Comfort, coziness in the apartment largely determine the quality of human life. In order for the house to be a favorite haven, a place of rest, you need to properly care for it: keep it clean and tidy. However, over time, the colors of the finish fade, and small scratches, stains or cracks spoil the appearance of even a carefully cleaned apartment. In order to return the home to its former gloss, to add novelty and freshness to the interior, you will have to make cosmetic repairs. To achieve the goal with minimal costs, you should first understand: what is cosmetic repairs and what investments (financial, time) are coming. Without a clear plan of action, it is easy to get bogged down in large financial expenses, as cosmetic work can smoothly turn into capital work: this is facilitated by a wide selection of materials and accessories that can be difficult to purchase.
What is cosmetic repair?
The name "cosmetic" speaks for itself. This type of repair is used to restore beauty without redevelopment of the apartment, deep replacement of heat and water supply communications, electrical wiring, plumbing. In this part, they are limited to updating external accessories: sockets, switches, faucets - that is, they change what spoils beauty due to wear and tear or an unsightly appearance.
Redecoration initially involves minimal costs, but it can also be expensive, since the cost of some modern luxury finishing materials is quite high. All repair and finishing works are usually divided into types according to the degree of complexity and the materials used.
Simple cosmetic repair
This type of repair is done periodically every 2-7 years. It includes:
- whitewashing or painting ceilings;
- wallpaper replacement;
- painting (varnishing) wooden floors, window frames.
In this type of construction work, materials similar to those with which the room was finished are used. Thanks to a simple cosmetic renovation, the apartment returns to the lost purity and freshness, and the use of materials of other colors and textures allows you to change the style of the home: after the floral wallpaper, the avant-garde pattern on the wall will give the room a completely different sound. A simple repair goes into the “complex” category if, in addition to painting and wallpapering, it is assumed:
- replacement of finishing of openings (windows, doors);
- change of flooring (linoleum, laminate);
- tiling kitchen, bathroom.
Doing cosmetic repairs with your own hands is, one might say, a tradition of Russians. However, for tiling and sticking "heavy" wallpapers (metal, vinyl, photos) that require improved wall preparation (leveling, puttying), it is cheaper to hire a specialist: there is a high risk of damage to expensive material, and the fruits of independent work can disappoint, since even the most beautiful finishing the material can be spoiled by inaccurate / inept application.
Renovation
This is the name of the renovation of the premises with the help of materials and technologies that came to us from European countries. Such materials include:
- eurowindows - frames made of aluminum-plastic profile;
- PVC panels;
- imported laminate and linoleum;
- plastic skirting boards;
- interior doors made of cheap slabs, covered with veneer (artificial or natural);
- stretch ceiling.
The production of euromaterials has long been mastered by domestic manufacturers (as well as Asian ones, for example, Chinese), but repairs using them have retained their name.Renovation is an opportunity to quickly change the appearance of a room with the help of easy-to-install elements, but it still belongs to a complex type of redecoration.
The disadvantage of European-quality repair is the need to hire specialists. Of course, any man who is familiar with a screwdriver and a drill can screw drywall with his own hands, hang doors or assemble a slatted ceiling. But some nuances of execution come with experience, so the result when carrying out European-style repairs on your own will, with rare exceptions, not be so perfect.
Minor cosmetic repairs
It includes whitewashing / painting / wallpapering one room or part of it, for example, a ceiling affected by flooding by neighbors. A simple redecoration of a room is considered short-term if you only need to whitewash the ceiling and wallpaper the walls, when there is no need to seal cracks, putty, paint windows, doors, floors, radiators with enamel.
Cosmetic repairs are done regularly for reasons of hygiene and updating the situation.
Interestingly, due to the development of building materials production technologies, the time until the next cosmetic repair is increasing. So, our grandmothers had to whitewash the ceilings 1-2 times a year, and modern finishing materials, such as panels, plastic, special ceiling paints, are easy to clean, retain their color for a long time, so their service life is quite long.
Stages of cosmetic repair
Planning is a necessary part of cosmetic work, which allows you to make sure that it doesn’t work out, as in the well-known saying: “we started the repair in the hi-tech style, and finished it like that.” Repairs that take years to complete are not uncommon. To prevent the process from developing into a chronic one, you need to:
- Decide on the design, choose the color and texture of finishing materials.
- Measure all areas: ceiling, walls, floors.
- Make an estimate of the cost of materials - for this you will have to travel to stores to clarify prices.
- Calculate the amount that will be required to pay for the work of specialists - call the company to clarify the prices.
- Summarize expenses, make adjustments to the estimate if there is a lack of finance - replace materials with budget ones, delete part of the work.
- Prepare the apartment: if possible, take out the furniture, clean the surfaces of the old finish.
- Buy everything you need, start repair work.
In the concept of cosmetic repairs, there are 2 basic rules for the order of work:
- From dirty (if the project provides for such work - laying tiles, replacing windows, doors) to clean ones.
- From top to bottom (first the ceiling, then the walls).
Note: many people rent housing or move in with relatives during the renovation. If this is not possible, then the work is carried out alternately: first, they make a cosmetic repair of the room that is most needed. After graduation, they live in it and gradually, without fuss, they finish the remaining square meters.
