Combining a bath and a toilet, a kitchen and a living room, a balcony, an entrance hall… What redevelopment should not be done and why? Designers and architects give their comments
Combining the kitchen and living room
Expert Opinion:
Ksenia Chupina, interior designer
“It is advisable to combine the kitchen and living room if the area of \u200b\u200bthe original kitchen does not accommodate more than two or three people. Sometimes such a redevelopment helps to get rid of meaningless corridors and halls. Also, the combination of the living room with the kitchen is suitable for large families with children. After all, both the kitchen and the living room are spaces that are created for joint family leisure and there is no need to divide them into two.”
The border between zones in the combined space can be made visual - for example, by laying tiles in the kitchen and parquet in the rest of the room. Or it can be quite tangible - with the help of a sofa, bar counter, podium or table.
Mito Melitonyan, architect
“If the area of the apartment allows, and the living room is not a living room, then the association is advisable. If the living room is also used as a bedroom, then in this way you deprive the family of one room, which accordingly worsens living conditions.”
Combining the kitchen with the living room: "for"
- By removing the walls between the kitchen and the living room, you will get a feeling of air. Even if the kitchen and living areas remain in place, the total area will be perceived as larger in an open plan.
- You will have new opportunities, for example, to move part of the kitchen to the "island" (recommended for rooms from 18 square meters). The combined layout will allow you to organize a full-fledged dining area.
- The corridor to the kitchen (if it was not possible to attach it to the new space) can be used for a dressing room or an increase in the bathroom.
Rolling shutters covering the entire catering department will help not to see dirty dishes.
Combining the kitchen with the living room: "against"
- Kitchen smells will inevitably spread around the apartment (even with a good hood). Sitting on the couch, you will have to see unwashed dishes or immediately run the dishwasher.
- To combine the kitchen with the living room, a project agreed by the housing inspectors will be required. It may not be agreed if the wall between the rooms is load-bearing, or the kitchen is equipped with a gas stove - in this case, the room must be isolated, have a separate door. To solve these problems, an opening is sometimes allowed to be made in the load-bearing wall if it is additionally strengthened. The same roller shutters in the doorway perfectly suit the requirements of the “door”: compactly retractable, they will cost less than a folding door or a full-fledged sliding partition in the entire wall. If you turn to the gas workers with a statement to cut off your gas supply, the requirements for the inadmissibility of combining the previously gasified kitchen with the neighboring living room will no longer apply to you.
Norms and rules for redevelopment of an apartment
Sanitary norms and rules prohibit placing non-residential areas above residential areas in an apartment building. Therefore, it is impossible to move the kitchen into a room, and it can only be expanded through a corridor or pantry. The exception is the first floor.
It is also necessary to locate the sink and hob within the boundaries of non-residential area. But furniture and other equipment can be installed anywhere. In the case of transferring the sink, for example, to an island, most likely it will be necessary to raise the level of the floor for laying pipes.
Moving the kitchen to another place in the apartment
Moving the kitchen to another place in the apartment
This solution allows you to organize a room on the site of the kitchen by moving the sink with a stove to the corridor or living room. However, this will not be easy.
Expert Opinion:
Irina Albit, designer, architect, decorator, member of the Houzz professional community
“An apartment at the price of a two-room apartment, but with the potential of a three-room apartment, of course, acquires great value. However, most often such an alteration does not leave much choice - the kitchen and living room in most cases will be combined. If an apartment is for sale, be aware that many people do not consider joint studios. In addition, banks that issue mortgages have a lot of restrictions on apartments with redevelopment - thus, a part of potential buyers is cut off.”
Rules and regulations
-The law prohibits the placement of "wet" rooms - kitchens, bathrooms and toilets above the rooms, because in the latter there is no full waterproofing. Therefore, it is legal to move a sink with a hob to the far corner of the room only if you live on the first floor.
-In addition, sanitary standards do not allow toilets and bathrooms to be located above the kitchens, respectively, and you cannot increase your own kitchen at the expense of the bathroom or move it towards the bathroom - because in this way the neighboring bathroom will be above your kitchen. You can use the kitchen as a hallway, corridor or pantry.
-The transfer of the sink will also require the transfer of communications, which is fraught with some difficulties. So, the water flow should pass with a slope (2.3-3.5 cm per m of pipe), which means that you will have to hide the pipes in a box or under the podium. Exit - forced sewerage system. She does not need a slope, the pump allows you to divert drains even vertically.
- Pipes of hot and cold water supply can be carried out in a coupler or under a ceiling. Naturally, you will need waterproofing of the room.
Combining kitchen and loggia
Combining kitchen and loggia
Expert Opinion
Mito Melitonyan, architect
“This redevelopment option - combining a kitchen with a loggia - in my opinion is one of the most faithful, which can improve both the attractiveness and increase the value of the apartment. There is more light, the working area of \u200b\u200bthe kitchen increases. Absolutely the same applies to the combination of loggias with other rooms.”
Options for combining kitchen and loggia
Irina Albit, designer
“Think about the financial side of the redevelopment (combining the kitchen with the loggia): the repair work and the process of agreeing on the redevelopment project are the same for both the 10-meter loggia and the two-square balcony, however, the latter has no effect on the room or will not provide a kitchen.”
Combining loggia and kitchen: coordination
- It is forbidden to bring water heating radiators to the loggia. This is the thinnest place in this redevelopment option - it is necessary to answer the question of where the heating radiator is transferred, since the window sill wall is dismantled in this case.
- The loggia needs to be insulated. There are several options for insulation, but basically this happens by gluing foam plastic at least 5 cm thick, and preferably 10 cm thick, foaming all joints and holes, and placing a warm electric floor.
- Since most often the redevelopment of the unification of the kitchen and the loggia occurs in panel houses, it is better not to dismantle the door threshold, but to raise the floor in the loggia to its height, fill the screed with a large amount of expanded clay, which will provide protection from the cold, which can penetrate from the lower loggia.”
-When combining, they are most often limited to the dismantling of window and door profiles, and the demolition of a window sill block in many cities for panel houses is simply prohibited - check the regulations in your region.
-Combining a loggia with a kitchen means glazing and insulating the balcony. Naturally, the balcony glass should not blow and rain water should not get inside the room. Condensation and high humidity will inevitably turn into mold, and in winter there will also be “hoarfrost” in the apartment.
Combining the kitchen with the hallway
Combining the kitchen with the hallway
Kitchen, combined with the hallway - a rather rare phenomenon. Most often we are talking about a series of small apartments, where the room is adjacent to the kitchen niche in the hallway. However, sometimes designers are faced with requests to prepare a project for joining part of the hall, corridor or hallway to the kitchen area. Technically, these are all non-residential premises, so there should be no problems with coordination.
Expert Opinion
Ruslan Kirnichansky, interior designer
“Extremely dubious decision: when you enter an apartment, go straight to the kitchen - it borders on sanitary standards and ergonomics standards. It is possible to expand the kitchen through a corridor or other non-residential space, but I do not advise making an entrance hall-kitchen, let the kitchen-living room be better, and the places for storing outerwear and shoes will remain at the front door.”
Combination of bathroom and toilet
Combining a bathroom and a toilet: pros
Combining a bathroom with a toilet is a simple redevelopment. It does not require a project for approval. However, the dismantling must be recorded in the BTI documents - otherwise there will be problems if you sell the apartment.
- In the combined room, you can find a place for a boiler, bidet, custom-sized bath or install a shower cabin and a bath at the same time. Where there was previously a door to the toilet, you can put a washing machine or a wardrobe. Finally, you can turn the toilet the way you want.
Combining a bathroom and a toilet: the cons
- Combining a bathroom is impractical if more than three people live in the apartment - queues are inevitable at rush hours. In this case, it makes sense to add a separate toilet with a small sink and a hygienic shower, so as not to wait until the bathroom is free.
Rules and regulations
- Recall that only non-residential premises should be located under the “wet zones”. You can increase the bathroom only by combining it with a toilet or by “cutting off” part of the corridor, wardrobe, pantry, hallway. In the latter case, coordination and development of the project will be required. Expanding "wet zones" means laying waterproofing.
- Look at the technical passport of the apartment - if ventilation channels are laid in the wall between the bathroom and the toilet, it is impossible to combine the bathroom. In some houses, the partition is even a supporting structure.