When creating an apartment design project, one should, of course, not forget about the floors. If they are finished tastelessly, creating a spectacular interior in the house, of course, will not work. There are many beautiful materials intended for flooring on sale today. This is linoleum, and laminate, and parquet. You can also finish the floors in the apartment using porcelain stoneware, carpeting, tiles, etc.
Basic design rules
It is believed that:
- To decorate the floor in a city apartment, it is worth using rather dark materials. However, this rule is not mandatory. You can finish the floors in the apartment with the help of light linoleum, laminate or carpet. But in the future, of course, you will have to pay more attention to cleaning such a coating.
- Gloss finishes are better suited for large rooms. This finish can make the room visually smaller.
- Choose for floors should be sufficiently strong, durable and environmentally friendly materials. buy toocheap finish from an unknown manufacturer, since it will be used in a residential area, of course, it is not recommended.
And, of course, choose the floor covering in such a way that it fits as harmoniously as possible into the interior design of the house.
Floors in the apartment: design ideas
Previously, different materials were often used to finish the floors of residential and utility areas in apartments. At the same time, beautiful materials of pleasant colors were chosen for the hall, bedroom, study and nursery, and less expensive, but more practical materials were used for corridors, kitchens and bathrooms. Today, with the appearance on the market of very high quality modern flooring, floors in apartments are most often finished using materials of the same type.
With this approach to business, it would be a very good idea, for example, to decorate the floors in all rooms with not only one type of coating, but also the same color. This finish option is just perfect, for example, for apartments with an interior in the style of minimalism, modern or classic.
Also a good solution would be to finish the floors in rooms for different purposes in the house with the same material, but of a different design. In this case, the finishing features will depend on the style of the rooms, as well as the imagination of the owners of the apartment. The only thing is that in this case, in different rooms, the floors should still be finished with material in shades that are in harmony with each other. Otherwise, the whole apartment as a whole will look, most likely, tasteless andclumsy.
Another good design idea would be to use materials of different shades within the same room. Flexible linoleum, carpet or laminate on the floors in the apartment can be laid in strips, alternating, for example, light and dark. They also look good on the floor in the form of squares of finishing materials of different shades, laid in a checkerboard pattern.
Finish coatings assembled from several types of materials at once within the same room can also look very impressive. For example, the floors in the apartment can be completely covered with laminate, while imitation of carpet paths can be made from linoleum. Massive board and parquet, with the right approach, are very well combined with porcelain stoneware. Carpeting, in most cases, looks great in combination with almost all types of finishing materials available on the market today.
Types of floors
Unfortunately, in most cases, it is possible to start implementing all sorts of design ideas right away only in new homes. In apartments of old buildings, before the start of decoration, it is often necessary to change the actual creaking, rotten or dry floors themselves.
Such an operation can be performed using different technologies. The choice of a specific technique in this case depends primarily on what type of floors in the apartment was used initially.
Most often, floors are installed in such living quarters:
- wooden;
- concrete.
At the same time, the first type of coatings in apartments of high-rise buildings is used more often, and the second - less often.
Wooden floor repair
Technology for replacing this type of coating is usually as follows:
- finishing removed;
- removing old boards;
- a vapor barrier is laid between the lags;
- Insulation is mounted - mineral wool or polystyrene foam;
- waterproofing is being laid;
- new boards are stuffed;
- new finishing material is being laid.
Sometimes, when repairing such a floor, you also have to change rotten logs. Also, in some cases, when replacing the coating, insulation is not used. The use of expanded polystyrene, mineral wool or expanded clay is usually considered mandatory only when arranging floors in an apartment on the ground floor.
Recommendations for the assembly of wooden floors
For the arrangement of such a coating, only the highest quality and durable lumber should be taken. Indeed, during operation, floors are usually subjected to much more serious loads than most other building envelopes.
Boards for arranging such a coating, according to the regulations, can be used with a thickness of at least 20 mm. At the same time, the thinner such lumber is, the more often lags will have to be installed when assembling floors.
| Thickness of boards | Step between lags |
| 20mm | 30cm |
| 25mm | 40cm |
| 30mm | 50cm |
| 35mm | 60cm |
| 45mm | 80cm |
| 50mm | 100cm |
Under the logs themselves, a bar with a thickness of 150x80 mm or 180x100 mm is usually taken.
Concrete screed
Sometimes residents of apartment buildings, when replacing the old floor, do not use logs and boards, but cement mortar. In this case, you can equip a more durable and reliable coating. It is a concrete floor, a solid flat slab that will never bend or start to creak.
The floor screed is poured in the apartment using the following technology:
- very dense polystyrene foam is laid on the floor slab;
- mounted waterproofer;
- reinforcing mesh is installed;
- beacons are installed with the help of a level and a cord;
- concrete screed is being poured;
- mounting the finishing coat.
Also, cement mortar is often used in urban apartments when arranging underfloor heating. In this case the piecoatings are assembled using a similar technology. However, the screed is already poured onto the cables themselves or pipes of the underfloor heating.
Filling the floor in the apartment: requirements
If only high-quality materials are used when assembling a wooden coating, then for pouring concrete it is supposed to take cement of exceptionally high grades. Usually, M150 material is used to equip such a floor. Sand for pouring the screed should be used coarse and necessarily sifted. The concrete mix for the floor is mixed most often in a ratio of 1: 3. It is desirable to pour the solution onto the floor slab in one step.
Align the solution when installing such floors using a special tool - the rule. It should be chosen in such a way that its length exceeds the distance between the installed beacons. Reinforcement when pouring concrete floors must be used. Otherwise, the screed in the future in the apartment will definitely begin to crack and crumble.
The thickness of the concrete layer itself on the floor should not be less than 3 cm. But it is still better to pour a screed about 5 cm thick.
Special Blends
Concrete screed is often used in urban apartments, not only for actually arranging the floors themselves, but also for leveling them. However, in recent years, special bulk mixtures have been more often used for this purpose. Such self-leveling compositions in comparison with concrete have a number of undeniable advantages. For example, they harden much faster than cement mortars. Walk onthe floors flooded with their use can be already in 2-5 hours. Fine finishing on them is allowed to be laid in a day.
The only thing is that such a floor covering in an apartment, unlike concrete, cannot be poured in too thick a layer. The alignment technology using such materials looks like this:
- surface is pre-cleaned and primed in two layers;
- a mortar is prepared and poured onto the floor with simultaneous leveling.
Installation tips
Start pouring the mixture from the farthest wall towards the door. Each new strip, when performing work, should overlap the previous one a little. Work should be done quickly enough so that the previous portion of the mixture does not have time to harden before laying the next one.
