In the 1960s, several thousand houses of the same type were built to solve housing problems in our country. The apartments in them were standard, with the same finish. The floor was mostly wood. And although a lot of time has passed since then, in some apartments the old flooring is still left. If you live in such a house and decide to ennoble and put your home in order, you need to figure out how to spend floor repair in Khrushchev, which has its own characteristics and nuances.
Floor characteristics
Standard floors in Khrushchev houses consist of several layers, each of which has deteriorated over time and needs to be replaced:
- Concrete floor slab. In some cases, the ceiling is made of wood.
- Waterproofing. Protects the floor from water leaks to the lower floors.
- Sound and heat insulation.
- Screed or subfloor.
- Finished wood finish.
Older houses may lack some of these layers. As thermal insulation, special material or ordinary construction waste is used.
The tree during operation suffers from physical exertion, moisture, sunlight. Therefore, it is natural that cracks, crevices, scuffs appear on it, and the floor itself begins to creak and fail. These issues can be fixed with cosmetic repairs. But still, it is desirable to completely change the floor covering to a new one that will last for many years.
The type and extent of repair is determined depending on the condition of the floor. If the floors were changed every 15–20 years, then they can be updated with cosmetic repairs. If this has not been done, then it is better to overhaul the floor in Khrushchev.
Cost of work
The price of redecorating the floor in Khrushchev starts from 130 rubles. per sq. m. in Moscow and from 90 rubles. per sq. m in St. Petersburg and depends on its condition.
Overhaul will cost many times more, its cost will depend on the type of new floor device chosen (logs, screed) and on the type of coating (array, parquet, parquet board, laminate, linoleum, carpet).
Elimination of gaps
The gaps in the floor make the appearance of the room unaesthetic, increase the amount of dust and make cleaning difficult. They appear due to the fact that wooden boards dry out over time. It is best to solve the problem at the initial stages, otherwise it will grow, and the cost of repairs will also increase.
A small gap can be puttied and scraped. Such a floor will last for about five more years. From above, you can lay a plywood substrate and lay a laminate. The top coat will be new, and such repairs will be inexpensive. But remember that old boards can creak and dry out. The effect of such a repair will not last long.
Large gaps require more serious work. It is necessary to inspect the condition of the transverse logs that are under the boards. The steps will be as follows:
- Remove plinth.
- Use the ax to lift the boards.
- Remove with a nail puller the floor elements that protrude.
- Look at the supports underneath. If necessary, replace them with new lags.
An important point. New supports must be treated with a wood preservative so that they are not exposed to the harmful effects of fungus and insects.
- Set boards in place. Remove damaged ones and install new ones.
- Fasten all boards with screws.
- Install plinth.
If you want to lay linoleum or carpet on the old floor, it is recommended to pre-level the plank flooring with a scraper machine, and even better - using plywood sheets, which will create a reliable base for any finish. Old boards swell over time, and if alignment is not done, all the bulges will be visible through the linoleum.
Squeak Elimination
Floorboards creak may occur for several reasons:
- Rubbing boards against each other.
- Poor connection of boards and lag.
- Poorly anchored lags.
- Loosening the nails that connect the boards and logs.
All this is due to the fact that the tree cracks over time. There is excessive friction of the floorboards against each other or about the logs. This cannot be avoided, any wooden floor begins to creak over time.
To delay the occurrence of creaking, when laying a wooden floor, it is necessary to press the boards against each other as tightly as possible. It is best to fasten them to the base with self-tapping screws, and not with nails, this is a more reliable connection.
If such a problem has already arisen, then you can get rid of it with a small repair. There are several ways to eliminate the squeak:
- Floor foaming. This is an inefficient method, it gives a short-lived result. Suitable as a temporary solution to the problem. Mounting foam is poured under the wooden boards, which swells and fills all the free space. Thus, the boards rest on the foam and not on the joists.
- Replacing nails with self-tapping screws. If the problem of creaking is poor fit of the board to the joists and loosening of the nails, then they can be replaced with more reliable fasteners.
- Driving wedges into cracks. If the creak appeared due to the friction of the boards, then you can fill the gaps between them with wedges. Chips are machined from wood according to the size of the gap, hammered into it and the floor surface is leveled.
- Filling gaps with talc. In places of friction of the boards, talc or graphite powder can be poured, which will reduce this friction.
- Board replacement. In places of creaking, the boards may be in poor condition, which cannot be restored. It is best to replace them with new ones.
Overhaul
Capital wooden floor repair in Khrushchev it is carried out if the boards are not subject to restoration and the previous repair methods do not eliminate the problems.
Do-it-yourself floor repair steps in Khrushchev:
- First you need to dismantle the old floor layer. Using an ax or a nail puller, you need to remove old boards and logs.
- Now you need to level the surface so that it is perfectly horizontal. Practice shows that on all bases there are mounds or pits that the builders left. The easiest way to check this is with a hydro or laser level.
- If the old logs have become unusable, then they are replaced with new ones, pre-coated with an antiseptic.
It is desirable that the distance between the lags does not exceed 50 cm, otherwise the boards will begin to creak.
- Floor boards are treated with varnish to increase their service life.
- Self-tapping screws fix these boards on the logs.
From above, the floor can be covered with linoleum, laminate, parquet or carpet, but, as mentioned earlier, this can only be done after high-quality alignment:
- scraping method;
- plywood or OSB;
- with a special self-levelling compound for wooden substrates.
Now you know how to repair your floor in Khrushchev. In most cases, minor cosmetic repairs can help. But in the case of an old floor covering 60% worn out, it will not be effective and a thorough overhaul of the floor will be required.
