Modern requirements for the quality of repair or decoration of an apartment, carried out today, imply the use of modern high-quality building materials in the process of work. The variety of such material in today’s market is so great that sometimes it is quite difficult to understand all this abundance of mixtures, plasters, putties, adhesives.
And if we take into account that every year this list is replenished with more and more new developments in the field of building materials from our and foreign manufacturers, it becomes clear that without proper experience, it is almost impossible to understand what material needs to be used in this or that case. And here it is important not to make a mistake in the choice, because it depends on this choice how long you will be pleased with the repairs made in your apartment or house.
In this article we will try to give you advice on what material to use in the production of certain works related to the renovation of an apartment or your own house. We think that this may be useful to you in case you decide to make repairs yourself or control the invited team of builders. In any case, sooner or later, each person will have to repair their home or finish the purchased housing, and knowledge about what materials this needs to be done will never hurt.
Of course, we will not be able to give you an overview of all building materials existing on the modern market, but based on our more than twenty years of experience in the repair and decoration of premises, we can describe here exactly those materials that we ourselves use and in the quality of which we already convinced.
Apartment renovation – Preparatory work
Let’s start, perhaps, with the material from which, as a rule, the repair of any room begins. With plaster, with which you will level your walls.
The time of using sand-cement plasters in the repair of indoor heated premises has sunk into oblivion. The history of the use of sand-cement plaster goes back several centuries, and during this time it has proven itself perfectly. But the appearance of gypsum plaster, as less laborious, nevertheless determined the choice in the repair of internal premises in favor of gypsum plaster.
Now let’s talk about the Building materials that are used in the repair of premises in conjunction with plaster.
This is primarily a primer. None of the processes of repairing premises can do without a primer. Everything needs to be primed. Walls, ceiling before and after plastering, before and after filling, before painting or wallpapering. Why is this so important? Because, the main purpose of the primer is to reduce the moisture absorption of the surface on which it is applied and to increase the adhesion of subsequent applied materials.
The fact is that plaster, putty, paint, wallpaper glue applied to the surface to be treated must release their moisture gradually and evenly when dry. The quality and service life of this material largely depends on this. If these materials were applied to the surface without preliminary treatment with a primer, then, almost instantly giving up their moisture to the treated surface, these materials will not have time to collect the technical characteristics they are supposed to. That is why it is so important to pay attention to the use of primers during the repair process.
Supporting Building materials
In order to apply the plaster mixture to the surface to be leveled, beacons must be used. The construction beacon is a 2.7 m long product. made of galvanized metal. As the name of the product suggests, the lighthouse serves as a reference point for leveling the surface with plaster. Lighthouses are installed before starting plastering work and must be removed after plastering.
Since, although they are galvanized, they still rust, and rust appears through the plaster and subsequent putty, painting or pasted wallpaper. But in order to give a clear outline to the outer corner or the window and door slope when plastering, you need to install a painting corner. For different purposes, painting corners are made from different materials. They are made of plastic, galvanized metal and aluminum.
Floor leveling building materials
Now let’s talk about an important process that we use when renovating any apartment and the material used in this. This is leveling the floor of the apartment. You can level the floor in the room in different ways. You can make a “dry screed” using expanded clay and gypsum fiber sheets (GVL). The same “dry screed” can be made using wooden logs from 50×50 mm bars. and plywood sheets (the so-called adjustable floor).
These methods have one merit. There is no need to wait for the floors to dry. But there are also disadvantages. The main one is the cost of building materials used in the construction of such floors. Therefore, most often we use a sand-cement screed when leveling the floor. And although a sand-cement screed is more laborious than other methods of leveling floors, the final cost of a “wet” screed is cheaper than other options.
As the name implies, a sand-cement screed is made from a mixture of sand and cement with the addition of various types of fillers. Screed filler can be expanded clay or crushed stone. Most often, expanded clay is used as a filler for a sand-cement screed, since it is much lighter than crushed stone and, moreover, additionally plays the role of a heat and sound insulator. Such a screed is performed as follows.
Preparation for finishing work
After completing all the above work, we will complete the preparatory work and start preparing for the finishing work. First of all, this preparation includes putty work. Of course, you can glue the wallpaper or paint the walls and ceiling on gypsum plaster, but the quality of such a finish will turn out to be far from ideal. To obtain a finish of excellent quality, surfaces intended for wallpapering and painting must be putty. And putties are used for these purposes different. Fillers differ in the size of the filler particles and the from which the filler is made. And therefore, different putties are used for different purposes.
Building Materials for electrical work
When you started repairs, a separate topic is the question of conducting electrical and plumbing work. The importance of this issue lies in the fact that the conduct of these works can by no means be trusted by just anyone. The bad consequences of engaging in electrical and plumbing work can be very serious. Simply put, it can threaten the destruction of your property. Accordingly, the building materials for such work must be used only by the most proven and from serious manufacturers who have proven themselves by the quality of the material they produce.
Material for plumbing work
Poorly performed plumbing work will not take your life, of course. But they can spoil your property, the property of your neighbors and your nerves. Therefore, as in carrying out electrical work, it is not worth saving on material when carrying out plumbing work. In this section, we will not review all plumbing materials existing on the market. The variety of this material is quite large and among this variety there is a lot of quality material. The main thing is that this material is not produced in China. Let’s just say about the materials that we use ourselves.
