Repairs: on what is not worth saving

Tips A Life / by admin / December 19, 2019

Anyone who started the repairs in his apartment, dreams of two things:

to repair quickly ended;
to the next repair needed a long time, ideally - ever.

Both desires are natural and quite understandable, but, unfortunately, rarely compatible. Wiser torment is now slightly longer, somewhere to pay more, but to do everything "in the mind" and greatly simplify your life in the future.

1. Get rid of all the old

First of all this advice applies to homes built over 50 years ago. They are very strong walls, but the plaster had long since lost its former strength. It must be removed. It's a dirty job, but it ensures that you will never again encounter with crumbling walls and tiles falling off.

The general rule is to remove all the flimsy cover. No one is building a new house on an old shaky foundation. Renovated do the same: you must not only clean off whitewash, putty and remove the old wallpaper, but also to remove the crumbling plaster. If the plaster more durable, you should ensure that it is not peeled off from the wall: Tap on it in different places. Delaminated plaster "ring", and then it too must be removed.

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Repair, cleaning walls — photo by the author

The same advice applies in respect of wooden floors: they should be removed and discarded. Make new faster and easier than trying to strengthen and align the old cracked boards and listen to them endlessly creaking.

Leave the old plaster and cracked wooden floors - a big mistake. Calculation of the fact that "this thing will even" unreliable and expensive. More expensive than plaster and update the floor right now.

2. Oshtukaturte walls on beacons

Flat vertical walls made long and difficult, but if once properly plastered, they do not require alterations in the next repairs.

But such a wall ensures:

perfect new wallpapers, well laid tiles or any other material;
quickly and correctly installed doors and built-in furniture;
architraves and skirting boards without slots.

And in the end, even surfaces are beautiful in themselves.

Beacons are special metal guides that are fixed to the wall surface or the ceiling at intervals of 1-1.5 m, they should be strictly vertical (ceiling - horizontal). and lie in the same plane.

Master leads them generally on rails: plastered surface is obtained geometrically correct. The evenness of the surface is checked the rule, and the vertical and horizontal - level. This work is time consuming and therefore more expensive. However, she will reward handsomely for it spent on time and money.

High quality plaster always done beacons, to the eye such work can not be done. Run it by yourself, having no experience, it is also very difficult. Therefore, it is reasonable to entrust a qualified technician.

It is necessary at the outset to discuss with the master, with some tolerances must be carried out the work and how you will control the quality. Get the perfect result is almost impossible, but this is not necessary. Speak with the wizard, a deviation from the vertical plane of the wall is acceptable: less than 5 mm in the height of the room - this is the highest category of quality. The required accuracy depends on the length of a work and its cost. Master will also help calculate the right amount of lighthouses, plaster and other materials.

beacons plaster is not always required. Quite often in the repair of apartments in panel houses with nice smooth walls you can do without it.

Smooth walls and floors eventually become crooked. Line up now and forget forever.

3. leave access

We are talking about revision hatches.

In any apartment is enough equipment that requires regular maintenance and sometimes repair. If such equipment is located is hidden, to access it made special openings closed doors or removable panels - Revision hatches. For example, through a manhole provides access to the valves and water meters in the bathroom.

Yes, often the door is striking. But this happens if you have spent a lot of time to choose tiles bathroom, But it is not thought that the bath - water and water - it pipes, filters, meters and valves. The filters must be periodically cleaned, counters be regularly replaced, the valves are sometimes broken.

To preventive maintenance took place quickly and without unnecessary destruction, it is necessary to think about already during design time.

All the elements that may require repair or replacement must be installed so that it was easy to access instruments.

For example, if the water flow meter to replace sanitary wrenches used keys. Their size and the need to focus. If the ventilation system installed hidden fans, the hatch must be of sufficient size so that through him it was possible to dismantle the faulty fan and install a new one if necessary.

Inspection hatches / Photo by the author

On sale are hatches of various sizes and designs. There are almost imperceptible hatches invisible. In the bathroom, for example, such a hatch is coated tiles along the wall. It is more expensive and harder to install, but the plumber never have to disassemble the wall of your bathroom for the scheduled replacement of metering devices.

Any technique requires care. He did not become a problem, if you think about it ahead of time and provide easy access to the equipment and communications.

4. Keep it simple

Murphy's Law says: "Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong." Each additional element of the system reduces its reliability.

Let us illustrate this point with an example. Water supply in the apartment often based on the so-called comb - collectors. In this construction, each point of the draw its collector goes steam pipes. The advantage of this solution is considered to be the ability to disable each point independently of the others.

In practice, however, that very few people use it. But many pipe fittings enclosure space cluttering and manifold valves from a standstill fail and have to be repaired.

collectors aqueduct — Collectors water / Photo by the author

Simple, but well arranged plumbing easier to maintain, and very rarely in need of repair. Do not use the standard decision lightly. Consider a few options to select the best among them, adapt it to your requirements: note number and arrangement of the draw-off points, water quality, capacity and type of the backup heater and so Further.

With good quality of the water there is no need to install cumbersome multistage filters. If you live in an apartment only one or two people, use the lowest performance filters, do not put too much "just in case".

Search for the best solutions takes time, but it will pay off in the future ease of use and reliability.

The same principle holds for the electrical and heating and ventilation - find the optimal solution for their environment, and do not "like everyone else."

The simpler, the more reliable - it is a universal principle. Think about all the technical solutions now and select the best. In the future, you say to yourself, thank you.

5. Refer to the SNIP

Once you have presented a very pretty picture. "Such beauty should hang in the most prominent place" - you decide: "Here, on the sofa." For a picture hook is needed, and here you start to drill a hole into the target site. Cotton, sparks from under the drill, the lights go out in the entire apartment.

Urgently called from emergency service electrician says: cable is laid in violation of building codes. To repair the damaged area will have picks open the wall, plaster and putty done in the wall hole and glue wallpaper. And all because the master of your request in a hurry, and route the cables "on the shortest way."

SNIP, SEP and state standards boring, but because of them the work of craftsmen understand any other. laying cables obvious place and easy to get around. Master did not have half a day to wonder: "Why did it do that? And what now? "

Each qualified technician knows what standards must comply with quality work and where they appear. Plasterer know tolerances of the curvature of the walls, electrical - rules laying of cables and wires required section, a plumber - slopes of sewer pipes. Ask your masters on how to be taken into account in the existing regulations.

Sometimes it is easy to follow the rules. But most of this has to do extra work. For example, lay the cable on the "uncomfortable" way. But you will never happen trouble, which described above, and many others.

SNIP - it is the experience of many generations of builders, decorated in a letter. Do not use it silly.

6. And something else

Of course, every repair is different. And in your case probably find something else, what it depends on the complexity of repair now and quiet life after.

Together with his master, discuss all the works in this way: it is reasonable to do now to save later. At stake - time, money and nerves.