The main problem of apartments in old Soviet houses is, of course, the lack of space. This is especially true for bathrooms. You can slightly expand the bathroom in some typical old houses by dismantling the plumbing cabin. Of course, you can remove this, in most cases unnecessary, design, if you wish, with your own hands.
What is a bathroom cabinet
It's no secret that in Soviet times, the main emphasis in our country was not on the comfort of housing, but on the speed of building houses. Sanitary cabins in those years were used in order to reduce the construction time of multi-storey residential buildings. In fact, such structures are a large box with a washbasin, a toilet bowl and a bathtub mounted in it already at the enterprise. When using plumbing cabins, builders simply no longer needed to carry plumbing equipment to apartments and waste time on its installation. Such boxes were simply delivered to the construction site by special equipment and lifted to the bathrooms by means of a crane.
Sanitary cabins were made before1998 from asbestos cement, for example, in the form of aceid boards. Later, reinforced gypsum concrete was used to assemble such boxes. In any case, the foundations for cabins in Soviet times were poured using cement mortar.
Pros of demolition
Some apartment owners, of course, doubt whether it is necessary to dismantle the plumbing cabin in an old panel house. Specialists advise to perform this operation during the overhaul of the apartment. This procedure actually has many advantages.
The main advantage of dismantling the bathroom in the house, of course, is the expansion of the bathroom space. Such boxes were installed in Soviet times in such a way that between their walls and the panels of the high-rise building itself there was a space of 10-15 cm. That is, after removing the plumbing cabin, the length and width of the bathroom can increase up to 30 cm. Also, the demolition of such a structure will make more in the bathroom high ceilings (up to 20 cm).
The space between the bathroom and bathroom walls has traditionally been filled with mineral wool. Due to the high humidity, such material, unfortunately, acquires a not very pleasant smell of mustiness and “old age”. So by dismantling the bathroom, you can make the air in the apartment cleaner.
Another reason why owners of old houses prefer to demolish such structures is their not too even geometry. Bathtubs with sanitary cabins look out of date, among other things, also because the walls in themlocated at any angle, but not 90 degrees.
Asbestos structures installed in apartments before 1998, experts advise to demolish them. The fact is that this material is very harmful to human he alth. Dust from the walls of a bathroom made with asbestos can even cause cancer.
Nuances of dismantling: coordination
Demolition of the bathroom thus has many advantages. However, according to housing law, this procedure is considered redevelopment. That is, before dismantling the bathroom with their own hands, the owner of the apartment should definitely contact the BTI to obtain the appropriate permission.
In this case, the owner of the apartment will most likely be able to go through the approval procedure quickly and without any problems. After all, the demolition of the sanitary cabin does not imply the violation of any load-bearing structures of the building or the transfer of engineering systems.
Also, the owner of the apartment, who decided to dismantle the old asbestos box, should definitely warn the neighbors about the upcoming work. The fact is that the demolition of such a structure is a very noisy procedure. In Moscow, for example, it will be possible to perform it only from nine in the morning to seven in the evening with a break for a quiet hour from one to three.
What else needs to be done
There is a lot of construction debris during the dismantling of the sanitary cabin. To take out such an amount of concrete, asbestos and waste of other materials simply to the trash in the yard and, moreover, fill the tanks with their remainsit is forbidden. Before starting to dismantle the cab, be sure to call the company involved in the removal and disposal of waste and agree on vehicles - a truck and a loader. Of course, the owner of the apartment will have to pay separately for the removal of construction waste.
Demolition in stages
Actually, the dismantling of the plumbing cabin from aceide or gypsum concrete is a laborious operation, but technologically not too complicated. Just before the demolition of such a box in the bathroom, of course, you need to shut off the common valves for supplying hot and cold water to the apartment. Also, in the bathroom, all plumbing and furniture should be dismantled and taken out of it.
The dismantling of a plumbing cabin in a panel house is usually carried out in several stages:
- remove tiles from the walls, ceiling and floor of the bathroom using a perforator and a chisel;
- dismantle asbestos-cement or gypsum-cement sheets of the bathroom ceiling using a hammer or grinder;
- dismantle the walls of the structure with the same tool;
- dismantle the steel frame of the sanitary cabin;
- destroy the concrete base of the box.
Dismantling features: expert advice
The walls, ceiling and frame of the sanitary cabin in the bathrooms of prefabricated houses are usually disassembled quite simply. For the dismantling of asbestos sheets, experts in such buildings recommend using a hammer or a grinder. Of course, it’s not worth working with a sledgehammer in a panel house. With careless work suchtool, repairs may have to be done by neighbors from adjacent apartments.
The most difficult demolition procedure is the dismantling of the bathroom floor. Judging by the reviews of apartment owners, in Soviet times, the foundations of such boxes were made very high quality. You can, of course, try to break the floor of the bathroom during its dismantling with a perforator. But, most likely, such a tool simply “will not take” a stove. Therefore, experts recommend that apartment owners who decide to demolish the asbestos box in the bathroom on their own, also stock up on a crowbar. With this tool, you must first tear off the plate from the frame. Then, with a crowbar, you should simply beat off small pieces of the slab in stages.
Final step
After the cabin is dismantled, you can proceed directly to the arrangement of the extended bathroom. If the union of the toilet and the bathroom was not agreed at the BTI, after the demolition of the box in the bathroom, you may have to build a new partition. For its construction, experts advise using lightweight foam blocks. A partition made of such material will turn out to be quite strong and durable, and at the same time it will not overload the floor slab of the house.
