative cladding will be applied. To prevent accidental paint or wallpaper paste from getting on the baseboard, it must be covered with masking tape before installing decorative materials. |
 | The ceiling surface is painted using a roller with a fur nozzle. The ceiling is painted in two layers - the first of them is applied from the window to the door, parallel to the longer walls of the room, the second is perpendicular to the first, that is, parallel to the wall with the window opening. |
 | If it is planned to use wallpaper with a certain embossed or color pattern for facing the ceiling, then it must be taken into account that it is much more difficult to combine it on the ceiling. Canvases can be glued both along and across the room - this choice depends on the preference of homeowners for the location of the wallpaper decor. But still, it is recommended that the connecting seams be located from the window to the entrance - this way they will become less noticeable. |
 | When cutting wallpaper, they must be made longer by 50 ÷ 100 mm, and they are glued with a small allowance on the baseboards, combining the pattern if necessary. After gluing the canvas, it is easy to trim it - press it with a spatula exactly along the plinth line, like a ruler, and then cut off the excess with a knife. |
 | Expanded polystyrene tiles are all mounted differently. Some people think that the skirting board is better to stick on top of the tiles. This is wrong, since sometimes the glue is not able to withstand such a load, and both the baseboard and the tile can immediately move away from the ceiling. Therefore, the plinth should only be glued to the ceiling, and the tiled flooring is already adjusted to it. To ensure that the tiles are evenly distributed on the ceiling, before installing them, the surface must be marked. Usually, two perpendicular lines are beaten off on the ceiling, which intersect at the point where it is planned to place the chandelier. Focusing on them, and stick the tiles - on glue or on the finishing putty. If necessary, the side plates glued along the plinth line are trimmed. |
 | Next, you should finally finish with the dirty work, which includes leveling the floor for a new coating. The surface of the floor must be primed again and dried. A damper tape is glued around the perimeter of the entire room along the plinth zone, which is designed to compensate for the expansion of the screed or self-leveling floor when temperatures change. |
 | To quickly level the surface of the floor, which has minor errors, special bulk self-leveling solutions are used - they are commercially available in a wide range. The prepared composition is poured into puddles on the floor and spread over the surface first with a wide spatula or doctor blade. After that, the master puts on spiked paint shoes, takes a needle roller on a long rod and finally evenly distributes the mortar over the floor. The composition tends to occupy all free spaces, that is, cracks and dents, and its surface independently occupy a perfectly horizontal position, as it should be for a liquid. Now it remains to wait until the updated floor hardens - and you can proceed to the next stage of work. How to choose and how - in a separate publication of our portal. |
 | The walls are painted using a roller with a fur or foam nozzle, depending on the desired effect. The paint is applied to the surfaces starting from the ceiling plinth with up and down movements, gradually covering the unpainted areas. To get an evenly painted wall, at least two layers of the paint composition must be applied to its surface. |
 | Wallpaper is pasted starting from the corner of the room. At the beginning of the wall, stepping back from the angle of 20 ÷ 30 mm, a perfectly even vertical line is beaten off, the first sheet of wallpaper will be aligned along it, and the first sheet of wallpaper will be glued. The upper side of the canvas should be 20 ÷ 25 mm on the skirting boards, so that it is possible to align the drawings or patterns, and at the same time not leave an unglued strip on top. |
 | In order for the top edge of the wallpaper to be even, it should be pressed against the plinth with a spatula and carefully cut off the excess part with a sharp clerical knife. For work, it is best to use a spatula with a width of 250 ÷ 400 mm with a smooth edge of the blade. The process is not as simple as it might seem. The nuances of this finishing stage are in a separate article. |
 | When the wallpaper is dry, sockets, switches, and wall lighting fixtures are installed in place. |
 | The last stage of work is the arrangement of the floor covering. It is started when the self-leveling floor curing time recommended by the manufacturer is fully met. If a laminate is chosen for finishing, then it is mounted on a special substrate, which will reduce the noise from steps along the coating and give the necessary level of depreciation. A special article-instruction posted on the pages of our portal will help to carry out qualitatively. |
 | Unlike laminate, linoleum must lie down and straighten out before fixing it on the floor, this takes about a day. The coating is spread in the room for which it is intended and left for the above time. After that, the evenness of the laying is additionally checked, then the linoleum is pressed against the junction of the horizontal and vertical planes and excess strips are carefully cut off from it. There should be a gap of 5 ÷ 7 mm between the wall and the coating, which is necessary to compensate for the thermal expansion of the material. Previously, linoleum was certainly glued to the base, but today this installation technology is rarely resorted to. Most often, high-quality material is laid as described above. About the technology with all the details - a special publication at the link. |
 | Another material option that is becoming increasingly popular is cork tile or rolled flooring. The tile is laid according to the principle of laminate, and the rolled material is fixed with a special adhesive applied to the prepared base. |
 | The coating will not look properly if it is not framed with a plinth. Similar trim parts can have a different design and different types of fasteners. It is important that the skirting boards fit well into the overall interior design in terms of color and harmonize with the flooring. At the same stage, the threshold is fixed in the doorway, which also presses the edges of the floor coverings of adjacent rooms. |
The result of cosmetic repairs should be neat, ready for furniture arrangement and further operation.
Agree that most operations, except for some specific ones (which, by the way, may not be at all in the general plan of work), can be performed independently.
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In the reviewed article, only a brief description of the stages of work on the replenishment of cosmetic repairs was presented. But on the pages of our portal, in the section, each of the mentioned processes is given a lot of attention. In this array of information, the reader will find not only detailed instructions for carrying out repair and finishing work, but also recommendations for choosing the necessary materials, with a comprehensive consideration of their characteristics, advantages and disadvantages.
And in conclusion, for an example, watch a video on redecorating an apartment.
Video - Quick and not very expensive cosmetic repairs in the apartment