How to change the screed in an apartment. Proper replacement of a wooden floor with a concrete one. Replacing a wooden floor with a concrete one

The need to replace flooring elements in an apartment may arise for various reasons. Regardless of why it was necessary to do a major overhaul, the amount of work that remains is enormous. Replacing the floor in an apartment with your own hands is done in stages.

Reasons why you need to change gender

The reason for repairing the floor covering may be:

the need to install heat and sound insulation;
making a decision regarding the installation of a “warm floor”;
the appearance of creaking sounds when moving on the surface;
deformation of the wooden floor;
increasing the level of humidity in the air coming from the basement;
desire to change the interior of the apartment.

The list of work to be performed largely depends on the material of the old coating and the choice of a new type of floor surface. For example, removing tiles from the floor will not be so easy. In addition, it will be necessary to plan activities related to protecting the premises from dampness and improving heat and sound insulation.

Information on how to change the floor in an apartment with your own hands will help you plan in advance all the stages of implementing your plan.

Removing outdated wood flooring

This process is the most labor-intensive and unpleasant, but it is impossible to do without it.

When the old floor covering is wooden, you will need to prepare the following tools for dismantling:

hammer with nail puller;
hatchet;
mount;
screwdriver;
electric saw or jigsaw (they will be needed for cutting old boards);
shovel;
garbage bags.

Dismantling begins with removing the baseboards along the perimeter of the room.

If you plan to re-lay floorboards or old boards will be used for the construction of joists, then they should be dismantled very carefully, trying to minimize damage. Use a nail puller to remove previously driven nails, and use a screwdriver to remove self-tapping screws.

When the removed wooden elements are no longer needed, they should be removed from the apartment. After freeing up the space, they begin to dismantle the logs. Very often they are securely attached to the rough base, so they must be removed carefully so as not to damage the base. Otherwise, you will have to waste time sealing the resulting holes.

When the old covering is removed from the room, it needs to be thoroughly cleaned. Upon completion of this procedure, you can begin preparing the floor for installation.

Concrete floor cleaning process

Old concrete pavement is removed only as a last resort, since it can usually be repaired. Major repairs of such a floor are done on the condition that it cannot be preserved. For example, when the concrete base was regularly exposed to water and was not dried. During this time, fungi and other microorganisms harmful to human health began to multiply in the concrete structure. The coating in this condition must be dismantled.

Also, sometimes the concrete floor is removed if the apartment has low ceilings, and it is planned to install a floor with thermal insulation, as a result of which it will be raised by some distance. The old coating is removed and thereby frees up space for installing the insulating structure.

When deciding to remove the screed, you must remember that it was installed on the interfloor ceiling, and therefore it should be removed with extreme caution. The concrete layer is removed using a hammer drill, splitting it into separate fragments. Typically the height of the screed is 50–120 millimeters. After its dismantling, construction waste is removed.

Carrying out preparatory activities

Before laying a new floor covering, the base, cleared of old material, must be brought into proper shape:

Dust is removed from the surface to see if there are any defects in the base, such as cracks or crevices, or areas with loose or crumbled pieces. Also pay attention to the presence of traces of mold and dampness.
If the above defects are detected, they must be eliminated - otherwise the effect of thermal and sound insulation will be less. To do this, use cement mortar, sealant or foam. The choice of material depends on the extent of damage to the base. If fungus or mold is detected, the concrete is treated with impregnating antiseptics.
After the subfloor has dried, the list of further measures depends on the type of new floor surface.

Creating a new screed

There are several ways to make a new screed. When there are slight differences in height on the rough base and you plan to lay wooden floors in an apartment on it yourself, then its surface can be made ideal using a self-leveling coating such as in the photo. It is able to level out minor defects and flaws existing on the base.

The technology for using dry mixture for self-leveling floors is as follows:

The solution is made according to the instructions on the package.
The finished mixture is poured and then leveled over the surface using a wide spatula or squeegee. In order to remove air bubbles from the solution, the coating material is pierced using a needle roller.
The leveled floor surface is left for a while to dry and gain strength.

All materials have their own maturation period, which depends on the components included in the dry building mixture.

lay a thin layer of insulation and lay the finish on top of it;
lay sheets of plywood and install infrared heated floors;
fix the wooden covering on the joists.

Screed plus expanded clay insulation

A completely different version of the screed is used when it is poured onto expanded clay - a good heat and sound insulating bulk material (more details: " "). In addition, it is lightweight and therefore its use will not put a strong load on the interfloor floors.

This is a very important point when arranging such screeds in an apartment, which are performed as follows:

When installing a concrete layer on the lower floor, located above a cold basement, waterproofing is first done. It can be mounted in different ways, for example, cast, glued, plastered, etc. Waterproofing material must be placed both on the floor and on the lower part of the walls, which have been previously treated with a primer.
A thick polyethylene film is placed on the already prepared surface so that it extends 15-20 centimeters onto the walls. The pieces of material are fastened with special tape.
A damper tape is glued on top of the film along the perimeter of the room, which helps keep the screed intact in the event of temperature changes. Read also: "".
Beacons are placed on top of the waterproofing and leveled. They are usually fixed with concrete mortar. The height of the landmarks should correspond to the sum of the thicknesses of the expanded clay layer and the screed.
Expanded clay is poured slightly lower than the edges of the mounted beacons and leveled. Concrete solution is poured on top.
When the screed dries, it will sag a little and finally it can be filled with a thin layer of self-leveling mixture.

Any type of decorative coating can be laid on top of such a base.

Pouring screed without insulation

The work is performed in the following sequence:

A waterproofing film is laid on the base, and a damper tape is glued along the perimeter of the walls.
Reinforcement (metal or fiberglass) is placed on the waterproofing material, and beacons are mounted on top of the mesh, which must be adjusted according to the level in the horizontal plane.
Concrete mortar is poured from the far wall above the landmarks by 1.5–2 centimeters. The mixture is laid as a rule, moving strictly along the guides.
In this way, the entire floor surface is leveled, after which the screed is left to harden - this will take up to 4 weeks (read also: " ").
Then follows the installation of logs, laying insulation and laying floorboards.

Installation of dry screed

Another way to level the base before changing the floor in the apartment is the so-called dry screed. This base reduction option is excellent for multi-story buildings. Its advantage is that there is no need to mix a solution containing water.

Lay out the floor using dry screed in stages:

A polyethylene film is laid on the surface of the base so that it covers the wall to the thickness of the future floor covering with a 5-10 cm margin. A board is placed in the doorway to prevent the dry mixture from spilling out.
Beacons made of wooden beams or metal profiles are mounted on top of the film. The landmarks are leveled using a building level until a horizontal plane is obtained.
Filler is poured onto the film, the layer of which should be several centimeters thicker than the level of the mounted beacons.
The dry material is leveled according to the guidelines.
At the end of the process, GVP (gypsum fiber boards) with interlocking joints are laid. The mating areas are treated with adhesive and the next panel is applied so that the locking elements fit smoothly. The plates are additionally fastened with self-tapping screws.
A decorative coating is installed on top of the prepared surface depending on personal preference.

Wooden floor structures

The wooden floor in the apartment is being replaced with a pre-equipped screed. The flooring is made either on logs or directly on a concrete base.

Typically, property owners choose the first option because it has many advantages. The fact is that heat-insulating and noise-absorbing materials can be laid between the joists. In addition, the floor structure raised above the concrete enhances the insulating effect. The logs also give the flooring additional rigidity.

The lags in the apartment are replaced in several stages:

After dismantling the old logs as described above and arranging the screed, the installation of new bars begins.
First they mark out the room. To draw lines, use stretched twine, painted blue. Installation is done by maintaining the gap between the joists, which should correspond to the width of the insulation.
Then they begin cutting the bars to the required length. At the same time, we must not forget that they should be installed from the wall at a distance no less than the thickness of the insulation. Most often, mineral wool is used for these purposes. As for the use of expanded polystyrene in living rooms, low-quality products can negatively affect the health of residents.
During the next stage, the logs are fixed to the base. They can be fixed either on a concrete floor, or raised above it to a certain height, using special pins or metal holders.
Between the racks of joists attached to the concrete floor, a distance of 40 to 50 centimeters must be maintained. By adjusting the height of the racks, the level of the mounted floor surface is brought to a horizontal plane.
Then the insulation is laid. First of all, this procedure is performed between the joists and the wall along the perimeter of the room and then between the bars.
At the next stage, the entire assembled structure is covered with a vapor barrier film, fixing it to the joists with a stapler.
Creating plank flooring is one of the most important processes. The first floorboards are laid at a distance of 5-7 millimeters from the wall, thereby creating a ventilation and compensation gap in case of linear expansion as a result of increased humidity or temperature changes in the room.
When the plank floor is laid, a plinth is attached on top of it. Fix it directly to the wall, and not to the wooden floorboards.
If plywood was mounted on top of the joists, the joint of the two sheets should be positioned so that it falls in the middle of the joist. In order to impart additional rigidity to the surface, plywood sheets are fixed in a similar way to bricklaying, shifting the subsequent element by half of the product.
After completing the laying of the material, you need to seal the gaps between the sheets with putty, and after it has completely dried, the surface should be sanded.
You can install different floor coverings on plywood, completing the design of the floor by installing skirting boards.

Often, a wooden floor is replaced with a concrete one in an apartment as a result of a decision to lay flooring such as tiles, laminate, etc.

Dismantling and installing the floor structure yourself will help you save a significant amount, since such services from professionals are expensive.

Natural wood floors deteriorate over time. Due to improper operating conditions, constant mechanical stress, temperature changes and exposure to moisture, the wooden floor in the apartment begins to creak and collapse. In some cases, minor repairs with filling cracks are sufficient, but in apartments such as Khrushchev-era apartments, the floors are already so old that minor repairs are clearly not enough and it is necessary to replace not only the entire wood, but also repair the concrete base. Next, we will analyze the entire process step by step in more detail and provide photos that clearly show the result.

Work planning

Before you renew the wooden floor in your apartment, you need to draw up a work plan and immediately determine the type and quantity of consumables. If you have an old coating, it is not difficult to calculate the total footage of floor boards. If the work is carried out in a Khrushchev-era building, then most likely it will be necessary to completely dismantle and replace all the wood, as well as repair the concrete screed before laying the new floor. The entire work process can be divided into several main stages:

Dismantling the old coating;
Repairing the screed or pouring a new concrete base;
Installation of logs and laying of insulation;
Laying a wooden floor.

For your information. If the old wooden flooring cannot be restored and its elements cannot be reused, then you can order a service for dismantling the wooden floor. The price of dismantling a wooden floor in an apartment varies within one dollar per square meter, while teams not only dismantle it, but also remove the old covering.

Dismantling a wooden floor in an apartment, especially if it is an old floor in a Khrushchev-era building, causes subconscious fear for many, since the process itself is quite noisy and dusty, and the resulting view is not pleasant. In fact, dismantling an old floor is not such a terrible procedure if you do not break it, but carefully disassemble it. All you need is a nail puller, a hammer and trash bags. You may need an electric saw or jigsaw. You can remove a wooden floor in an apartment in a few simple steps:

First, you need to completely empty the room of furniture, flooring and other elements that are on the floor;
Remove old baseboards. If they are planned to be reused, then each plinth must be numbered before dismantling, in order to then be installed in the reverse order;
Next, the floor boards are removed, starting from the far wall of the room. If their reuse is not planned, then you don’t have to take special care of them during dismantling;
Dismantle the logs. Wooden floors in Khrushchev are equipped with transverse joists; they must be removed as carefully as possible so as not to further damage the base of the floor.

Upon completion of all work, you will receive a bare concrete base, which must be thoroughly cleaned of construction debris and dust. To do this, use a broom and dustpan to remove large debris, then use a vacuum cleaner to remove the remaining dust.

Preparing the screed

Before you repair a wooden floor in an apartment, you need to decide in advance whether the floor will be insulated or not. Additional waterproofing may be required if there is a cold and damp area under the floor.

After removing the old floor, it is necessary to carefully examine the concrete base and its quality. If the concrete surface is covered with cracks, there are traces of concrete peeling in the form of a dull sound, or areas affected by fungus, then before replacing the wooden floor in the apartment, the old concrete screed must be completely dismantled. This is done using a hammer drill with a blade-shaped attachment. If the old screed is partially damaged, then only some parts of it can be removed.

For your information. In many cases, it is necessary to dismantle even a good screed if you plan to install a wooden floor in a new apartment. This is done in order to deepen the base, since installing joists and floor boards raises the floor level, and this is not always possible. Before replacing wooden floors in an apartment, you need to take into account that if there is insulation, the floor level will increase significantly, especially if large logs are used and polystyrene foam or expanded clay is used as insulation.

To ensure high-quality installation of a new layer of screed, the following steps are taken:

After removing the old screed or repairing it, the room is thoroughly cleaned with a vacuum cleaner to remove as much dust as possible from the surface;
Then wet cleaning is carried out, which removes fine dust and the room is thoroughly dried.

At this point, the preliminary preparation of the base is completed and you can then begin laying a new screed, the type of which is selected depending on the floor level and the preferences of the owner.

Self-leveling screed

If replacing a wooden floor in an apartment does not include insulation, then a regular self-leveling floor is used to restore the evenness and integrity of the coating. If there are large cracks or potholes, they are sealed with cement mortar or putty with additional reinforcement with paint mesh. Then the base is cleaned of dust and coated with a deep penetration primer in several layers.

Mix the self-leveling mixture according to the instructions on the package and fill the floor surface. For leveling, a needle roller is used to remove air bubbles and level the mixture. After hardening, the surface is perfectly flat and ready for laying a wooden floor.

Insulated expanded clay screed

If the floor needs to be insulated, then a screed made of expanded clay is installed. Expanded clay is a lightweight material and does not weigh down the floor, and also has good soundproofing characteristics. Before re-laying a wooden floor in an apartment and insulating it with expanded clay, the material must be purchased only in sealed bags or dried well before use. The process of laying expanded clay screed is as follows:

Beacons are installed on the surface of the base, the height of which should be equal to the thickness of the floor, taking into account the cement screed on top of the expanded clay. Beacons are installed strictly according to level;
Next, expanded clay is poured in and carefully leveled. The expanded clay layer should be below the level of the beacons;
Then the cement-sand mortar is mixed and laid on the surface of the expanded clay, leveling it along the installed beacons;
After drying, the screed will shrink, which is additionally leveled with the self-leveling solution.

Important. If the apartment is on the ground floor or there is a damp and unheated room underneath, then before installing a wooden floor in an apartment with expanded clay screed, it is necessary to provide additional waterproofing. For this purpose, a mounting film is used, which is laid with an overlap on the walls or a coating type of insulation in the form of bitumen mastic. A damper tape is installed around the perimeter of the room.

Wood floor installation

If you don’t have time for independent work, you can order a wooden floor in your apartment from any construction company or private craftsman. However, hiring third-party specialists significantly increases the cost, since you pay not only for the cost of the material, but also for the work.

Before starting work, it is necessary to draw up a preliminary diagram of the future floor with an exact indication of the location of the joists, the distance between them, as well as a list of the required material and type of wood. Having such an estimate will help you determine in advance how much a wooden floor in an apartment costs if you carry out all the work yourself.

Today, the most popular are two types of wooden floors: plywood sheets or tongue and groove boards. Plywood floors are usually used for laying laminate or carpet, while tongue and groove boards can serve as a finishing coating and decorate the interior with their appearance.

When replacing old wooden floors in an apartment with new ones, it is necessary to install transverse joists onto which the main covering will be attached. There is space between the joists and the screed that can be left empty, but it is better to use it for additional insulation and sound insulation. In general, the process of installing a new floor is not complicated:

Installation begins with marking the room for the logs. The direction of laying the logs is always perpendicular to the direction of the boards and they are usually laid across the room, and the floor boards along. The distance between the lags depends on the insulation used. When using polystyrene foam, the distance should be exactly the width of the panel; when using mineral wool, the distance is on average 30-40 cm.

Important. When laying a wooden floor in an apartment with your own hands, make sure that the height of the joists is equal to the height of the mat of insulating material. When using mineral wool, the height of the logs may be slightly smaller.

Next, prepare the logs and install them according to the markings. The outermost logs should be no further than 6-7 cm from the wall. The joists are secured to the base using metal corners or directly through a through hole in the joist. Dowels are used for fastening. The logs are immediately set to the same level and at the same height, so that after laying the floor boards the question does not arise of how to level the wooden floor in the apartment.
After installing and securing the logs, insulation is laid, for which use polystyrene foam, mineral wool or expanded clay.
After the insulation, waterproofing material is laid. Usually this is a thick construction film, the joints of which are sealed with double-sided tape and the material itself is secured to the joists using a stapler.
At the final stage, floor boards or plywood sheets are laid, depending on the owner’s preference.

Important. You can often hear the question of how to cover a wooden floor in an apartment to protect the wood. The joists must be coated with special impregnations that protect the wood from moisture, rot and prevent the formation of mold. Floor boards are coated with various types of varnishes, which have not only protective, but also decorative functions.

Replacement of floors in an apartment occurs for various reasons. Typical examples - it’s time to install heat and sound insulation, a decision was made on a “warm floor”, the boards began to creak heavily, the coating deformed or the humidity coming from the basement increased, you just wanted something more new and modern.

In any case you have to do a great job, which consists of several stages. Much in the process of replacing the covering will depend on the material from which the old floors are made, as well as on what kind of new coverings are planned. In addition, additional floor functions are being thought out that will help protect the apartment from dampness and increase its heat and sound insulation.

So that the complexity of the upcoming work does not come as a surprise, you need to familiarize yourself with all the stages of replacing floors in advance.

The process of dismantling the old floor covering is one of the most unpleasant moments. But no matter how “scary” it may be, you cannot do without this activity, and therefore you need to boldly get to work.

Wooden floor

If the apartment has a wooden floor, then there will be no big problems or difficulties with its dismantling. To work, you need to prepare the necessary tools, such as an axe, a hammer with a nail puller, a screwdriver, a pry bar, a jigsaw or electric saw for cutting old boards (unless, of course, you plan to reuse them), a shovel and garbage bags.

The baseboards around the entire perimeter of the room are removed first, and only then can you move on to the plank covering.
If the boards will be re-laid or they are intended to be used as joists, then they must be removed carefully, trying to cause minimal damage to them. Therefore, you need to try to carefully remove all clogged nails with a nail puller. It will be easier to solve this issue if the boards are secured with self-tapping screws - they can most often be unscrewed using a screwdriver.
If the removed boards are not needed for further work, it is recommended to immediately remove them from the apartment. It is hardly worth collecting a large pile of garbage - it will soon greatly interfere with further actions. The same should be done with other elements that are not useful for installation work.
Having freed up space, you can begin dismantling the joists. It must be remembered that they can be quite securely fixed to the floor, and they must be removed very carefully, trying not to damage the base. Otherwise, you can add completely unnecessary work for yourself by sealing the resulting holes.
Having freed the room from the old covering, you need to thoroughly clean it, as far as the base allows.

Having completed this procedure, you can begin preparing the floor for installation work.

Video - complete dismantling of an old wooden floor

Concrete covering

Dismantling of old concrete pavement is carried out only in extreme cases, as it can be easily repaired.

Drastic measures are taken if the old cement coating cannot be preserved, for example, it was constantly exposed to moisture without periodic drying. In this case, fungus and mold could appear in the concrete layers, which can cause various health pathologies of residents - allergies, asthma, rhinitis, lung diseases, etc. Therefore, it is simply necessary to dismantle such a coating.

Another reason for dismantling may be low ceilings in the apartment. If you plan to install a floor with insulation, which means it will have to be raised to a certain height, then the covering is removed in order to make room for a heat- and sound-insulating structure.

If you still decide to get rid of the old screed, you need to know that it is laid on a solid concrete interfloor ceiling and must be removed carefully.

To remove the screed layer, a puncher is used, which breaks off its individual pieces. Typically, this slab leveling layer ranges from 50 to 120 mm.

hammer drill

After removing the old screed (or better, even periodically during the removal process), it is also necessary to carry out cleaning activities. But in this option, perfect cleaning is unlikely, so it is carried out as thoroughly as possible.

Preparatory work

In order for the new floor to be laid efficiently, it is necessary to bring the base, cleared of the old floor, into proper condition.

From the surface, from the maximum carefully, dust is removed. This is done to detect serious flaws in the foundation, such as cracks, holes and crevices, areas of peeling or coloring, places where the concrete has been saturated with any compounds, or where traces of dampness and mold are visible.
If any are found, they must be sealed very well, otherwise they will reduce the entire effect of thermal and sound insulation. This can be done using cement mortar, polyurethane foam or sealant. The choice of repair materials should be made based on the size of the damage to the base. In the case of fungus or mold, the base must be “treated” with special aseptic impregnating compounds.
When the base has dried, further preparation steps are taken, but they will depend on what type of new floor covering will be installed instead of the old one. Therefore, these processes should, perhaps, be considered in conjunction with the installation of each type of flooring separately.

But it should be noted that even if it is planned to install a wooden floor instead of the removed old screed, the surface will still have to be leveled with a thin new concrete coating.

New screed

A new screed can be arranged in different ways. If the base is more or less flat, and a wooden covering will be laid on top of it, then you can put it in perfect order using a self-leveling floor.

The self-leveling coating is able to cover small differences or defects in the base. To do this, purchase a ready-made dry construction mixture for a self-leveling floor.
The technology for preparing the solution can be read on the packaging, and it must be followed very carefully.
The finished solution is poured over the surface and distributed using a squeegee or wide spatula, and then, to ensure the release of remaining air bubbles, it is rolled with a needle roller.
The leveled floor is left to dry and gain strength. All compositions have their own maturation period, depending on the ingredients from which the dry construction mixture is prepared.

Spread thin insulation and lay decorative covering;

Install a plywood covering with infrared heated floor film;

Lay a wooden floor on the installed joists.

Screed with expanded clay insulation

Another type of screed is laid on expanded clay, which is a good insulator and sound insulator. In addition, the material is quite light, so it will not particularly weigh down the interfloor ceiling, which is very important to take into account when making a screed in an apartment. The process of laying this screed is as follows.

If the screed is installed on the first floor, which is located above a cold basement, then waterproofing should be done first. Its installation is carried out in different ways: plastering, casting, pasting, painting, etc. It is applied not only to floors, but also to the lower part of the walls, to a pre-primed surface.
To the prepared waterproofed A thick polyethylene film is spread on the surface, which should extend 15-20 cm onto the walls. The sheets of film are glued together using special tape.
On top of the film, along the entire perimeter of the room, a damper tape is attached to the glue, which will help keep the screed intact during temperature changes.
On top pl In the buildings, beacons are installed, which are leveled. They are most often fixed to concrete mortar. The height of the beacons should be equal to the height of the expanded clay layer to be filled plus the planned thickness of the screed.
Next, expanded clay is poured in a layer slightly below the installed beacons and carefully leveled.
After this, a concrete solution is poured on top of the expanded clay, which is leveled along the top of the beacons.
After the screed has dried, it will most likely settle somewhat, and it can be finally finished with a thin layer of self-leveling floor.
Any decorative covering can be laid on top of this structure.

Screed without insulation

A regular screed made of concrete mortar is made to strengthen the floor under a wooden floor, or on the floors of an apartment building where there is no great need for insulation.

A waterproofing polyethylene film is spread on the prepared base.
Damper tape is glued along the perimeter of the walls.

A reinforcing mesh (metal or fiberglass) is laid on top of the laid waterproofing film, and then beacons are installed, which, as usual, are leveled in a horizontal plane.

Concrete solution is poured 1.5-2 cm above the beacons, starting from the far wall of the room, and then leveled using a rule that is carried out strictly according to guide beacons.
This way the entire surface of the room is poured and leveled, the screed is left to harden and mature (up to 3-4 weeks).

Once the screed is ready, you can begin installing the joists, insulation and plank flooring.

Dry screed

Another type of tidying up the floor is dry screed, which is perfect for installing it in an apartment. The good thing about it is that you don’t need to mix the solution and create a “swamp” in your apartment. Dry screed floors are made as follows:

A dense polyethylene film is laid on the surface of the floors; it must also be on the wall, to the height future floor with a margin of 5-10 cm. A board is installed in the doorway that will limit the mixture from spilling out. The flooring must be very tightly fitted to the surface of the base.
Then beacons made of metal profiles or even wooden beams are placed on the film. But in this version, the screeds are not secured to the base, since after leveling the surface, the guides from the backfilled layer will need to be removed.
The beacons are leveled to the building level to an ideal horizontal plane.

The next step is to pour dry floor filler onto the film. Its layer should be several centimeters higher than the level of the installed beacons.
The dry filler is leveled according to the beacons using the rule.
The final stage is the installation of special gypsum fiber slabs that have special interlocking joints. Glue is applied to them, and then the next panel is laid so that the locking parts meet evenly. The plates are additionally fastened in these places with self-tapping screws.

The fully finished floor is decorated with a decorative coating - you can choose it to your liking.

dry backfill

Wooden floor

A wooden floor, made of tongue-and-groove boards or plywood, is mounted on a prepared screed. It can be laid on joists or laid directly on a concrete base.

The most popular of these two options is still the first, as it has a number of advantages. For example, insulation and sound insulation can be laid between the joists. In addition, the floor surface is raised above the concrete, which also adds an insulating effect. Another plus is that the logs add rigidity to the coating, and it becomes more reliable.

Floors on bars or joists are installed in several stages:

Before attaching the logs, the room is marked. The lines are marked with stretched twine, painted, for example, with blue. The distance between the logs should be equal to the width of the insulation material (can, if using mineral wool, be reduced by 30 - 50 mm, it will be even better).
Then the logs are cut to the required length. It should be remembered that they must be located at a distance from the wall no less than the thickness of the insulation. Usually, mineral wool is used for insulation - if low-quality polystyrene foam is used in residential enclosed spaces, the atmosphere will not be so environmentally friendly.
The next step is the installation of the joist to the base. They can be fixed directly to the concrete base, or they can be raised to a certain height using special pins or metal holders.
The distance between the joist posts fixed to the floor should be within 40-50 centimeters. By adjusting the height of the racks, the level of the future floor is displayed in one horizontal plane.
After completing this work, the insulation is laid. First, this needs to be done between the joists and the wall, along the entire perimeter of the room, then it is laid between the joists.

The next step is to cover the entire resulting structure with a vapor barrier film - it should be secured to the joists with a stapler.
The most important process is laying the boards. It is important that the starting floorboards are 5-7 mm from the wall - for ventilation and compensation for possible linear expansions from thermal changes or increased humidity in the room.

Video - Installation of a tongue and groove floor

A plinth is fixed on top of the fully covered plank floor around the perimeter of the room. It is important that the baseboard is attached to the wall, but not to the floorboards.
If plywood is laid on the joists, then the joint of the two sheets must be provided so that it falls in the middle of the joist block, so it is important to calculate the correct size of the plywood sheet. To ensure surface rigidity, the sheets are fastened using a brickwork system, with the next sheet shifted by half.
When the material is completely laid, it is necessary to seal all the cracks between the sheets with putty, and after it dries, it is advisable to sand the surface.
Any decorative covering is laid on top of the plywood, and then the installed baseboards will complete the floor.

In addition to the simple floors indicated in the article, which can be made instead of dismantled ones, warm floors - water or electric - have recently become popular. The design of such systems is discussed in separate publications on the site.

You can familiarize yourself with all the possible flooring options and choose the right one in the publication.

Having calculated everything correctly and without rushing, it is quite possible to dismantle and install the coverings yourself - this will help save a considerable amount, since such work on updating the floors in an apartment is very expensive.

Replacing floors in a house or apartment is carried out for various reasons. The most common examples are the need to install sound and heat insulation, a decision was made to install a “warm” floor, the coating was deformed, the boards began to creak, or the humidity coming from the basement increased, you just wanted something modern and new.

Be that as it may, you will have to do a lot of work, consisting of several stages. Much when replacing material depends on what material the old floors are made of, and on how you plan to see the new flooring. Moreover, you need to consider an additional function that would increase noise and heat insulation, and also provide more reliable protection for the apartment.

So that the complexity of the upcoming work does not come as a surprise to you, you need to find out not only how much it costs to replace floors, but also become familiar with the main stages of the upcoming events.

Removing the floor

This process is one of the most unpleasant. But no matter how scary it may be, you simply cannot do without such an activity, and therefore you should boldly get to work.

If the old floor in the apartment is wooden, then there will be no big difficulties or problems with its dismantling. For work, you need to prepare all the necessary tools, such as a hammer with a nail puller, an ax, a pry bar, a screwdriver, an electric saw or a jigsaw for cutting old boards (if you do not plan to reuse them), a shovel and garbage bags.

How to dismantle an old wooden floor

First of all, you need to get rid of the baseboards by removing them around the entire perimeter of the room, and only then can you begin to dismantle the plank covering.

If you plan to re-lay the boards or use them as joists, you must remove them carefully, being careful not to cause serious damage to them. So use a nail puller to carefully remove all the nails. If the boards were secured with self-tapping screws, then this process will not cause any difficulty - most often they can be unscrewed with a screwdriver.

If you do not plan to use the boards in the future, it is better to immediately remove them from the apartment. You should not collect a bunch of garbage, as it will interfere with subsequent actions. You should also do the same with other elements that you definitely won’t need for installation work.

Having freed up space, you can begin dismantling the joists. It is important to remember that they can be securely fixed to the floor, and they must be dismantled carefully, trying not to damage the base. Otherwise, you will add additional work and expenses to yourself, which will be spent on sealing the resulting holes.

When you free the room from the old coating, you need to thoroughly clean it, as far as the base allows, of course. Having completed this procedure, you can begin preparing the floor for installation work.

Dismantling a wooden floor: video

Removing a concrete floor

Removing old concrete pavement is done as a last resort, as it can be easily repaired. Drastic measures are taken only if the old cement coating cannot be preserved. For example, it was constantly exposed to moisture without regular drying. In such a situation, mold and mildew could form in the concrete layers, which could cause effects on the health of residents - asthma, allergies, lung diseases, rhinitis and others. Naturally, it is simply necessary to dismantle such a coating.

Another reason for dismantling is low ceilings in the apartment. If you are going to install a floor with insulation, then be prepared for the fact that it will become higher, and the covering will need to be removed to make room for a sound- and heat-insulating structure.

If you plan to remove the screed, make sure that it is laid on the concrete floor, and perform this procedure with extreme caution.

To remove the screed layer, it is better to use a hammer drill. With its help, its individual pieces are removed. Typically, such a layer leveling the slab ranges from 50 to 120 mm.

When the old screed is removed, you also need to carry out cleaning activities. However, in this option it is unlikely that you will be able to perform a perfect cleaning, but you will have to make every effort.

Preparatory work

In order for the new floor covering to be laid efficiently, it is necessary to bring the cleaned base from the old floor into proper condition.

Carefully remove all dust from the surface. This is done in order to detect serious flaws in the base (holes, cracks, crevices, areas of coloring or peeling, places where the concrete was saturated with certain compounds, or where traces of mold and dampness were visible).

If you find any, they need to be sealed well, otherwise they can reduce the effect of sound and thermal insulation. This can be done using polyurethane foam, cement mortar or sealant. You need to make a choice of repair materials based on the size of the damaged base. In case of mold or mildew formation, the base must be impregnated with special aseptic compounds.

As soon as the base has dried, subsequent preparation steps are carried out, which will depend on what type of flooring is being replaced with the old one. For this reason, these processes should be considered in conjunction with the installation of each type of flooring.

But keep in mind that even if you are going to install a wooden floor instead of a dismantled screed, the surface will have to be leveled with a new concrete coating (a small layer).

Making a new screed

You can make a new screed in different ways. If the base is more or less flat, and a wooden covering is laid on top of it, then put it in perfect order by making a self-leveling floor. One of the best options would be to pour a self-leveling coating.

The self-leveling coating can hide small flaws or differences in the base. To do this, you will need a ready-made dry construction mixture designed for self-leveling floors.

You can familiarize yourself with the technology for preparing the solution on the packaging, and it must be strictly followed. Next, the prepared solution needs to be poured over the surface, then spread using a wide spatula or squeegee, and then pierced with a needle roller to release the remaining air bubbles.

The leveled floor must be left to dry so that it gains strength. All compositions are characterized by their maturation period, depending on the components from which the building mixture is prepared.

Then on the leveled floor you can:

lay thin insulation and decorative covering;

install a plywood covering with the installation of a special infrared heated floor film;

lay the wooden floor on the installed joists.

Screed with expanded clay insulation

The second type of screed is laid directly on expanded clay, which is a high-quality sound insulator and insulation material. Moreover, the material is quite light, which means it will not weigh down the interfloor ceiling, which should be taken into account when screeding in an apartment. Moreover, the process of laying this screed is as follows.

If the screed is performed on the first floor, located above a cold basement, then first of all, waterproofing is done. Its installation is carried out in various ways: casting, plastering, painting, pasting and others. It is applied not just to the floors, but also to the lower part of the walls, to a previously primed surface.

A thick polyethylene film is laid on a previously prepared waterproofed surface, extending 20 cm onto the walls. The film sheets must be glued to each other using special tape.

Next, a damper tape is attached on top of the film around the perimeter of the room, which helps keep the screed intact during severe temperature changes.

Next, beacons are installed on top of the film and leveled. They are usually fixed to concrete mortar. In this case, the height of the beacons must correspond to the height of the expanded clay layer being filled + the planned thickness of the screed.

Next, expanded clay is poured in a layer slightly below the installed beacons and leveled well.

Then, a concrete solution is poured on top of the expanded clay, which is leveled along the top of the beacons.

When the screed dries, it will most likely settle somewhat; it can be covered with a thin layer of self-leveling floor.

Then any decorative floor covering is laid on top of this structure.

Screed without insulation

An ordinary concrete mortar screed is made to strengthen the floor under further wooden flooring or on the floors of an apartment building where insulation is not required.

A special damper tape is glued along the entire perimeter of the walls.

On top of the laid waterproofing film you need to lay a reinforcing mesh (fiberglass or metal), and then install beacons that are leveled in the horizontal plane.

In this way, the entire room is poured and leveled, after which the screed is left for 3-4 weeks, during which time it will harden and mature.

Once it is ready, proceed with the installation of joists, insulation, and boardwalk.

Dry screed

Another option for arranging a new floor is a dry screed, which is perfect for installing in an apartment. It has proven itself to be excellent in that you don’t have to mix the solution and create a swamp in your home. Floors made of dry screed are made as follows:

A thick polyethylene film is laid on the floors, which should extend 5-10 cm onto the wall (height allowance). A board is installed in the doorway to limit spillage of the mixture. The flooring should fit as closely as possible to the surface of the base.

Next, beacons made of even wooden beams or a metal profile are placed on the film. But in this version, the screeds cannot be fixed to the base, otherwise, after leveling the surface, the guides from the backfilled layer must be removed.

The beacons themselves must be leveled to the building level to a flat horizontal plane.

The next step is pouring the filler onto the film. Its layer should have a greater height (several millimeters) compared to installed beacons.

Using the rule, the dry filler is leveled, focusing on the beacons.

The last stage is the laying of gypsum fiber boards with interlocking joints. Glue is applied to them, after which the next panel is laid. This is done in such a way that the locking parts fit together perfectly. The plates are additionally fastened in these places using self-tapping screws.

The finished floor is decorated with a decorative coating, the choice of which depends on your personal preferences.

Wooden floor

The floor, made of plywood or tongue-and-groove boards, is installed on a prepared screed. Moreover, it can be laid directly on a concrete base or laid on logs.

The most popular among these options is the first one, as it has many advantages. For example, between the joists it is possible to install sound insulation and insulation. Moreover, the surface is raised above the concrete, which in turn adds an insulating effect. Another advantage is that the logs add greater rigidity to the coating, and it becomes more reliable. Floors on joists or bars are installed in several stages:

Before attaching the logs, the room is marked. The lines are marked with painted stretched twine. The distance between the logs should correspond to the width of the insulating material (if mineral wool is used, it can be reduced by 30-50 mm, this will be much better).

Next, cut the logs to the required length. But it is important to remember that they must be located at a distance from the wall, no less than the thickness of the insulation. As a rule, mineral wool is used for insulation - if low-quality polystyrene foam is used in closed residential premises, the atmosphere will not be so environmentally friendly.

The distance between the log posts, which are fixed to the floor, should be within 40-50 cm. The level of the future floor can be brought to the horizontal plane by adjusting the height of the posts.

At the end of this work, you need to lay the insulation. First, this must be done between the wall and the joists, along the entire perimeter of the room, then lay it between the joists.

The next stage is covering the entire structure with a special vapor barrier film - it should be secured to the joists using a stapler.

Laying the boards is the most important process. Starting floorboards should be 5-7 mm from the wall, which will provide ventilation and compensate for linear expansions from increased humidity or thermal changes in the room.

If you plan to lay plywood on joists, then provide a joint between two sheets so that it falls in the middle of the joist. You need to calculate the size of the plywood sheet. To ensure surface rigidity, the sheets must be fastened according to the brickwork system, namely with a shift of the next sheet by half.

With the exception of a small percentage of secondary buildings with wooden floors, multi-storey buildings use slab floors. Either a floor covering made of tongue-and-groove boards or a subfloor made of edged boards, OSB, gypsum fiber board, fiberglass board, plywood or chipboard for other cladding (parquet, linoleum, PVC tiles, cork, tiles, carpet and other materials) are laid on the logs.

Therefore, repairing a wooden floor in a Khrushchev-era building can be done in a day (replacing tongue and groove) or take several weeks (laying sound insulation, insulation, joists and subfloor under parquet).

Due to the complex design and numerous layers of the cake, repairing a wooden floor in an apartment is varied, labor-intensive and budget-intensive. If the appearance is lost, the surface of the tongue-and-groove board is cleaned of the existing layer of paint and varnish and painted in several layers to give the necessary aesthetic perception.

In all other cases, partial or complete dismantling of the covering or subfloor becomes inevitable. To simplify the search for reasons for reducing the performance properties of a structure, layer-by-layer dismantling is usually practiced:

The causes of creaking can be any structural element (floorboard, joist or self-tapping screw) when the mutual fixation with another part of the floor is weakened. Therefore, to eliminate squeaks, various methods are used - from filling the cracks in the floorboards with talcum powder to replacing the joists or screwing all the boards to the joists at an angle of 45 - 60 degrees in new places.

The causes of squeaking are wear and tear on the wooden floor elements.

Advice! During the initial installation of tongue-and-groove boards as a floor covering, only the first, every fourth and last rows of material are rigidly attached to the joists. After the floorboards dry out after 3–12 months, the flooring is re-tightened using jacks, clamps or other tools. This operation is not a floor repair, but refers to the maintenance of the coating.

Repair technology

When using a multi-layer structure, repairing wooden floors in an apartment becomes necessary when there are auditorily and visually obvious defects that sharply reduce the comfort of living. In other words, they walk on the floor covering until they get tired of the squeaking or the user’s foot falls through.

A preventive inspection is not economically profitable, since it requires removing all the furniture, dismantling the baseboard, all or most of the floorboards. Repairs are carried out as the structure is dismantled; depending on its complexity, special technologies are used:

Important! After an inspection of the floorboards, boards that are unsuitable for further use are rejected. Either defective areas are cut out of them (rot, fungus, mold, warping, flying through knots).

Removing squeak

In Soviet times, the practice was to use wooden floors in Khrushchev and Brezhnevka buildings. The logs were laid on glassine and leveled with wooden wedges. The tongue and groove board was pulled together once - during the finishing of the rooms, users were usually not warned that the floorboards needed to be pulled together again after drying.

The cause of the creaking is the weakening of the mutual fixation of two or more structural elements. Under the load from the traffic of residents, they bend and emit characteristic sounds.

To eliminate a squeak, the following algorithm of actions is usually used:

identifying a creaking area by ear and outlining it with chalk;
checking the presence of a fastening element (nail or self-tapping screw);

existing nails can be driven into the wood with a punch;
using a self-tapping screw with a full thread, the floorboard is fixed in any convenient position relative to the joist bar;
using a self-tapping screw with an incomplete thread, you can tightly press two wooden floor elements to each other, including if the hole in the floorboard has expanded over time;
a polymer wedge is driven under the joist hanging above the floor slab;
When rotten sections of lumber that have turned into dust are found, they are cut out and the timber/board is extended with new pieces treated with an antiseptic.

Boards in rows located far from the walls are very difficult to dismantle without destroying the locking joint. Therefore, their spatial geometry and relative position relative to the floorboards in adjacent rows are regulated by longitudinal wedges:

the wedge is planed from long wood chips;
driven between rows of floorboards;
prevents sagging, eliminates creaking;
sanded flush with the surface of the floorboards.

After this, local painting of the defective area is carried out or the floors are repainted entirely.

Replacing a tongue and groove board

In dry rooms, a complete replacement of the floor covering is usually carried out, since the wear of the boards is the same. In rooms with high humidity and an abundance of cold water communications, sewerage, and hot water, restoration of individual areas affected by mold, mildew or rot due to pipeline leaks is more often used. In this case, it is necessary to take into account the following factors:

The joists and the condition of the screed should be carefully examined;
if the condition of these structural elements is unsatisfactory, the overhaul of the covering will cost less, since the service life of the renewed area will be much higher than that of the existing floorboards, which will also soon have to be replaced;
the tongue-and-groove board is laid using standard technology (attached to the joists of every 4 rows), after 4 - 12 months the flooring must be tightened again with each row of boards fixed to the joists;
The plinth is attached exclusively to the walls to ensure high maintainability of the coating and mobility during the linear expansion of wood (about 0.15% for dry lumber).

Important! The height of the groove/tongue of modern lumber may not coincide with similar locks of the tongue in use, produced during the Soviet era.

Therefore, the flooring restoration technology is used according to the following scheme:

Advice! It is forbidden to use gaskets between the joists and floorboards of the finished floor, since these are the parts that cause squeaking in the future. Plastic wedges should be placed under the logs, and the upper plane of the bars from which they are made should be controlled.

Replacing subflooring

When repairing an old wooden floor, it may be necessary to replace the worn-out subfloor. At a lag pitch that satisfies the operational loads, these elements remain in place; only the subfloor is dismantled and replaced with a new one.

Depending on the finishing floor covering, the following materials can be used:

The work is carried out using standard technologies, ensuring natural ventilation in the underground space.

Replacing the log

If the wooden floor covering has no visual defects, but its surface is uneven, there are creaks and other factors that reduce the quality of living, you will have to completely dismantle the parquet or tongue and groove board to provide access to the bars on which the floor covering is attached.

Before repairing the joists, the screed should be inspected and it is possible to replace the insulation, waterproofing and acoustic materials. In Soviet times, expanded clay or sawdust served as insulation; these materials are less effective than expanded polystyrene, ecowool, and basalt heat insulator. Therefore, they are collected in bags and disposed of.

Replacement of logs is carried out using the following technology:

horizontal marking with a laser plane builder to find the top point;
drawing horizontal lines on walls at an arbitrary height;
laying timber near the walls, taking into account the horizontal level.

The joists can be mounted on polymer wedges or special adjustable bolts (adjustable floor system). The block must be securely fixed to the floor slab (screed) with anchors to prevent creaking and movement during operation. Therefore, when using wedges, long anchors are used; in adjustable floor systems, the stability of the spatial geometry of the structure is ensured by metal studs:

they pass through the block;
attached to the base;
adjustable in height with a nut, positioning the logs at the required level;
The studs are cut flush with a grinder after all the joists inside the room are aligned in a single horizontal plane.

Advice! The logs have a certain thickness, so in wooden floors (rough and finishing) by default there appears an underground space in which it is necessary to ensure natural ventilation. To do this, it is necessary to make cuts in the joists, and install gratings diagonally in the corners of the room into the subfloor and floor covering.

Insulation materials

Despite the fact that the wooden floor in an apartment has soundproofing properties and reduces heat loss, additional installation of insulating materials is often required. Their relative position in the wooden floor pie is as follows:

sound-absorbing materials - always laid on a screed or floor slab to cut off structural noise from the lower apartment;
insulation – located on top of the acoustic material, the thickness is selected depending on the specific operating conditions;
vapor barrier - preferably a membrane laid on top of thermal insulation under subfloor boards or a wooden floor covering to protect the insulation from getting wet by vapors from humid air from the room;
waterproofing - applied by gluing or coating to a screed or floor slab; in wet rooms, a second layer of waterproofing is made on top of the wooden floor before laying moisture-resistant linings (protection against sewerage and water supply leaks).

Pie of wooden floor in the apartment.

Advice! The presence of all specified insulating layers is not a prerequisite. For example, the thickness of the floor slab may be sufficient so that the concrete completely eliminates the penetration of airborne noise. In this case, you can do without soundproofing material.

Paintwork works

Painting floorboards is a cosmetic renovation. Before painting, the following work is carried out:

Options for painting wooden floors.

After which, the repaired floor is painted in several layers.

Sanding and sanding

While maintaining the load-bearing capacity of the wooden floor elements, it may be necessary to restore its flatness for a number of reasons:

the boards have dried out and warped over time;
Gaps have formed between the floorboards;
the tongue “bent out like a hump” in cross section;
In some areas the boards sank.

If the tongue or parquet is sufficiently thick, these defects can be corrected without major repairs by grinding or scraping. Equipment for scraping is expensive and is rarely needed, so it makes more sense to rent this equipment for the duration of the repair.

Sanding the tongue with a belt machine.

Sanding does not require high qualifications; the necessary skills are acquired after processing 2 - 3 m² of flooring. A scraping machine is more difficult to use, so it is easier to order the service from qualified specialists.

Thus, when using a wooden floor in an apartment, repairs are available to the home craftsman on his own. The easiest way is to level the floor, get rid of the creaking floorboards and paint the surface. Major repairs and replacement of joists and floorboards will cost more and take more time.

Advice! If you need repairmen, there is a very convenient service for selecting them. Just send in the form below a detailed description of the work that needs to be performed and you will receive proposals with prices from construction teams and companies by email. You can see reviews about each of them and photographs with examples of work. It's FREE and there's no obligation.