Apartment renovation mistakes
Making mistakes during repairs is very costly - both financially and in time, and it takes a lot of nerves to correct them. The topic is pressing, so we have already asked the heroes of our reports what mistakes they made: “Mistakes during repairs: real examples.” This time we asked members of popular forums to share their experiences in order to collect more examples and try not to repeat common mistakes.
Hasty renovation in a new building
There is no need to rush into major renovations in a new building as soon as you receive the keys to the apartment. After all, in the first years the house shrinks, which “threatens” to spoil the spectacular appearance of the finish. It’s better to get by with budget finishing, and after a while turn to the craftsmen, for example here → bobry.ua/kompleksnyj-remont-kvartiry/ (if you are from Ukraine) and do a comprehensive renovation of the apartment. All houses shrink; for example, a monolithic house “shrinks” in 1-2 years, and a brick house can take 5 years. A panel house takes 2-3 years. Therefore, if you intend to make repairs in a new building before the house has time to shrink, do not rush to do high-quality and expensive repairs, do it simpler first. And if you wait at least a year or two, you can begin a full renovation.
I recommend: How to properly lay linoleum on plank floors
Price savings
We have heard more than once about buying something cheap and, as a result, early replacement, inconvenience or at least frustration from the rapid deterioration of things. Here are examples of what Forum residents saved on and regretted:
“I regret that two years ago I wasted money on normal radiators and installed Chinese ones, from which the paint has already peeled off and they don’t heat a damn thing.”
“We don’t save any more money on the doors; the locks are magnetic, so you can’t even hear them.”
“I don’t save money on faucets anymore, after ours, bought on the Internet, became stained with stains that cannot be washed off with anything (although it’s from GROHE) - apparently, it’s a fake. Now we ordered from a fairly well-known company, even if it was more expensive.”
“I regret that they put laminate on the floor: it is cold and not waterproof, it was necessary to fork out a little money and lay parquet, and install electric heating under it.”
“I’m really worried that I wasted money on heated floors in the bathroom. But the laminate flooring in the kitchen and hallway was laid on a heated film floor, and now it’s warm there! At least to the legs."
“I installed windows about 4 years ago. Then I sculpted the simplest slopes, without attaching any importance to it. Now I would put it more decently.”
And it happens the other way around:
“I wouldn’t make custom cabinets in niches. If I bought them and cashed them ready-made, it would have been three times cheaper according to my budget. Unfortunately, they only did this in the hallway, when they realized with the bedrooms that they had ended up with an immodest sum.”
“This was our first apartment, we wanted to make everything super-duper, so we have almost everything: Belgian wallpaper, Italian and Spanish tiles, Swedish and Finnish plumbing, Italian lamps, switches and furniture. Having lived in an apartment for 4 years, I can say that depending on the wallpaper on your walls, tiles in the bathroom and lamps on the ceiling - you won’t walk and touch them every day, you can choose something nice from cheaper analogues.” .
Mistake No. 8. We forget that the bathroom should have a special approach
In a bathtub or shower tray, it is necessary to provide for a height difference so that the water goes down the drain without lingering. This is the first thing to consider. Also install forced ventilation to remove condensation that inevitably appears after water procedures.
As for sockets, choose options with a high degree of IP protection, preferably with covers. They should be located at a height of at least 130 cm from the floor and as far as possible from water taps.
When planning the arrangement of furniture in this part of the apartment, take into account the average height of family members and ease of movement. The installation of two sinks is now in great demand. And when arranging plumbing fixtures, remember the possibility of further access to it for maintenance.
Hit the head with a tile. What mistakes should you avoid when renovating a bathroom? Read more
Bad plan
Even when doing renovations without a designer, it is better not to forget about the necessary plans and diagrams, which will indicate down to the centimeter what hangs where and in what direction it is laid. You shouldn’t count on responsibility and sense of taste from craftsmen.
“The layout of the tiles must be drawn in advance! So that you don’t end up with cuttings where you don’t need them.”
“Before firmly nailing down a floor covering (board or tile), it is better to first lay it out, see how it will look, select a pattern (transitions), and then give the go-ahead to the builders!”
“I didn’t think through the sockets carefully enough: there aren’t enough for everything next to the bed, it’s good that I at least made five at the desk.”
When planning, any ideas need to be examined for the availability of implementation:
“I regretted that in one of the bathrooms I planned all the accessories and plumbing components in bronze. The taps, mixers, and heated towel rails themselves are not so bad. But all sorts of drains, toilet connections, corrugations, faucets, bars on the bathtub and sink are terrible. Firstly, the price of the issue doubles. Secondly, finding and picking all this is a rare hemorrhoid. As a result, all sorts of small spare parts were left in chrome, because there was no longer any strength, time, or finances to look for them in bronze. If I had initially done everything in chrome, I wouldn’t have known grief. Although aged bronze in accessories is beautiful.”
Mistake #2: Incorrect placement of switches
In many Russian apartments you can still see several switches on one wall, which resemble a piano. This solution is long outdated.
Before you place the switches, you should first visualize all your daily activities by walking through the rooms.
For example, when entering the bedroom, there should be a switch waiting for you right next to the door (of course, not from the side of the door hinges), and there should be another one next to the bed so that you don’t have to get out of bed.
Previously, switches were located mainly at the height of an adult’s raised hand, now - at the level of a lowered hand, approximately 90 cm from the floor. In this case, they can be used not only by adults, but also by children. Please take this into account.
Procedure
Choosing a sofa before creating an electrical diagram may seem strange. But this is exactly what will help you plan everything in the best possible way, not to mention the order of actions directly during the repair. Here's some advice from forum users:
“You need to select furniture before doing any electrical work, and think through the arrangement in advance in order to understand where and how the lamps (floor, ceiling, wall) will be hung/built in, and what area they will illuminate.”
“We had to carefully think through the order of work. We relied on the foreman, and in the end the already laid, oiled parquet had to be covered in order to do another putty and painting. And then wipe off the construction dust. In general, you have to be careful when more than one master or team is working: they do their job and leave, and they don’t care what happens to that painting and parquet. We have to plan everything in advance.”
Saving on surface leveling
If the owners decide to save money on leveling the walls, then even the most expensive wallpaper can look careless. Bends at the joints, distortion of the pattern - these are not all the defects that will spoil the common room. The same goes for gender. Its level should be the same over the entire area of the room, not to mention the deviation from the plane, a maximum of 2-3 mm under a 2-meter rail (rule).
Smooth surfaces are one of the keys to a good repair
Storage space
This is something that is never enough. But in addition to wardrobes, it’s worth considering very specific storage spaces:
“Don’t forget about storage places for a vacuum cleaner, ironing board, where things will be dried, and cleaning equipment. We don’t have any room for a vacuum cleaner now.”
“In the new apartment, they didn’t think of places to store food for the dog and cat. Of course, we ended up buying beautiful containers, but they are still an eyesore. It was necessary to make a special compartment in the closet in the hallway next to the bowls.”
Ill-conceived design of rooms, kitchens, furniture, etc. Storage.
“If there is any space you can donate to a pantry, do it! Vacuum cleaners, roller skates, sleds, skis, New Year's toys, mops, basins, buckets, household appliances that we don't use every day - everything is there. I don’t know where I would have put all this if they hadn’t made a separate storage room.”
Storage is a pressing issue, especially in small spaces. Be sure to do it if possible...
“Make hidden places for storage (for example, buckets, rags, chemicals and other household supplies).”
There is a place, be sure to use it for storage...
“I won’t trust my wife to do the repairs. Let her do it under the guidance of a designer. Otherwise, most of the apartments of my friends are no different from each other - they copy each other where necessary and not necessary))) What can I say to this? It’s terrible to realize that the owners of the apartment are devoid of individuality.”
Unfortunately it is so. It's really difficult to come up with something new. But a design project is not a cheap pleasure. That’s why people “spy”...
“Door handles with sharp corners - from time to time someone touches them with their hand or something else, it hurts and clothes tear.”
Yes, probably. Although this situation is very rare...
“I would fork out money for a designer so I could see the whole picture at once! There are a lot of things I don’t like precisely because they haven’t been thought through.”
A sensible design project is good. Precisely and above all for yourself...
“I wanted painted walls. But in everyday life they turned out to be impractical for me. Especially in the area of switches there are fingerprints.”
A painted wall or wallpaper - both get dirty over time. Of course, caring for a painted wall is more difficult than caring for wallpaper, especially washable ones...
“I will never put “fluffy” wallpaper in the nursery that can be torn off while falling asleep. The children pick at it with their fingers all the time - they’ve already torn off everything near the bed.”
100%. That’s why they used to hang carpets for children who picked…
“We went through a major renovation and realized that the most important thing is not to skimp on materials - wallpaper, paint, glue - everything must be of good quality! I have a lot of unfortunate moments in the kitchen - a small sink made of porcelain stoneware - I somehow didn’t believe the designer - and now I have a pile of dishes next to it - waiting in line for the dishwasher. I ordered few roll-out mechanisms - it seemed expensive, but it had to be done. I shouldn’t have ordered translucent glass doors - you can see everything that’s on the shelves.”
As for the finishing materials, the truth is true. Regarding the kitchen, it seems the salon manager was unable to convincingly justify the need...
“In the kitchen, it’s still better to provide a box under the corrugation for the hood.”
If you use white plastic pipes rather than corrugated pipes (by the way, they look quite aesthetically pleasing), then they will stop annoying you in a few days. The corrugation, of course, looks wild, no doubt...
“I will never share the kitchen cutting area with the hob.”
Well, of course. The rule of the working triangle in the kitchen is that the processing area is one of its corners...
“I will never allow the upper kitchen cabinets to be hung above my eye line.”
As a standard, upper cabinets are hung at a height of 600 mm from the countertop. The height of the tabletop from the floor is approximately 850 mm. Thus, the bottom of the wall cabinet will be at a height of 1450 mm. All manufacturers, sellers and kitchen installers try to adhere to these dimensions...
“It was a waste of time to place kitchen furniture along the entire wall in a rectangular kitchen; it’s much more convenient to place it at an angle like the neighbors’.”
Apparently, I wanted to do without the pentagonal module for the sink. And it’s inconvenient without him, no matter how you look at it...
“It was a waste to make a small dressing room so that there would be more space in the room. These half a meter or meter won’t save the room, and when the dressing room is full, you won’t be able to build another one.”
Storage is a completely different story. But overall, this is an absolutely true statement...
“Do not use white grout for tiles in the kitchen - it will look dirty.”
Yes…
“Lots of open shelves with a bunch of souvenirs. This is an unreal dust collector.”
In general, yes, it often looks like a bunch of unnecessary junk. Especially if there is no system and “random” objects are placed...
“When we installed the interior doors, it didn’t even occur to us that the switch should be located next to the handle that opens the door. And we hung them so that the switch was on the side of the hinges.”
Miscalculation, 100%. In addition to arranging furniture, it is necessary to plan the opening of doors at the zero stage of design or design...
“Lighting in the kitchen directly above the work surface (built-in lights in the kitchen canopy are beautiful, but not functional).”
This is decided at the kitchen design stage. You should not think that the designer in the salon simply wants to sell more by recommending lighting for the work area...
“I don’t like the doors with glass inserts; if a child falls asleep in the room, the light in the corridor reflects.”
It's difficult to comment. All that remains is to replace the canvas or tint the glass with films...
“In the nursery, think about sports. complex in advance, and strengthen the holes for the wall bars.”
You need to play sports in a section. At home, any sports equipment either collects dust under the sofa or turns into a clothes hanger...
“If you are going to make built-in wardrobes or chests of drawers to order, you need to level the walls!”
Necessarily! Moreover, not just leveling, but leveling along the beacons so that they have a flat surface and are level. Otherwise, problems cannot be avoided when installing built-in furniture...
“If you have a small, curious child, it is better to make keys or wraps on all doors, especially to the bedroom. And store backups high up, but in an accessible place.”
Advice from mom, not related to repairs and decoration...
“And yet, in my opinion, the most important thing at the moment of starting is to have a complete idea of “what do you want and what will be where (approximate arrangement of furniture).” Plan your kitchen right away. The supply of many communications depends on this.”
Once again, arranging furniture before starting any work...
“I would never make a corner dryer in the kitchen - it’s very inconvenient.”
We are talking about a corner cabinet for storing dishes. Pentagonal. Yes, there is a lot of space in it, but it’s too inconvenient...
What did you regret after the renovation?
They say that repairs are like a natural disaster - they cannot be completed, they can only be stopped. And this is largely due to the fact that, already inspecting our newly renovated living space, we often think - but it would have been better to do it differently. Today we have collected for you a list of other people’s regrets and the main repair mistakes that were made during the renovation process, and we hope that other people’s experience will teach you no worse than your own. There are a lot of letters waiting for you, but they are worth mastering.
