Apartment renovation: what is the rough finish
The concept of “rough finish” has firmly entered our lives in the last twenty years. In Soviet times, housing was rented "turnkey".
What quality was the decoration of the apartments - this is the second question. Most often, the housewarming had to start with repairs.
But then we got the apartments for free, and now we pay our hard-earned money. Moreover, every person wants the interior of the apartment to correspond to his own ideas.
So what's the point of paying more for the finish, if you still make repairs. That is why new buildings with draft finishes are increasingly appearing - the price of an apartment in such a house is much lower.
The content of the article
What does the draft look like?
So, let's figure out what is included in the rough finish. It is clear that in a ready-to-live-in apartment, all surfaces of the supporting structures and partitions should be cosmetically decorated.
But in order to produce this very decoration, surfaces must be well prepared. The concept of "rough finish" does not carry any legal justification, but only reflects generally accepted conventions.
So:
- The main goal of this finish is to eliminate the imperfections and roughnesses of the supporting structures, so the walls and ceilings must be plastered.
- The characteristics of the rough walls are rather vague, most often we are talking about the starting layer of plaster. That is, if you will later paint or glue the wall, you will have to primer and putty it, bringing it to perfect smoothness.
- Without plaster, only walls in the bathrooms can remain. This is due to their specifics. Finishing these rooms is often done by frame cladding, when it is not necessary to level the surfaces.
- On the walls of the toilet or bathroom, cement-bonded slabs for rough finishing are often mounted. They are an excellent basis for any type of decorative coating: ceramic tiles and mosaics, painting and self-adhesive films.
- The floor screed must be completed, and if it is stipulated by the project, warm floors should be arranged under the screed. Well, to lay linoleum, lay tiles on the floor, or make parquet - you have to decide and do it yourself.
- As for utilities: heating, sewage and water supply systems must be installed in full. Only sanitary ware and faucets will be absent.
- The same is true with electric power wiring: from the walls only conclusions for chandeliers, sockets and switches will be visible. You will buy and mount all this at your own expense.
Also, telephone and television cables should be brought into the apartment. Radio in our time, few people are interested. - Nobody is building houses like Khrushchev’s now. The improved layout of the apartments provides for spacious studio rooms.
If you need to zone such a room, or make two small ones from one large room, you can make partitions at your discretion.
- Installation of entrance doors and windows with double-glazed windows is mandatory - interior doors do not apply here.
The glazing of the loggia or balcony can also be attributed to the rough finish, but the developer, in this case, does not perform these works, which means that you will need to start finishing the apartment from that.
Draft Finishing
To the question: “What is a draft finish?” - we answered as detailed as possible.Now it is the turn to consider how, and in what sequence, it is being executed.
It is not necessary that you buy an apartment in a new building. Maybe you are building a house with your own hands, or you decide to make major repairs in the old apartment - then our instructions will help you.
Preparatory work
In case of repair, it will be possible to start plastering the walls only after preparatory work has been done:
- These include the dismantling of electrical and gas equipment (lamps, switches, stoves, water heater).
- This also applies to the cleaning of brick walls from old plaster. That is, the most time-consuming and dirty work is first performed.
When the stripping is completed, it is the turn of the electrical work. - To do this, you must clearly understand: what kind of ceiling construction will be carried out; how many and which fixtures should be installed; where and what household appliances will be located. It is clear that this is necessary in order to correctly make the wiring for sockets and conclusions for the fixtures.
- If necessary, hidden wiring devices, strobes are performed on the surfaces of the supporting structures. This work is quite dusty, therefore, it is performed before starting the finishing work.
It is worth saying that if you are not familiar with electricity, a specialist must instruct the electrical part of the repair. After all, there are also many nuances here - from the correct selection of the wire section to their quality connection.
Proper execution of wiring will save you from possible short circuits or fire.
Windows and doors
If it is necessary to replace window blocks, they are dismantled and new ones are installed immediately.
This can be done both before the start of preparatory work, and at the end of it:
- There is practically no risk of dirtying the windowsills or spoiling the plastic while decorating the walls - there is a protective film on the plastic elements of the windows, which can be removed after the repair is completed. But the glasses still have to be washed.
- With wooden windows a little more complicated, but to protect them there is a masking tape - they glue the wooden surface of the frames.
- Same thing with the doors. Rather, first you need to install only the door frames and cover them with masking tape.
Adhesive tape will protect their surface from penetration of mounting foam, as well as from gypsum plaster, which will be used to seal the slopes. And the panels are hung after finishing.
In repair, everything needs to be done logically. If, for example, you want to demolish an unnecessary partition, then this must be done before installing new interior doors.
Answers to questions: "How to install doors, what are slopes and how to get a perfectly flat angle?" - You can get it by reading the necessary literature and watching the video. It is possible that you yourself will not do this.
Alignment
Having finished the preparatory work, you can begin to level the surfaces. The sequence of actions will depend on how you plan to decorate the ceiling.
If it will be painted or pasted with wallpaper, the alignment must begin with it. In the case of a false ceiling, its surface does not need a rough finish - you can take it for walls.
Slopes
The execution of rough wall decoration begins with door and window slopes.
With window slopes it is easier, in recent years they have been made of plastic sandwich panels. This is much faster than removing corners with a gypsum mortar.
- Plastic does not need to be painted, it does not fade in the sun and is easy to clean. That is why most people prefer this particular option.
The decorative corner covering the joint between the wall and the panel can be glued last, when the finishing work is done. - To finish the door slopes, plastic can be used only if the walls are completely finished with it. In other cases, the slopes must be made of gypsum mortar.
To do this, you need a template that allows you to make an even angle.
Walls
The way the walls are aligned will depend on which room is being finished and what kind of wall decor material you plan to use.
If the entrance hall or kitchen is planned to be sheathed with plastic, or a lining board, then you do not need to level the walls. In living rooms, decorating walls is not customary.
So:
- There are two acceptable ways to make walls even and smooth. The first and cheapest way is plastering.
Modern plaster mortars are sold in dry form, in bags of 25 kg.
- They contain in their composition all the necessary components, you just have to dilute it with water in the right ratio. These mixtures may have a gypsum or cementitious binder base.
- Cement-based mortars are used in rooms with high humidity and for outdoor use. The internal surfaces of walls and ceilings are mainly plastered with gypsum compositions.
Especially if painting will be done, because the gypsum is white. - Roughing of walls can also be done by covering them with sheets of drywall. They are mounted on a metal frame, the joints of the sheets are sealed with putty, polished, primed - and only then they must be further finished.
- This decoration option is good for private houses, cottages, corner apartments of multi-storey buildings, the walls of which often freeze.. In the internal cavity of the frame, you can put a heater, as in the photo.
- When the walls are ready, consider that the dirtiest work is finished. Now you can do the ceiling.
And now it can not only be mounted, but also finished cleanly. - Floor screed is done last. For this, there are also dry mixes, which, like plaster mortars, are simply diluted with water. They are also called "self-leveling."
Only after a full set of screed strength does further decoration of the room begin. The more thoroughly and without haste the above work was completed, the better the result will be.
If you understand that you can’t do it on your own, turn to specialists, and just control the process yourself.