Sex is the most commonly used area of any apartment, which daily experiences a lot of stress and exposure to a variety of environments and liquids. With an independent renovation of the home, it is important to carry out a high-quality repair of the floor in the apartment with your own hands, gradually completing all the necessary steps.
What repair and when to do
Repairing the floor on your own is a rather complicated, time-consuming and responsible process. First you need to understand the types of manipulations that will have to be carried out. For this, it is important to assess the state of the structure and decide what needs to be done: cosmetic or cap. repairs.
Holders of new buildings have a floor with a ready-made and solidly made screed. In this case, it will be possible to do cosmetic repairs: if necessary, fill the leveling mixture and lay the flooring.
An old apartment often involves a cap. floor repair, especially if wood was used as a coating. The wooden floor has a limited lifespan, with time the floorboards begin to creak or fail when walking. Speech about how to carry out the cosmetic finish of the old-fashioned wooden coating cannot go here.
The types of floor repairs largely depend on the type of coating that will be used. There is a standard classification of coatings used in floor repairs. It distinguishes materials such as parquet, laminate, ceramic tiles, linoleum, solid wood, stone flooring, carpet, self-leveling floors.
Parquet for repair
Parquet flooring has been known since the 17th century, when it was first used in the palaces of the kings of France. The main advantage of the parquet floor is its environmental friendliness. Modern manufacturers offer a wide selection of colors, sizes and methods of laying parquet and parquet boards, which allows repairing floors in a room in a unique style for each room.
Before laying such a coating, the floors are leveled with a special screed so that the height differences of the irregularities do not exceed half a centimeter. Next, the humidity of the room is determined, for which a small piece of plastic film is laid on the floor for a day, the edges of which are fixed with tape. If the room is high humidity, then the film from the inside will be covered with perspiration. In this case, laying is not recommended.
The disadvantages of this coating are the high price and instability to moisture. Also, this material can not be used when mounting a "heated floor".
Tile, laminate, board and stone
If in the renovated room there is high humidity or high traffic, then in this case, preference should be given to ceramic tiles. This type of flooring is resistant to temperature changes, detergents and moisture. It is perfect for repairing floors in the bath. But it is worth considering that the tile floor will be cold, so it is worth laying electric or water heating under it.
Laminate in appearance can be confused with parquet. However, it is not made of wood, but of a pressed HDF board with a polymer layer and a pattern applied to it. The laminate pattern can imitate wood, marble, and other patterns. Installing a laminate is quite simple, it does not require special care, the service life is high - up to 15 years.
Massive flooring board is not inferior to parquet in its characteristics. But such a coating requires careful care: preventing moisture from entering, applying a special protective layer.
Despite the fact that stone floors are wear-resistant, they are not very popular because of the high cost and the cold that comes from the stone. Most often used in the outdoor decoration of the terrace floor and balconies.
Linoleum, carpet, self-leveling floor
More often linoleum is used as a floor covering. It is easy to install, does not require special care, is resistant to moisture and chemicals, has a wide variety of colors, textures and patterns. The affordable price of the material also helps him to occupy a leading position among other finishing materials. Do a floor repair in the apartment with your own hands, gradually laying and securing the linoleum strip, even a layman can.
Carpet is the most fashionable type of flooring. With its help, it is easy to create coziness in the room, it is pleasant to the touch and makes walking comfortable even in the cold season. But the carpet requires careful care, cleaning from dust, it is difficult to remove stains from it. Only regular and proper care will help to keep the carpet in proper form for many years.
Bulk floor is the newest among all types of floor coverings. It is resistant to temperature extremes and moisture, to chemicals, and is environmentally friendly. But you need to mount it on a perfectly flat surface. Under the influence of sunlight, the material of which the floor is made may turn yellow.
Concrete floor repair
Before you start repairing concrete floors, you need to dismantle the flooring . If there are cracks on it, then it is worth weighing all the pros and cons, make a decision: repair the old foundation or form a new one. Do-it-yourself floor repair in an apartment in stages:
- Before restoration, the floor is cleaned of dust with a vacuum cleaner or a brush, and of greasy stains with abrasive compounds (solvents).
- Next, the concrete surface is primed with a special solution or PVA diluted with water in a ratio of 1: 4. Dry the primed surface for at least 24 hours.
- Then, if necessary, potholes and small cracks are putty, a new layer of screed is applied.
- Before pouring the self-leveling compound, you need to dry the screed for several days.
- On the repaired concrete base, the selected flooring is laid.
Repair wood floor
Repair of old wood floors begins with the identification of creaking floorboards and logs, as well as those parts of the structure that are covered with mold. Detected defective parts are replaced with new elements. The entire floor area is treated with an antifungal agent. If certain areas of the floor in the room are more often than others exposed to moisture, then they should be covered with waterproofing materials, since antifungal impregnation alone will not be enough.
Often cracks form in the wooden floor due to drying out of the wood. You can eliminate them as follows:
- The floor is treated with a grinding machine.
- The cracks are sealed with a primer and another layer is removed with a grinder.
- The boards are primed with nitro-varnish.
- After the nitrol varnish dries, it is primed with a topcoat (matte or glossy).
Laminate floor and tile repair
During operation, cracks, scratches, dents from falling objects, and swelling from liquid can form on the surface of the laminate. Scratches can be easily dealt with with a wax pencil. Dents are easily corrected with special pastes. If, after falling objects on the laminate, the castle joints are damaged or the cover is swollen, the only option here is to completely replace such a section of the floor.
Since ceramic tile is the most damage-resistant material among all floor coverings, it is less often repaired. However, situations are not excluded when cracks, chips, potholes form in the plates. It is possible to repair floors from such a coating as follows: fill with cement milk - a solution of cement and water in a ratio of 1: 4. It is applied to the tile and begins to rub with a cotton swab (first along, and then across). In order for the mortar to dry completely, the repaired section of the floor during operation must be covered.
If the damage to the ceramic tiles is significant and gives it an unaesthetic appearance, then the only repair option is the complete replacement of unusable elements with new ones.
Repair of a covering from linoleum, carpet, stone
Do-it-yourself floor repair in an apartment in stages carried out as follows:
- The most common linoleum defects can be swelling, cracking, peeling, or tearing. Such problems can be easily solved like this:
- using special glue, which should be put into a syringe and injected under the damaged area;
- Further, a load is installed on this part of the floor and the glue is allowed to dry completely;
- if the damage to the coating is significant, then in this case the sections are replaced with new ones.
- In order to repair defective areas of carpet flooring, you need to have its spare parts:
- the damaged area is cut out, the patches are put in their place. It is attached using double-sided tape or glue;
- so that the edges of the patches do not become loose, they are pre-treated with latex glue;
- Before cutting and pasting the patch, it is worth considering the pattern, as well as the direction of the pile.
- In order to give an aesthetic appearance to a stone floor covering, the following series of actions are carried out:
- various cracks and chips are easily removed by grinding the stone, and then polishing it;
- polishing is carried out with special chemicals that are rubbed into the stone and make the coating immune to dirt;
- such simple manipulations will help get rid of cracks up to 5 mm deep.
Repair of a bulk floor
During operation, bumps, chips, cracks, small roughness and grains can form on the surface of the bulk floor. It is important to remember that all compounds used in the repair process must be compatible with the mixture of which the floor is made.
Cracks in the bulk floor are removed by cleaning the area to a concrete base and pouring a new one. Grains and scratches are removed during grinding. After grinding, the polymer composition is again applied to the floor surface.
In each case, repair, flooring requires a special approach. The choice of certain methods will depend on the characteristics of the flooring and the desire of the owner. In any case, a properly carried out repair in compliance with all technological requirements will bring the floor into proper condition and will delight the homeowner for a long time.