Many people would like to know how to insulate an apartment with their own hands. The old Soviet-built houses are mostly poorly insulated. Central heating systems in them are very worn out. About how to properly perform such work, and we will talk further in the article.
Stages of insulation
How to prepare an apartment for the winter? The order of work in this case should be as follows:
- Insulation of windows and doors.
- Replacing old heating radiators.
- Wall insulation.
- Insulation of the ceiling and floor.
- Effective ventilation device.
So, let's figure out how to insulate an apartment, in more detail.
Window insulation with rubber bands
The answer to the question of how to insulate an apartment depends, inter alia, on how tight the windows are in it. Of course, dry wooden structures are best replaced with new plastic ones. However, sometimes it happens that there is not enough money for this. In this case, you will have to insulate the old windows. How to do it right? There are several methods of isolation of such structures:
- The use of rubber bands.
- Sealing gaps between the frames.
- Sealing with strips of fabric, paper or tape.
Sealing gums are sold in hardware stores and are narrow tapes made of foam rubber or one of the varieties of soft polymer. Warming is carried out with their help is extremely simple. The tape is attached to the frame using the adhesive layer on it. Performing this procedure, you must try not to stretch the material.
Caulking Insulation
Asked about how to insulate the apartment inside, you should also pay attention to the gaps between the frames and the opening. Sometimes they are very wide. Using a gasket in this case may not help. Large gaps are best to caulk. To do this, you can use rags, pieces of foam rubber or even just paper. On top of the cauliflower, all surfaces should be sealed with masking tape or tape.
Use for sealing putty windows
To the question of how to properly insulate an apartment by sealing windows, there is another answer. You can close the cracks using putty specially designed for this. Such mixtures are applied using a metal spatula. Recently, transparent sealants are often used to insulate windows. The insulation technology in this case is no different from the insulation method with conventional alabaster putty. If the sealant inadvertently gets on the glass, you do not need to wash it. Remove it with a sharp blade after solidification.
Replacing heating radiators
It’s also cold in high-rise buildings because of the low efficiency of old heating radiators. Therefore, asking a question about how to insulate an apartment, it is certainly worth thinking about replacing them. Do this in the warm season, before the start of the heating season. The order of work in this case is as follows:
- Old radiators are being cut.
- Markings are made on the wall, brackets are nailed.
- A new battery is hung on the wall. The nuts included in the kit are screwed onto all four of its outlet pipes.
- Next, two of them (diagonally at the top and bottom) with winding tow and thread pasting are screwed on the inlet and outlet valves.
- Opposite the first on the reverse side of the radiator is a Mayevsky crane.
- The remaining pipe is closed with a special plug.
The method for connecting radiators described above is called diagonal. There are also side and bottom mount. In the first case, both taps - both input and output - are screwed on one side of the battery, above and below. The device for air release and the plug, respectively, are installed on the other. With a lower connection, both valves are mounted on the right and left to the lower nozzles. The Mayevsky crane is always installed opposite the element supplying the coolant.
How to increase the efficiency of heating batteries
How to insulate an apartment with your own hands by replacing heating radiators, you now know. Next, we’ll give some tips on how to make their work more efficient. So:
- If it’s cold in your apartment, you should never cover the batteries with decorative panels.
- When placing radiators in too deep niches under the windows, they will be much worse to warm.
- The battery should be approximately 5 cm from the wall, and not less than 10 cm from the floor and window sill.
Mineral wool wall insulation
Thus, we have examined how to insulate an apartment from the inside by closing windows and a balcony door, as well as replacing heating radiators. Next, consider how to properly insulate the walls. This procedure consists of several stages:
- Walls are thoroughly cleaned of dust and dirt.
- The crate is mounted under the sheets of drywall. It is easiest to make it from a beam of width corresponding to the thickness of the insulation.
- Between the battens, slabs of mineral wool are inserted at a time.
- Then they are additionally fixed to the wall with dowels - “fungi”.
- A vapor barrier film is stretched over the mounted insulation boards . When insulating the room from the inside , the dew point, unfortunately, is inside the walls themselves. Therefore, the insulating material must be carefully protected from the formation of condensation on it. For this purpose, vapor isolators are used. It can be an ordinary thick plastic film or some modern substitute for it. The vapor barrier strips are mounted horizontally, starting from the bottom. Fix them to the crate with thick bars.
- Next, drywall sheets are mounted on the resulting counter-lattice.
- At the final stage, the walls are painted or wallpaper.
Polystyrene foam insulation
There is another answer to the question of how to insulate an apartment from the inside by covering the walls. This can be done with rigid polystyrene boards. The walls are also thoroughly cleaned, degreased and primed. Then, polystyrene foam plates are glued on them . In this case, special adhesives designed for foams are used. The crate is not stuffed. Plates are fixed to the wall unscrewed. Begin installation from below - from the floor. In the corners of the plate cut to the required width with a sharp knife. In addition to the walls, they are fixed with dowels, “fungi”. Next, close up all the joints with white foam. After that, the surface of the walls is covered with a special adhesive composition, into which a reinforcing paint net is pressed . At the final stage, the walls are finished with decorative or ordinary plaster.
The use of foam
Sometimes the insulation of apartments is carried out with polystyrene foam. This material has a low degree of thermal conductivity and is very inexpensive. The answer to the question of how to insulate an apartment with polystyrene foam is also not too complicated. The procedure for performing work in this case is exactly the same as when insulating surfaces with polystyrene foam. The only thing is that you need to handle the foam sheets as carefully as possible. The fact is that they can be very easily broken.
How to insulate the ceiling
Of course, the answer to the question of how to insulate an apartment inside effectively depends on how much the ceiling is able to retain heat. This is especially true for apartments located on the upper floors. The method of insulation of ceilings is no different from the method of insulation of walls. The only thing - in this case, you need to pay maximum attention to fixing the plates to the surface. If you can not use “fungi” when insulating the walls of the dowel, then when installing the insulator to the ceiling, their use is considered mandatory. Otherwise, the plates will simply fall.
How to insulate the floor
The question of how to insulate an apartment with your own hands, if it is located on the first floor, comes down to how to insulate the floors. To do this, first remove the finish. Next, remove the old boards. Opened logs need to be coated with antifungal and enhancing refractory properties of wood compounds. Then, between them, insulation plates are laid by surprise. In this case, you can use both mineral wool and polystyrene foam or expanded polystyrene. The thickness of the insulation should be slightly less than the width of the lag. This is necessary so that eventually there is a ventilation gap between it and the new floorboard. In the next step, a vapor insulator is mounted on top of the insulation. They attach it to the lags on thin slats (two on each side). Then proceed to stuffing the board.
In the event that you wondered how to insulate a corner apartment, insulation of walls, floors and ceilings will be the best answer to it. The fact is that in such rooms the structures freeze much more strongly than in ordinary ones. This is especially true for corners.
Ventilation device
So, how to warm a cold apartment, you now know. However, after the walls, floor and ceiling are insulated, the room can become stuffy and damp. Therefore, at the final stage, you should definitely take care of the effective ventilation device. The easiest option is to buy a finished system. However, such equipment is very expensive. Therefore, in a standard small apartment, you can use a slightly different method of ventilation. To do this, before installing the insulation in the outer walls, under the windows, holes with a diameter of about 10 cm are drilled. Exactly the same will need to be done in the “cake” of the wall insulation.
It is very simple to check the correct operation of a common house ventilation shaft. To do this, you will need to bring a lit lighter to the grills in the kitchen and toilet. If the flame begins to deviate markedly from the vertical axis, then everything is in order. Ventilation is working properly. If this does not happen, you will have to contact the management company and call specialists for verification.
We hope that now you are more or less clear on how to insulate an apartment in a high-rise building with your own hands correctly. Having completed all the above activities, you can make your home as comfortable as possible for living in the cold season.
How to insulate an apartment outside
Since the isolation method from the outside is considered much more effective, despite the complexity of the implementation, it is sometimes used for insulation. However, such a procedure can be carried out independently only when the apartment is located on the first or, as a last resort, on the second floor. To isolate the rooms located above, you will have to call specialists. Next, we will consider how to insulate an apartment from the outside in stages:
- First of all, the crate is stuffed on the walls.
- Next, heat insulating plates are inserted between the bars.
- The walls are covered with waterproofing film with fastening on the bars.
- Siding is carried out.
When installing insulation boards, it is very important to ensure that they necessarily overlap all joints along the perimeter of the apartment.