Step-By-Step Plan for the Renovation of a Two-bedroom Apartment in a New Building

When starting such a responsible and costly undertaking, you need to have a clear idea of what result you are striving for. If you just want to put your apartment in order and update old wallpaper and worn linoleum, cosmetic repairs will help make your home cleaner and fresher.

If the apartment is new, you will have to make major repairs: change windows and doors, level the walls, work with floor coverings, use modern ceiling finishes, and think about lighting. Then the apartment will acquire a stylish and beautiful look.

Measure your apartment

To create sketches and drawings, carefully take measurements of all rooms. Door and window openings, depth of window sills, ceiling heights and differences in floor and ceiling levels, height at which sockets and switches will be installed. Write down the data on paper or in a program so as not to have to do this work again.

Carry out dismantling

Everything that is planned to be replaced must be dismantled. In new buildings, even with a rough finish, dismantling is practically not required, although developers often save on the quality of the same windows and doors.

Remove the trash

Construction workers will leave behind heaps of sand and dust on the floor. During repairs, waste will also accumulate and need to be disposed of. The budget must include funds for waste removal.

Purchase the materials needed for repairs

Buy building materials in excess to avoid unpleasant situations. For example, there were not enough finishing tiles, which are no longer available. Moreover, currency exchange rate fluctuations and seasonal sales sometimes lead to significant price changes, and after a couple of weeks, you will find completely different price tags on the same goods that are not pleasing to you. Do not refuse discount cards in construction stores; they allow you to save a lot of money.

Take care of the electrical wiring

Before installing or replacing an electrical panel in an apartment, you must decide on the number of lines that consume electricity. Separate lines are allocated for the refrigerator, water heaters, stoves, overhead lighting, and sockets. In an apartment with a rough finish, this work is easier, cheaper, and faster.

Make bathroom floors

We recommend using a concrete screed in the bathroom and restroom. In other rooms - at your choice, a dry screed is also suitable.

Start decorating your bathroom

The ceiling and walls in the bathroom should be plastered. After the plaster has dried, either tile are laid or a more economical option of painting is used. If the paint is used as a temporary finish, it must be taken into account that later, it will take time and money to redo it because everything will have to be torn off and plastered again.

Maybe the funds will allow you to immediately purchase tiles and make renovations in the bathroom that will last a long time. Then you can change the interior doors, not immediately buy furniture for all rooms, and not think first of all about expensive decorative elements.

Install plumbing

We are solving the issue with pipe wiring. In principle, metal-plastic pipes are installed simply and quickly without special skills and tools. The toilet, shower, or bathtub are also installed independently.

It is better to replace heating radiators with more modern and high-quality ones, as this is another way for developers to save money. It will not be very convenient to dismantle and install radiators in already renovated rooms.

Move on to the ceilings

Stretch ceilings can be installed later; this work is not accompanied by a large amount of dirt and dust. In all other cases, as usual, we go from top to bottom: ceiling, walls, floors. It is important to remember that if there are wardrobes in the apartment, the work of installing suspended ceilings has its own characteristics. Warn specialists about this in advance.

Stretch ceilings mask unevenness well and eliminate a lot of labor-intensive work. You will spend weeks leveling the joints between the slabs, and this ceiling will be ready in one day throughout the entire apartment.

There is another not so well known advantage of this method of ceiling design. The materials from which suspended ceilings are made are relatively resistant to moisture. Therefore, if the neighbors above have a small leak, then most likely, the water will remain on the ceiling panel, it can be carefully drained, and large damage can be avoided.

Walls in the room

We are preparing the walls for painting or wallpapering. We level it depending on the condition using putty, plaster, or cement mixtures.

Slopes and window sills

You can work with them yourself, but you won’t save much on this, and you will waste your time and effort. Therefore, it is more rational to entrust the work to repairmen and spend the freed time on other, no less useful things.

Windows

If the windows are installed poorly, it is better to replace them. New buildings are characterized by small gaps in the windows through which heat will escape in cold weather. The seams should also be carefully inspected and additionally sealed if defects are found.

Proceed to the floors in the rooms

Dry screed is quite suitable for rooms. It is easier and faster to install than cement. The floor on a dry screed is a little warmer, although this is largely determined by the coating.

Order and install doors

It’s easier to order interior doors together with the entrance doors, so you don’t have to select the design and color later. Also, consider what kind of flooring you plan to use. It should be in harmony with the door groups.

Glue up the wallpaper

Wallpaper comes in different widths. The choice of wallpaper with a wide canvas and without a pattern, which requires complex processing of the joints, will speed up the gluing process. Vinyl wallpapers have a specific smell that does not disappear from the room for a long time, and some, due to their soft structure, are easily damaged when working with them. You can use other materials instead of wallpaper since their range is now very wide: decorative plaster, artificial and natural stone, cork, leather, tension walls, and glass panels.

Install furniture

Furniture can be assembled independently without any problems. To assemble structurally complex furniture, invite a craftsman. Sliding wardrobes are usually installed by the company you ordered them from.