Almost all the owners, conducting a major reconstruction of an apartment or house, are thinking about covering the balcony. Decorating it from the outside and refining it from the inside, you can get additional living space. Of course, it will be cooler in it than, for example, in the living room or in the bedroom. However, with high-quality work, you can use such a room for a considerable period - from early spring to late autumn. As for winter, with its arrival, the sheathed balcony will be an excellent buffer for cold air.
Of course, it is quite possible to make insulation and finish the balcony with your own hands. But such work will require considerable effort and knowledge of the technology for their implementation, which must be familiarized with in advance.
How to do the installation of finishing the balcony with your own hands? This issue will be considered in this article.
Exterior finish
The outer skin is designed to perform two functions. First of all, it protects the fencing of the balcony, as well as all those materials that are behind it, including hydro, thermal insulation and decorative coatings. The second function of the outer skin is to give this room an attractive appearance.
In order to realize the above functions, you will need to spend time and energy on the preliminary preparation of the balcony. Or rather, on his fence. When decorating a balcony with your own hands, you must adhere to the following scheme of work.
At the first stage, those fencing elements are removed that, due to the duration of operation, are kept rather weak. As a result, only a metal frame should remain near the outer wall. In some cases, it may be a concrete parapet, which is fixed on metal mortgages.
The next stage involves the repair of the fence. This is nothing but the reinforcement of a metal structure, which must be reinforced with additional supporting parts. In the presence of a concrete parapet, the cracks that arise in it are embroidered, filling them with cement mortar. In addition, the concrete slab can be impregnated with reinforcing penetrating compounds. These products will be an excellent protection of the material from the destructive effect of moisture.
When finishing the balcony with your own hands outside, it should be borne in mind that if the old fence is in extremely poor condition, it is advisable to completely dismantle it. In its place, a new frame is installed. It is made from a corner and a profile pipe. In the case of concrete fencing, such work involves the construction of a new parapet from concrete blocks. A prerequisite for this is the reinforcement of the masonry.
If the fence is being replaced during outdoor work, it is important to check how the concrete base can cope with the increased load. But be that as it may, it is recommended to reinforce this plate along the perimeter with the use of a reinforcing belt. In addition, repairs are needed on its crumbling edge. Such work, even if you do the exterior decoration of balconies and loggias with your own hands, it is recommended to entrust it to specialists. After all, such repairs are not only very laborious, but also require a correct assessment of the bearing capacity of the foundation. But this "by eye" will not do.
Materials for external cladding
The exterior design of the finish of the balconies with their own hands provides, as a rule, the use of two options. In the first of them, the fence is lined with siding, and in the second - with corrugated board. There is an economical option for such work. It involves the use of PVC lining. However, as practice shows, such panels "survive" only until the first heavy wind or hail. This leads to the fact that sometimes after three years such a covering of the balcony will require a major replacement.
Siding is, along with corrugated board, quite durable. That is why their use in independent work is the most preferable.
Siding
In ninety percent of cases, this material is fixed horizontally when decorating the balcony. If it is planned to be mounted on a perfectly flat plate, then no preliminary work will be required.
How to make your own balcony decoration if there are surface irregularities? For high-quality performance of work, it will be necessary to make a frame. It is made from wooden bars with a section of 40x40 mm, which are pre-impregnated with an antiseptic. After cutting the necessary parts, they are fixed on the fence.
Having studied the step-by-step instructions for decorating the balcony with your own hands, they begin to perform further work. To mount the frame, first, two vertical fragments are attached close to the walls. After that, the details of the crate are installed, the step of which should not exceed 60 cm. This will not allow the “skin” of the casing. Next, two beams are placed butt on the corners. The biggest burden will fall on them.
The next step is to fasten the horizontal bars from below and above. The bottom is mounted on anchors that are screwed into pre-prepared holes in the ends of the balcony slab. The upper beam is laid on the railing. It will also be a support for future glazing.
When decorating a balcony with your own siding , it is important to ensure that all the bars are aligned on one plane. This can be done with mounting wedges. They are driven into the gaps between the base and the beam. Thus, even the most curved balconies are visually aligned with the help of lining.
After the arrangement of the frame, they begin to install the siding. The beginning of this work is the installation of corner strips. Further, internal corners along the walls are fixed, as well as external, located at the junction of the planes. After that, angular strips are set exactly vertically.
The next stage of exterior decoration of the balcony with siding by yourself involves attaching the starting bar to the bottom of the crate. The plastic panel must be aligned exactly horizontally and placed with the institution in the corner strips. Next, the next row is laid. The siding panels located in it are snapped onto the lower bar and fixed with screws to the crate. Further, all actions are repeated. As for the last panels, sometimes they have to be sawed along. This will allow the edge of the structure to be at the level of the upper beam of the wooden crate. The rows of panels are completed with a finishing profile or a drainage bar.
Perform all the above work is necessary using the suspension system. After all, the arrangement of the frame and the installation of siding while inside the balcony are impossible. In this case, the best way out is to attract specialists. But if the owner nevertheless decided to sheathe the balcony on his own, then he should do this only with high-quality insurance.
Decking
Exterior decoration of a balcony room with a metal profiled sheet having an anticorrosive coating is performed somewhat differently. In this case, the process is not so laborious due to the large dimensions of the parts. In addition, the cost of such material is low.
At the first stage of performing such work under the casing, it is necessary to make a crate. It is a structure consisting of two or three belts of wooden blocks, previously impregnated with an antiseptic. The bottom row of the lathing should be approximately 50 cm from the edge of the railing. And the top one is at the railing level. The bars of this design are fixed to the parapet or anchors, or self-tapping screws. When attaching to a metal frame, bolts inserted into pre-drilled holes fixed from the inside with nuts can be used.
Stiffening ribs during installation must be placed vertically. This will allow water to flow freely. All sheets are fixed with special self-tapping screws having thermowells. With the same fastening elements, corrugated board is connected in places of overlap. At the end of the installation, additional elements are installed, which serve as internal and external corner lining, ebbs, peaks, etc.
Glazing
Do-it-yourself interior decoration of the balcony is not rational in all cases. They resort to it when the owners set themselves the goal of turning this room into comfortable enough to be here in the warm period. And in this case, the interior decoration will need to be protected from precipitation. That is why the lining of the balcony from the inside should be done only after its glazing.
You can call specialists to install translucent structures. But if desired, the installation can be performed independently. At the first stage of their conduct, a base for windows is prepared. It can be installed on the railing. However, sometimes the fence raises doubts about its strength or is simply carried forward. In such cases, it will be necessary to prepare the structure by placing a beam with a cross section of 50x50 mm strictly horizontally on the supports. After that, the parameters of window openings can be finally determined, according to which glazing is ordered. It can be wooden, aluminum, but the most effective in terms of cost and energy saving are PVC windows.
Acquired frames after installing the ceiling canopy are lifted to the balcony railing, aligned in three planes and attached with anchors to the supporting structures. For reliable fixation, mounting plates are used or dowels are inserted into the holes drilled through the frame. Further, all the gaps formed between the opening and the frame are filled with self-expanding foam. At the final stage of such work, the double-glazed windows themselves are installed.
Waterproofing
Before lining the inside of the balcony with your own hands, it is advisable to perform work that will protect the finishing material from damage. For this, waterproofing is done at the initial stage. It involves filling the joints with sealant in those places where the balcony base is adjacent to the fence and walls. For this, ordinary foam can also be used. However, moisture resistant materials are more suitable here. In addition, a layer of mastic made from rubber or bitumen is applied to the concrete base. It will become an impenetrable liquid barrier.
Thermal insulation
After completing the waterproofing work, the installation of material is carried out, which will protect the balcony from the cold. It fits into the cells of a pre-prepared frame located on the inside of the fence. On the same design, the inner lining itself will continue to be held. Mineral wool or polystyrene can serve as thermal insulation material for the balcony, on top of which a vapor barrier membrane or foil polyethylene is laid.
Before you finish the balcony inside with your own hands, on the floor logs, installation of a rough flooring from boards and plywood should be made.
Cladding materials
So, the balcony is protected from moisture and insulated. Then it is trimmed with decorative materials. Which ones are better to choose? In this case, the material may be any. However, when choosing it, it is necessary that the inner lining of the balcony is as follows:
- strong in its mechanical characteristics;
- attractive in appearance.
Consider the two most suitable options according to these criteria.
Lining
This material is a specially shaped board made of solid wood. There is a groove on one side of the lining, and a spike on the other. The dimensions and shape of the latter allow all elements of the casing to be joined together.
Do-it-yourself clapboard decoration of the balcony is an attractive option, as this material:
- not destroyed even with prolonged contact with a humid environment;
- operated for a long period;
- because of its strength, it allows you to attach shelves and other small parts to the casing without first installing mortgages.
The obvious minus is only the price of the material.
How to do the decoration of the balcony with a do-it-yourself clapboard? A step-by-step instruction provides for the implementation of a number of sequential work.
- Boards are cut whose length is 20-30 mm less than the height of the room. Such a gap will be needed so that the casing can freely deform.
- The lining board is pinned to the crate. After alignment, it is nailed to a pre-prepared frame. In this case, the nails are driven at an angle into the groove.
- The next board is mounted. Her spike slides into the groove already installed. Then alignment and fastening are repeated.
- After completion of the inner lining, the wood is treated with a protective compound. For this, waxes, oils, stains and varnishes are used.
In addition to lining, there are also a large number of other natural materials. According to the scheme described above, the installation of a false beam, planken and block house is carried out.
Plastic panels
Such material is used in cases when precipitation will practically enter the room. This is possible with single-row or sliding glazing. At the same time, it is recommended that you finish your balcony with your own panels made of polyvinyl chloride. Such products have a design similar to lining. They are absolutely moisture resistant, which allows you to protect bearing surfaces and insulation by almost 100 percent. In addition, the cost of such material is low.
Finishing the balcony with PVC do-it-yourself panels involves some work. At the first stage, you will need to mount the baseboard. It is located at the junction of the ceiling and walls. This skirting board must have a special groove for the panels. How do you finish the PVC balcony with your own hands? At all corners of the room, the installation of vertical corner plates is necessary. After such preparation, the plastic panels should be cut to size with a saw with small cloves or a knife. The prepared material is inserted into the grooves of the skirting board. The ends that are in the corners should be led into the corner profiles.
How to fix the balcony trim with plastic panels? Do it yourself with your own hands. The plastic is fixed to the pre-prepared frame using grease staples, small self-tapping screws or “liquid nails” glue. It should be borne in mind that the latter option will subsequently become an obstacle to the dismantling of panels.