The inter-apartment wall from the time of Brezhnev was load-bearing. This increased sound insulation in the house. It’s a small thing, but the window sills in such apartments have begun to be made wider. Undoubtedly, the best option among Brezhnevkas can be considered an object in a brick house, since it is warm and the noise is less audible. Also, elevators began to be installed in Brezhnevkas: for transporting goods and people. The staircases have become more spacious.
If we talk about the disadvantages, then you need to understand that Brezhnev’s houses were mainly built from panels. This means that the walls were thin: it was cold in winter, hot in summer from heating by the sun. Fortunately, not all Brezhnevkas had such shortcomings. Houses of series II-29 (9 floors) have thick external walls, which means they are warm and noise is less audible.
If you decide to buy a Brezhnevka, be prepared for the fact that these houses are old, so they need major repairs in the near future.
Another disadvantage is the fact that in some layouts of such houses the kitchen is not quite functionally located. It is located between the bathroom and the outer wall.
A separate point is the presence of a garbage chute. On the one hand, this is convenient, on the other, it is always filled to capacity with garbage, which is a source of unpleasant odor and the cause of rodents and insects.
Brezhnev's layout: the history of Brezhnev's apartments
“Khrushchevkas” were very well suited for the quick and cheap resettlement of USSR citizens in separate square meters, but time passed and more modern solutions were required.
This name comes from the name of Secretary General L.I. Brezhnev, during whose time large-scale construction of this series of houses took place, although some were also built under Khrushchev and were called “early Brezhnev houses”.
In general, the period of construction of buildings lasted from 1964 to the beginning of the 1980s, although this applies to Moscow, in the regions the construction of some layouts related to the “Brezhnevka” buildings continues to this day. The peak of construction occurred in the 70s and 80s. last century, they were built from panels, bricks and rarely from blocks.
Renovation of Brezhnev cars in Russia
The list of houses that are subject to demolition is determined by the local administration of the subject. Brezhnevkas recognized as emergency and those in which the cost of repair is unreasonably high are subject to liquidation.
All regions of Russia, including the Yamalo-Nenets and Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, are participating in the renovation program.
The renovation program is being actively implemented in the following cities:
- Moscow;
- St. Petersburg;
- Samara;
- Chelyabinsk;
- Yekaterinburg.
What are the really good things about Stalins?
1. Wall thickness. All the walls in the buildings of the Stalin era are very thick, which makes it possible to easily maintain an “even” temperature in the rooms and avoid its sudden jumps. In winter, stalinka retains heat well, so it is much warmer in such apartments than in “socket” apartments (even without additional heating). And in the summer, the walls keep life-saving coolness inside, preventing residents from overheating.
2. Reinforced concrete floors (but only in houses of the post-war period).
3. Ceiling height. The average value of this parameter is around 2 meters 90 centimeters, so if someone says that the apartment has high ceilings, then the building is definitely a Stalinist building.
4. The kitchen is quite large. Its area starts from 7 squares and can reach up to 12.
External walls of a panel house
These walls are the thickest and come in two types:
Single-layer panels
Most often, single-layer panels are made of expanded clay concrete with a thickness of 300-350 mm, depending on the climate zone. Expanded clay concrete is suitable for these purposes, both in strength and thermal conductivity.
There are single-layer slabs consisting of cellular concrete. The thickness of such panels also ranges from 300 to 350mm.
Multilayer panels
Most often, such panels consist of two layers of reinforced concrete (external and internal) and polystyrene foam (foam) slabs between them. The standard thickness of such a wall is 380mm.
The internal reinforced concrete layer is 80-100 mm (previously the layer was thinner). The outer reinforced concrete layer is at least 60 mm.
Expanded polystyrene is usually used as insulation, since mineral wool is too “soft” a material, and if it is used for the production of panels, it is very rarely.
Can it be improved?
Despite their advantages, “Brezhnevka” buildings still do not reach modern buildings in terms of their level and comfort of living in them. To make your apartment more comfortable, cosmetic renovations alone may not be enough. But in “Brezhnevki” you can make a successful redevelopment
However, it is important to do this correctly and competently. According to the rules, any significant changes must be recorded in the technical passport for the apartment
There are several rules to follow:
- When remodeling, load-bearing walls must not be touched, as this can lead to the collapse of the house.
- You cannot move the bathroom to another place to prevent flooding of living quarters.
- It is prohibited to use the attic space and combine it with an apartment.
- Make the living space less than 8 square meters. m.
- You cannot change or demolish the floors between floors.
- It is prohibited to independently change the location of gas and water pipes.
- You cannot move radiators from the room to the balcony: otherwise the rooms of residents of neighboring apartments will become cold.
There are changes that do not need to be approved:
- You can do cosmetic repairs in the apartment.
- Replace the heating radiators with others that are similar in appearance to the old ones.
- It is not prohibited to install an air conditioner.
- You can slightly change the place of the gas stove in the kitchen.
The remaining redevelopment options must be approved by a special inspection, and in order to avoid mistakes, it is better to entrust this matter to specialists who know all the nuances. Apartments with 3 rooms lend themselves best to redevelopment, but even with 2 and 1 rooms, redevelopment is possible:
- Often there are built-in wardrobes in the hallway - they can be removed and this will slightly increase the area of the room.
- You can combine a balcony or loggia with a room.
- A good option is to connect the room to the kitchen by making an opening in the wall in the form of a beautiful arch. It is very convenient and functional. In some cases, you can completely demolish the wall, resulting in a studio apartment. In this case, it is better to make zoning using color to separate the kitchen from the living room.
- The Brezhnevka apartment has a separate bathroom, but its size is extremely small, and this can cause discomfort to the apartment owners. Sometimes it makes sense to combine a toilet and a bathroom to increase space. As a result, a washing machine will be able to fit in the bathroom, and there will be more free space in the kitchen. In addition, it is possible to expand the space of the bathroom due to the area of the corridor. Of course, the corridor will become narrower, but there will be more space in the bathroom. It is possible to change the location of the door leading to the bathroom, move it to the corridor and hang a mirror, thus saving space.
- There is an option to divide one large room with two windows into two small ones. When remodeling, you need to take into account the material from which the “brezhnevka” is made and the location of the rooms in the apartment.
- It is easier to remodel a brick house, since there are fewer load-bearing structures here than in a panel house
- In a panel house with many load-bearing structures, the most popular and simplest type of redevelopment is combining a bathroom.
- A “vest” apartment (in which the rooms are located on opposite sides of the entrance) provides many possibilities for redevelopment. Most often, the living room is combined with the kitchen, or two small ones are made from one large room.
- The most difficult thing to do is redevelopment in the so-called “trailer” apartment. Here the rooms are rectangular in shape, one of them is a walk-through room. This design resembles a train carriage in appearance and is more typical for “Khrushchev” buildings, but is sometimes found in “Brezhnevka” buildings.
Thickness of the internal walls of a panel house
Internal walls are also of two types: firstly, these are load-bearing walls, on which the entire structure of the house rests, and secondly, these are internal partitions, which serve exclusively to divide the area of the house or apartment into rooms.
Thickness of load-bearing walls of a panel house
Load-bearing panels of reinforced concrete structures are usually from 140 to 200 mm thick. To be more precise, the most common panels have thicknesses of 140mm, 180mm and 200mm.
It is very rare to find a load-bearing wall 120mm thick.
Thickness of internal partitions
In most panel houses, internal partitions consist of gypsum concrete panels, the thickness of which does not exceed 80mm.
Sometimes the thickness of the internal partitions of a panel house varies from 80mm to 100mm.
How to distinguish a load-bearing wall of a panel house from a partition
When remodeling an apartment, you need to know exactly where the load-bearing walls are located, which cannot be touched, and where there are simply internal partitions that can be demolished, moved, etc.
Remember! When moving or demolishing walls in an apartment, you must first order a redevelopment project from a licensed organization. If this is not done and the layout is changed without approval, then in the future problems may arise with the design and re-decoration of your apartment.
The easiest way, without drawings and projects, to determine where the load-bearing wall is and where it is not, is to measure the thickness of the wall with a tape measure or ruler.
I have already talked about the thickness of load-bearing walls, it starts from 120mm. Therefore, we take a ruler and measure the wall, if it is greater than or equal to 120mm, then this wall is load-bearing, if less, then it is a partition.
Using this method, you can quite accurately determine the type of wall, since in most cases the panels of a panel house have standard sizes, but it must be remembered that the thickness of the wall is measured without finishing layers, i.e. without plaster, wallpaper, additional internal insulation, and so on.
Source
Advantages and disadvantages
"Brezhnevki" are an improved version of the "Khrushchevka". Apartments have become larger in area. If the minimum area of the "Khrushchev" buildings was 31 square meters. m, then in “Brezhnevka” it increased to 33 sq. m. The maximum area in 4-room apartments could reach 76 square meters. m.
In multi-storey buildings, elevators and garbage chutes appeared in them, which significantly increased the comfort of living in these houses. At the same time, clogged garbage disposals could cause unpleasant odors, insects and rodents.
If we talk about the design, then in the “Brezhnevka” buildings not only the external walls of the house became load-bearing (as was the case in the “Khrushchevka”), but also the walls between the apartments, which, on the one hand, gave the building greater stability, and on the other hand, made it difficult to redevelop , since it is prohibited to demolish load-bearing walls.
Another advantage was that the bathroom became separate. It remained combined only in some one-room apartments. Undoubtedly, this was a big plus. The height of the ceilings in the Khrushchev buildings was approximately 2.4 meters, in the Brezhnev buildings it became 2.7 meters. The area of the staircases has also become slightly larger.
If in the “Khrushchevka” one of the rooms was a passage, then in the “Brezhnevka” all the rooms became isolated and could open on different sides. Instead of balconies, loggias sometimes appeared. Undoubtedly, this was a big plus.
However, kitchens, if they have increased in size, have not increased by much. On average, as in the “Khrushchev” buildings, their area was 6-7 square meters. m. The courtyards also remained quite landscaped and cozy.
If we talk about the disadvantages of the “Brezhnevka”, we can say that in houses of this type, built from thin panels, it was cold in winter and hot in summer. In addition, these panels had poor sound insulation properties. Also, the “Khrushchev” apartments had built-in wardrobes and storage rooms, while the “Brezhnevka” apartments had them only in the corridors.
Typical 3-room layout
In a typical 3-room apartment, living space is distributed in different ways, and some options are very convenient, while others can cause discomfort.
There is an option with two small and one large room, with one isolated room and two adjacent rooms. There is a so-called “airplane” scheme, when the windows of the rooms face different sides of the house.
Apartments with isolated rooms are considered optimal. In the standard type of apartment with three rooms there is a storage room, which, according to many designers, can be converted into a wardrobe.
If there are children in the family, then it makes sense to distribute the premises as follows: set aside one room for the nursery, leave one for the bedroom, and give the larger one to the living room. Many 3-room apartments have a separate bathroom, they are located as far as possible from the stairs and elevator, the area ranges from 56 to 80 sq. m. m.
Typical layout of Brezhnevka apartments
Typical "Brezhnevka" houses were built during Brezhnev's time - from 1964 to the beginning of the 80s.
Unlike the Khrushchev buildings, such houses had a larger number of floors and an increased area of apartments. In the very first apartments there was often a “Khrushchev refrigerator”, which was a closet under the kitchen window. This solution was borrowed from the Khrushchev era. The bathroom was created separately. Subsequently, the layout changed slightly; some of the solutions are still used today.
Brezhnevkas are characterized by an improved layout. But this is true only in relation to “Khrushchev” buildings; as for “Stalin” buildings, they are more comfortable for living. In Brezhnevka houses, the ceilings are not too high, the kitchens are small (about 7-9 m2). The number of rooms varies from 1 to 5.
One of the varieties of “brezhnevka” apartments are hotel-type apartments. They are small, their total area is 12-18 square meters. Such apartments were intended for temporary stay, but then most of them were assigned on a permanent basis.
The Brezhnev houses have an elevator, a garbage chute, and the ceiling height is 2.65 meters.
Most buildings are poorly insulated and have recently undergone major renovations to improve energy efficiency.
Apartment layouts of standard series - Brezhnevki:
Rice. 7 — Layouts of one-room apartments in Brezhnevka
Rice. 8 — Layouts of two-room apartments in Brezhnevka
Rice. 9 — Layouts of three-room apartments in Brezhnevka
Rice. 10 — Layouts of four-room apartments in Brezhnevka
How can low-income people and military personnel get on the waiting list for housing? How to prove to the state that you need free housing and what documents need to be provided? Read more in the article.
Loan refinancing - what is it, how and where to get it? Read.
Kinds
There are TsEK (elite) and mass (standard) Brezhnevkas. Externally, these two types of buildings are practically no different.
Tsek's houses were intended for residence of members of the CPSU Central Committee, senior military officials and other representatives of the ruling class of the USSR. Buildings were built from bricks with reinforced concrete floors. The TsEK buildings have spacious lobbies, rooms for concierges, and some even have underground garages. The area of the apartments is from 75 m2 to 210 m2.
Standard Brezhnevkas were built for ordinary citizens. They are distinguished by a large number of standard series and a variety of layouts. The ceiling height in such houses is 2.7 m. In mass Brezhnevka apartments with an area from 22 to 88 m2.
Layout options depending on the room
The layout of a 4-room apartment differs from most others in the different rooms and their number. And the rooms can be separate or walk-through, which is not often seen in two-room apartments.
Design of a four-room apartment in a panel house
There are various variations of apartment plans. But the main option for a panel house is the option with three separate bedrooms, which are connected by a corridor. As a rule, one of the rooms is larger than the others.
In Khrushchev
Khrushchev apartments, as we know, are small rooms, namely: narrow passageways, tiny kitchens, combined bathrooms and toilets, and low ceilings. However, four-room apartments are also found.
A modern person is unlikely to like a 4-room Khrushchev house, but it will be interesting to equip it too. 4-room Khrushchev house, the layout of which will be presented in the photo.
In Stalin
Things are completely different in Stalinist apartments. High ceilings, more than 3 meters, wide corridors, separate toilets and bathrooms, impressive kitchen sizes. And due to the fact that the houses were built of brick, they have good sound insulation and better thermal protection than panel houses. This is where a designer can roam.
The main differences between “Brezhnevka” and “Khrushchev”
- Large area of apartments and enlarged window openings. Enlarged window openings are the very indicator that will allow you to easily determine that in front of you is a “Brezhnevka”. Just look at the front of the house.
- The rooms and bathrooms became separate, which was a serious improvement in the quality of life of citizens. This was very relevant, given that in many families several generations lived in the same apartment.
- Additional built-in wardrobes provided for by the project appeared, which optimized the cost of purchasing furniture. Now old cabinets can be replaced with modern analogues, and in many “Khrushchev” buildings the corridor is simply not able to accommodate storage space.
- In 5-story buildings, instead of 4 apartments per floor, in most cases there are 3. Entrances have become more spacious.
Opportunities for redevelopment of Brezhnevka
The construction of Brezhnevkas has been actively carried out since the times of the USSR. The housing became a godsend for the authorities. After all, it was comfortable for citizens and beneficial for the state. Previously, purchasing such apartments was the dream of any Soviet citizen who did not want to live in common communal apartments.
Time passes, houses get older, and the rhythm of life changes. Today, Brezhnevka apartments are not as popular and comfortable as modern apartment options. Apartments with two rooms cause particular dissatisfaction: the Brezhnevka 2-room layout is an option that is inconvenient for most people. The average resident of Russia cannot afford to buy an apartment in a complex under construction, so you need to look for a way out in another direction
Please note the change in the Brezhnevka configuration - the redevelopment. There are a large number of designers working in this area who can make an apartment more comfortable to live in, giving it a modern look
In order not to be unfounded, in our article we will talk about the features of the Brezhnevka redevelopment and which options are popular among citizens.
Features of purchasing an apartment and registering at a new place of residence
What to look for when choosing an apartment
- Check that the house is not on the list of buildings slated for demolition.
- Make sure natural ventilation is functioning properly.
- Find out the number of the management company and ask about the technical condition of the house (leaks, date of replacement of risers and garbage chutes).
- Assess the level of sound insulation. There should be no noise from the street when the windows are closed.
- Inspect the façade of the building. Make sure there are no cracks in it. It is also worth paying attention to the seams between the tiles. They should not crumble or fall out.
How to register in an apartment
You can apply for registration at the MFC, passport office, department of the Main Department of Migration Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the management company of the house. If you have a verified account, you can carry out this procedure on the State Services portal. Registration is issued free of charge within 3-7 days after submitting documents. The registration mark is affixed to the passport. To register you will need:
- statement;
- passport;
- document confirming ownership of the apartment.
The owner of the Brezhnevka must be present during registration. To register at a new place of residence, you do not need to check out of your old apartment. When completing documents, the citizen is automatically deregistered at the previous registration address.
Typical layout of Brezhnevka apartments
Typical "Brezhnevka" houses were built during Brezhnev's time - from 1964 to the beginning of the 80s.
Unlike the Khrushchev buildings, such houses had a larger number of floors and an increased area of apartments. In the very first apartments there was often a “Khrushchev refrigerator”, which was a closet under the kitchen window. This solution was borrowed from the Khrushchev era. The bathroom was created separately. Subsequently, the layout changed slightly; some of the solutions are still used today.
Brezhnevkas are characterized by an improved layout. But this is true only in relation to “Khrushchev” buildings; as for “Stalin” buildings, they are more comfortable for living. In Brezhnevka houses, the ceilings are not too high, the kitchens are small (about 7-9 m2). The number of rooms varies from 1 to 5.
One of the varieties of “brezhnevka” apartments are hotel-type apartments. They are small, their total area is 12-18 square meters. Such apartments were intended for temporary stay, but then most of them were assigned on a permanent basis.
The Brezhnev houses have an elevator, a garbage chute, and the ceiling height is 2.65 meters.
Most buildings are poorly insulated and have recently undergone major renovations to improve energy efficiency.
Apartment layouts of standard series - Brezhnevki:
Rice. 7 — Layouts of one-room apartments in Brezhnevka
Rice. 8 — Layouts of two-room apartments in Brezhnevka
Rice. 9 — Layouts of three-room apartments in Brezhnevka
Rice. 10 — Layouts of four-room apartments in Brezhnevka
How can low-income people and military personnel get on the waiting list for housing? How to prove to the state that you need free housing and what documents need to be provided? Read more in the article.
Loan refinancing - what is it, how and where to get it? Read here.
Description of apartments
For the first time, in the houses of that period there appeared not just more comfortable one-, two- and three-room apartments, but also spacious four-room apartments. Such housing was intended for large families. The living area of the apartment has increased significantly, and the layout has become more convenient.
There are about 40 types of standard apartment layouts, and their typical sizes are as follows:
- one-room – 27-34 sq. m;
- two-room – 38-47 sq. m;
- three-room apartment – 49-65 sq.m. m;
- four-room – 58-76 sq.m. m.
The area of a two-room "Brezhnevka" apartment is approximately equal to that of a three-room "Khrushchevka" apartment, but the size of the kitchens and hallways remains the same. Windows are often located on parallel walls of the building, that is, they face the courtyard on one side and a busy street on the other. There is space for a built-in wardrobe in the narrow corridor, and the apartment also has mezzanines and storage rooms.
In some layout options, a so-called winter refrigerator is provided under the window sill in the kitchen. In many standard houses, the walls have become thinner, and this makes the apartments cold in winter and hot in summer. Of course, “Brezhnevka” apartments are inferior to apartments with a new and improved layout, but still they are a better option than “Khrushchevka”.
Series and layouts
SERIES 1-464A
5-storey panel houses
1966-1973
general characteristics of apartments
kitchen area
: 6.2 sq.m.
sanitary unit
: separate
ceiling height
: 2.5 m
additionally
: balconies (depth 0.9 m), built-in wardrobes
| 1-room |
| 2-room apartments |
| 3-room apartments |
| 4-room apartments |
| SERIES 1-335A | |
| 5-storey panel houses | 1966-1967 |
| there are 3 or 4 apartments on the site | general characteristics of apartments |
| kitchen area : 6.0 sq.m. sanitary unit : separate (in 1-room apartments - combined) ceiling height : 2.5 m additionally : balconies (depth 0.9 m) - mostly absent on the 1st floors, built-in wardrobes, mezzanines, storage rooms | |
| 5-storey panel houses | 1967-1970 |
| there are 3 or 4 apartments on the site | general characteristics of apartments |
| kitchen area : 6.0 sq.m. sanitary unit : separate ceiling height : 2.5 m additionally : balconies (depth 0.9 m) - may be absent on the 1st floors, built-in wardrobes, mezzanines, storage rooms |
| 1-room (1966-1967) |
| 1-room (1967-1970) |
| 2-room apartments (1966-1967) |
| 2-room apartments (1967-1970) |
| 3-room (1966-1967) |
| 3-room apartments (1967-1970) |
| 4-room (1966-1967) |
| 4-room (1967-1970) |
| 1-room |
| 2-room apartments |
| 3-room apartments |
Let's consider redevelopment options
Brezhnevka, Khrushchev and apartments in the house of the P44T series. With some smart thinking, a 2-room living space can easily be converted into a 3-room one. Just don’t forget that all upcoming actions must be legalized
We will begin from this important point
Review of housing prices in Moscow
| District (metro station) | Building type | Number of rooms | Area, m2) | Price (million rubles) |
| Civil | I-209A, 1971 | 1 | 36,4 | 14,4 |
| VDNH | II-67 (Vulykha Tower) | 3 | 70 | 20 |
| Babushkinskaya | P-44 | 3 | 80 | 19,6 |
| Preobrazhenskaya Square | II-18 | 1 | 40,7 | 11,9 |
| River Station | II-67 (Vulykha Tower) | 3 | 94 | 24 |
| Pervomayskaya | P-47 | 2 | 54 | 14 |
| Khovrino | II-18 | 2 | 48,7 | 9,5 |
What is “Brezhnevka”?
Standard “Brezhnevka”, which can be found in any city // Dekoriko.Ru
The long period and mass construction of such housing led to the fact that “Brezhnevka” became the basis of the housing stock of large Russian cities. At the same time, they differ greatly in appearance and internal structure; they are conventionally divided into early and late “Brezhnevkas”. The latter were built in the late 80s and early 90s and are still considered new buildings, so we’ll focus on the earlier options.
In Perm, “Brezhnevkas” are found literally on every corner // Metragi.ru
The early “Brezhnevka” buildings are almost no different from the “Khrushchevka” ones - these are five-story buildings with 3-5 entrances with 20 apartments in each. The main external difference is the roof. In Brezhnev's houses it is always flat and covered with bitumen, in Khrushchev's it is multi-slope, that is, triangular, covered with slate.
Inside, the first Brezhnev cars were also not far removed from their predecessors, although it’s worth giving them their due - the layouts became more comfortable. Separate bathrooms appeared, the area of the kitchens increased slightly - from 5.5 to 6 sq.m.
Separate bathroom - better than the “invention” of Brezhnevs // Daria Churilova
But now in the kitchen there is room to flourish // Daria Churilova
Also, rooms in two- and three-room apartments became isolated - in Khrushchev’s houses at least one room was always adjacent. At the same time, dark and narrow hallways were preserved, and the total area of apartments on average even decreased. It turns out that this had a practical meaning.
The rooms have become more isolated, but they are now connected by a narrow corridor // Daria ChurilovaGennady Igoshin // “New Companion”
Gennady Igoshing, chief architect of Perm in 1970-1997:
– At the end of the 1950s, the state housing policy was revised. Individual projects of the Stalinist period have been replaced by mass standard development with minimum permissible apartment sizes. The volume of commissioned housing increased sharply and made it possible to quickly resettle hundreds of barracks houses in Perm. Moreover, people were not housed in communal apartments, as, for example, in Moscow and Leningrad, but each family was given a separate one. New houses were specially designed so that it was impossible to accommodate several families in one apartment. The principle was strictly observed: one family - one apartment, albeit small, but its own, without strangers sharing it.
A little history
The Great Patriotic War destroyed many cities, so immediately in the post-war period the main task was to provide people with at least some kind of housing. People even agreed to dormitories and barracks. Several years pass, and every working person wants to get their own, separate housing. This is how the standard five-story Khrushchev-era apartments appeared - rather cramped and not always well-planned apartments, but they were their own. Initially, it was planned to build them for a relatively short period of time - 20-30 years, solely to temporarily accommodate people before it was possible to build a spacious and bright apartment for each of them. Alas, this was not destined to come true.
But after a few more years, people wanted to get not only their own, but also more spacious apartments. In addition, there was an increased influx of people from villages, where living conditions were much worse than in cities. Therefore, from the construction of five-story buildings they immediately switched to the construction of 8-9 and even 12-16 storey buildings.
It was they who received the name “Brezhnevka”, since they began to be built in the mid-60s of the last century. Officially, only apartments in buildings built during the reign of Leonid Ilyich are called Brezhnevkas. But in fact, the building plan, sometimes slightly modified and sometimes unchanged, was widely used until the mid-90s. And even today, engineers do not forget about these developments, often using them during construction.
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Memo
When thinking through the interior of a small room in a panel house, you need to take into account the following details:
The furniture in a 2-room Khrushchev house should be small-sized, modular: a coffee table, which, if necessary, will turn into a dining table, a folding bed, a corner wardrobe.
To add functionality or decorate a one- or two-room apartment, you can use ceilings. For example, you can install an LCD TV above the bed in the bedroom.
If a two-room Khrushchev house with an area of 60 sq.m. has a balcony, it should be attached to the living area.
If possible, it is worth developing a design project for 2-room or small spaces in the house together with specialists.
Soundproofing
If you plan to insulate your home, then it is advisable to immediately increase the soundproofing parameters of the Brezhnevka apartment . This will reduce audibility, since not all people are happy to monitor the personal lives of their neighbors.
To create sound insulation, materials are used, presented in the form of film or plates. They are fixed simultaneously with thermal insulation materials along the entire perimeter of the ceiling, walls or floor.
Khrushchevka
A typical Khrushchev apartment has small rooms, low ceilings, a small bathroom and a narrow corridor.
Living in such conditions is not comfortable, fortunately, changing the internal space of the Khrushchev building is not difficult: the partitions inside it are not load-bearing walls.
If you remove the wall separating the room and the kitchen, 2 meters of free space will appear.
By combining a bathroom with a toilet, you will increase the corridor.
You can connect rooms and zone the resulting studio using plasterboard structures.
The doorway between the corridor and the room is expanded with an arch.
You can also enlarge the corridor at the expense of one of the rooms by moving the wall separating them deeper into the room.
Features of kitchen design in Brezhnevka
Corner and central apartments have a kitchen, which is adjacent to the corridor. This point eliminates the possibility of combining such a room with other rooms to increase the area.
Most often, changes involve removing the door and creating an arch. Due to this, you can make the kitchen visually larger, but an effective odor removal system is required.
Combining a small kitchen and living room
A more complex option is to combine the kitchen with the living room. Due to this, it is possible to make family evenings more interesting. Such a project is being implemented taking into account the following points:
- The wall to be removed must be non-load-bearing.
- Such work can only be carried out after the project has been approved.
Do not forget that when combining rooms, the smell and noise will spread throughout the apartment.
Housing Features
It's easy to remember where the names of the buildings came from
During the reign of the important party leader L.I.
Brezhnev, large-scale development of various territories took place. “Brezhnevki” replaced the old “Khrushchevka” buildings, which were often disappointing with their layout.
This decision was explained by the sharp increase in the number of people in Russia; it helped resettle a huge number of ordinary families with minimal investment.
The peak of construction was noted in the eighties. New buildings were most often built from reinforced concrete slabs, which helped speed up the process of their creation and improve sound insulation. Despite the positive aspects of this decision, the result was that the rooms became colder.
There was also an alternative solution - brick, so many buildings were erected without slabs. The height of the brick-type “brezhnevki” generally reached sixteen floors.
Location in the city of Minsk
In Minsk, “Brezhnevkas” are quite common. They are located not only in the city center, but also in many residential areas. You can see houses from the Brezhnev period in the microdistricts around the Pushkinskaya metro station. Also, many Brezhnev-type houses are located in the microdistricts: Chizhovka, Serebryanka, Kurasovshchina, Green Meadow.
In the new microdistricts, they tried to provide the necessary infrastructure: gardens, schools, public service centers. Urban planning standards provided for all the necessary infrastructure within the new districts, without the need to leave the center to resolve everyday issues, such as repairing shoes, etc.
Brick "Brezhnevka", st. Gikalo, 28.
Is it possible to convert Brezhnevka
Despite all the advantages of Brezhnevka, many citizens are upset by the shortcomings that have not been eliminated. And the most serious of this is the small kitchen area. Still, seven square meters is not a suitable indicator; people don’t dream about it. Therefore, often even citizens who have a wonderful four-room apartment at their disposal seriously ask themselves the question: is it possible to fix everything?
In fact, everything can be changed. But for this you need to be careful and attentive. In general, the best option would be to call and call the experts. Yes, you'll have to pay a little.
But they will quickly be able to find a plan of your building in order to examine it and draw up a suitable work plan that will definitely not damage the main structures or put anyone’s life at risk.
The fact is that in old panel apartments almost all walls are considered load-bearing. Therefore, you should not touch them during repair work, and if you still have to, then you need to do this in the most careful way possible, because accuracy has never failed anyone. So what options can help?
- Balcony. Often in this housing, access to the balcony is only in the kitchen. After performing various redevelopment manipulations, you can attach the balcony to the room. But, you will have to pay a lot of money for the complex of work performed: demolition of the wall, strengthening the opening, glazing, improving the balcony. But at the end you can get an additional three square meters. m for a room.
- Built-in wardrobe. Often there is a built-in wardrobe between the kitchen and the next room. Its area is very good - from 1 to 1.5 square meters. m. By performing the usual redevelopment (removing a cabinet whose walls are made of wood), you can enlarge your kitchen.
Of course, 1 sq. m is not very much, but for a kitchen of 6 square meters. m such an increase is only in favor. In addition, various partitions and corners will go away, which will help gain a little more space that will become useful.
If you need to partially increase the area of a standard kitchen, but there is no cabinet or balcony in the room, and your small apartment does not allow you to allocate a couple of free meters to attach them to the kitchen, then there is another way out, you can create an opening in the wall separating the kitchen from the room. This is quite convenient and also helps make the area of several rooms a little larger.
Sometimes it is best to completely demolish one wall between the kitchen and the room. As a result, you can make a studio apartment. A lot of space will be freed up. All that remains is to zone everything well, separating the rooms with a color scheme or different finishing materials.
The kitchen will remain a kitchen, the living space will remain a living room, and a dining room can be placed in the center - owners of one-room housing can only dream of such luxury.
By the way, another option that may upset the owners of Brezhnevka is the very small size of the bathroom. Yes, most apartments have separate bathrooms. But even in a 2-3 room apartment, its area is very small. Sometimes you can’t even install a washing machine, which, of course, upsets people.
There is another way to fix everything: combining the bathroom. Of course, this can cause a lot of problems, especially if there are a lot of people in the apartment. But in the end, you can get a lot of space, this is enough to put the necessary equipment.
When decorating rooms in “Brezhnevka”, give your voice to light colors and small furniture, zone the rooms in different ways, and then you can get a stylish and ideal apartment. Brezhnevka 1, the design can be seen in the photo on the Internet to compare and think about what can be changed.
Any high-quality work on remodeling and updating an apartment should be trusted to the craftsmen, since it is easy for them to check the housing plan, perform a full analysis, select the necessary options for repair measures, and discuss all manipulations with higher organizations.
All about Brezhnevkas: panel houses
We are unlikely to be mistaken if
we say that the majority of apartments on the secondary economy class housing market are Brezhnevkas . They are the ones sung in Eldar Ryazanov’s film “The Irony of Fate , or Enjoy Your Bath , which coincided with massive construction at the time of its release . Throughout the Soviet Union , entire districts of identical gray houses sprang up like mushrooms , and one could easily get lost in the new neighborhoods . is also easy to get lost in the numerous series of these houses built throughout the long history of the Brezhnevkas . That’s why we decided to figure out what “Brezhnevka” is ? What is special about such apartments ? What should a person who decides to buy one of them ? And what are its pros and cons ? We are talking about all the series of apartment buildings called “Brezhnevka” (last time these were block series) , and we continue our detailed analysis with a story about panel and panel - frame houses .
Panel houses
Last time, we ended our analysis of block houses with a story about the I-700 series (built in 1977-1994), which belongs to the late Brezhnev group of apartment housing, which can be classified as “both yours and ours.” The fact is that these houses are already panel houses, but, nevertheless, they are in the same “frame” with block houses, having in common with them the serial letter “I” in the name. The series can be recognized by its height of 22 floors and stepped façade. At the entrance there are two passenger and two freight-passenger elevators, and the layout of the apartments is considered successful unlike the block “predecessors”: - there is a large hall and a kitchen of more than 10 sq.m. The houses are rated quite highly on the secondary economy-class housing market in Moscow, but in other regions they simply do not exist.
By the way, what is the difference between block houses and panel houses? Everything is quite simple. First of all, the dimensions of the building elements: in a panel house, the height of the floor corresponds to the height of the reinforced concrete panel, and the width determines the width of the rooms. Block houses are assembled from expanded clay concrete and slag concrete blocks. Their size is smaller than the panel size, so there are several blocks per floor wall. The floors in both the first and second cases are hollow reinforced concrete slabs. Many of the disadvantages of block and panel houses are the same: low ceilings, poor sound and heat insulation, holes in the joints of blocks and panels, cracks between floor slabs. But block houses have fewer internal load-bearing walls, which simplifies redevelopment. In recent years, multi-storey block houses have not been built, since block technology is considered outdated, and panel buildings continue to be built. The panels have increased in size, received a multi-layer structure and have become much more diverse.
The initial Moscow panel series is I-515/9M (the houses were built from 1957 to 1976). Like the II-18/9 series belonging to block houses, the series of the first panels can be considered both early Brezhnevka and late Khrushchevka. You can recognize it by its cladding with small square tiles of white, bluish or beige shades, and the number of entrances here starts from four. The series version - I-515/9Ш - is externally distinguished by paired trapezoidal balconies, and its advantage is the ceiling height of 264 cm. In both cases, it is possible to install openings in the interior walls, and the disadvantage is considered to be miniature 6-meter kitchens (although this is not catastrophic 4 .5 square). The overall sizes of the apartments are also small, three-room apartments, for example, less than 60 sq.m. So far the houses in this series have not been demolished, but in the future mass demolition is quite possible.
Series II-49 , represented by nine-story buildings in several sections, was built from 1965 to 1968 in Moscow, the Moscow region, Tolyatti and Crimea. During construction, glazed colored tiles were used for cladding for the first time, which had a positive effect on the appearance of the facade, but there were plenty of disadvantages inside the apartments. So, the ceiling height here is, alas, 2.5-2.55 meters, and the kitchen area is only 6 square meters. As for the total area, the sizes of two-room apartments vary from 45 to 47 sq.m., and three-room apartments do not exceed 60 sq.m. In addition, the series became notorious in connection with the so-called “phenolic houses” (the structural elements of some “representatives” of the series contain phenol, which is hazardous to health).
The multi-sectional panel series I-605/9 and its 12-story variety I-605/12 , which are available only in Moscow and the Moscow region, are somewhat better in quality. They were built in 1965-1972 and are not subject to demolition. The size of the kitchen here is a little more “encouraging”: approximately 6.5 square meters, and the total size of two-room and three-room apartments is the same as in the previous version - 45-47 and about 60 square meters. respectively. The ceilings have grown to 264 cm and no longer look so oppressive. Interior partitions, as in previous series, are made of gypsum concrete.
Often found in Moscow and some other cities are the multi-sectional 12-story series II-57 and its modifications - 9-story and 17-story (built in 1963-1970). The series is easy to identify by its paired or quadruple balconies, the line of which seems rounded. The ceiling height here is 264 cm, only the one-room apartment has a large kitchen, while in the two-room and three-room apartments one has to be content with the standard 6 sq.m. The size of a two-room apartment is still about 45 sq.m., and a three-room apartment is a little more spacious - 63 sq.m. What is encouraging is that the houses in the series will be thoroughly renovated in the coming years.
All of the listed series belong to the early Brezhnevkas and are considered low-class housing.
Panel frame houses
Due to the high cost, the 1MG-600 was not built for long. In Moscow and the region from 1964 to 1967, only about 30 such nine-story buildings with 4-6 entrances were built. The layout of the apartments is considered quite successful: there are large kitchens and not the lowest ceiling height of 260 cm. The related series 1MG-601 was built from 1965 to 1974. exclusively in Moscow, and there are more such examples throughout the capital: in total, about 80 houses were built. The sizes of apartments and layouts are quite varied, and the series itself is very variable. Judge for yourself: the number of entrances is from 1 to 4, floors are from 14 to 24, the ceiling height can be either 248 or 264 cm. The layouts have one thing in common: a large kitchen, except for the “unfortunate” 4-room apartment. Some buildings in the series are designed and built in the manner of hotels and hostels, and therefore have lobbies on the ground floor.
A variant of this series - 1MG-601-441 (which stands out strongly against the general production background) - was built in 1971-1976. for embassy workers and employees of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The houses of the elite series are distinguished by their layout, quality of workmanship, and advantageous location (for example, the so-called “German Town” on Vernadsky Avenue). The houses were built in a “limited edition”; there are about twenty of them in total.
The Moscow late Brezhnev panel also includes houses of the P series: P-3, P-4, P-42, P-43, P-44, P-46, P-55 . They are all very similar in their characteristics. There are two elevators in the entrances, one of which is usually passenger-and-freight. The outer walls are three-layer (from 30 to 35 cm), and the inner walls are made of ordinary reinforced concrete (14 to 18 cm thick). Internal apartment partitions are made of concrete or gypsum concrete with a thickness of 8 to 12 cm. The bathroom is usually separate, all rooms in the apartments are isolated, the ceiling height is 264 cm. And all apartments have large loggias. The area of one-room and two-room apartments is usually average: one-room apartment - from 35 to 39 sq.m., two-room apartment - from 50 to 55 sq.m. Treshki are not so “boring” in their monotony and vary more in size. The smallest ones are 62-66 sq.m. - in P-42 and P-43. The largest are 80-82 sq.m. - in P-46 and in part of three rubles P-3. In the remaining apartments P-46 and in P-55 - from 70 to 73 sq.m., in P-44 - from 72 to 77 sq.m. All apartments of all listed series have spacious kitchens from 8.5 to 10 sq.m. and electric stoves.
The P-3 series was distinguished by its rather low construction cost and successful layouts. Exterior walls are usually white with red, orange or blue. Together with the P-44 series, it belongs to the long-lived series in Moscow and Moscow Region; these houses were built until 1998. One of the first representatives of the series is the 1980 Olympic Village in the Troparevo district of Moscow. The houses there are mostly 16-17-storey, multi-section, but in the southern regions of Moscow there are several low-rise buildings of the series. In addition to Moscow, the series is widely distributed in the Moscow region.
Series P-4 are beautiful single-entrance 16-22-story towers in white and light blue, which, unfortunately for Muscovites, are rare. Of course, there are disadvantages here: this series differs from the P-3 not for the better in terms of thin interior partitions, which worsens sound insulation. On the other hand, the apartments have good layouts, but due to the peculiarities of the partitions, they are considered not very suitable for redevelopment.
The twin series P-42 and P-43 are represented by 16-story panel towers of greenish color, single or double, with touching corners. Such panels were built only in Moscow and the region and had their own characteristics. In P-42 there were four-room apartments, but there were no one-room apartments, and in P-43 it was the other way around, which is why this series was more popular: 25 versus 220 houses built, respectively. P-42 was built in 1974-1979, P-43 - a little longer, until 1985. The houses are considered to be of quite high quality, and among the shortcomings we note that they do not always have good thermal insulation.
The P-46 series is another popular Brezhnev long-liver. The colors of the houses (they were also called Czech, since the series was developed jointly with Czech designers) are brown or white and blue, the number of entrances is two or more. The series was successfully erected in Moscow and the Moscow region from 1971 to 1998, but in the 90s it was rare.
Series P-44 is the most popular Moscow series, built from 1978 to 2000, which is also the ancestor of the modern panel series P-44-K, P-44M, P-44TM, P today -44T, of which more than 800 have already been built. Externally, however, all daughter series differ quite greatly from the P-44. And it is interesting because it has no predecessors, it was designed, as they say, from scratch. In Moscow, the series is presented in every district in which massive construction took place during these years. Also, the houses of the series are present in many cities of the Moscow region, in Petrozavodsk, Nizhnevartovsk, Rostov-on-Don and some other cities. In total, 1,200 houses were built in Moscow, 200 in the Moscow region, 100 in the regions. The houses have from 8 to 17 floors, two or more entrances, as well as white-blue, white-beige, white and brown facades. The layouts of the apartments are considered very successful, and an undoubted advantage from the point of view of redevelopment is the possibility of demolishing the partition between the corridor and the living room in a three-room apartment.
The P-55 series is the latest of these series, the years of its construction are 1978-2002, and most of the houses were built in the post-Brezhnev era. Number of floors of houses – 9, 12, 14; the number of entrances is two or more. The series has the most diverse color range of all series. There is a whole palette here - houses can be brown, white, blue, beige, yellow, orange and pink. The series is widespread in Moscow and some cities in the Moscow region, and its specificity lies in the fact that it was designed specifically with the possibility of construction along highways, so that the houses are built from noise-proof panels and have a layout in which most residential premises have windows facing the courtyard, and not on an unsightly roadway. The series also has a daughter series P-55M .
And finally, two panel towers: I-521A and Lebed . The houses of these series can be counted on one hand, but they are very impressive and brought their lively crimson highlight to the architectural appearance of the city during the Brezhnev era. I-521A is an experimental series, the type of building has a complex name - “panel, with a monolithic rigidity core.” The houses turned out to be too expensive for mass construction and were not particularly popular with developers. For twenty years - from 1974 to 1994 - only a dozen of these were built in Moscow. Structurally, they are characterized by increased stability, which made it possible to make them 25-story, and these high-rise buildings look very advantageous against the background of the surrounding neighborhoods. Although apartments with a large 10-meter kitchen are generally average in size, they are valued quite highly on the secondary housing market.
The same can be said about apartments in the Swan series buildings. The number of floors in “Swan” is smaller: 16 and 20 floors, but the houses also look very impressive, and in their golden time they were considered super-elite. The most famous representatives are a complex of four 16-story buildings on the Leningradskoe Highway on the shore of the Khimki Reservoir and the so-called “house on legs” at the intersection of Begovaya Street and Leningradsky Prospekt (not to be confused with VDNKh, where Sergei Lukyanenko settled the hero of “Night Watch”: that The house was built according to the original design of architects Andreev and Zaikin).
The complex on Leningradskoye Shosse is interesting, among other things, because it is the forerunner of modern residential complexes, in which several houses are combined architecturally and structurally, and the ground floor houses the infrastructure necessary for residents: shops, a clinic, a kindergarten, etc. And these are the first panel houses in Moscow with underground parking. The houses of the “Swan” series are of the frame-panel type, the first of them, those on Leningradskoye Shosse, were built in 1972-1973. Not far away, also near Leningradka, several more houses were built before the beginning of the 80s. The last “Swan” was built in 2003, flying from north to south of the capital, to Miklouho-Maclay Street. Despite the luxury, 1-room and 2-room apartments here are medium in size, albeit with a 10-meter kitchen. But 3- and 4-room apartments are already close to current standards, and the kitchens in them have grown to 13 meters. And all the apartments have huge loggias, which, when glazed, create full-fledged rooms. The example of “Swan” shows especially clearly how uncontrolled glazing and installation of air conditioners can disfigure a beautiful building, practically an architectural monument. Now “Swans” look quite shabby due to the assorted double-glazed windows built on the balconies of the huts, and the walls, like flies, covered with wall-mounted air conditioning units.
St. Petersburg panel houses are similar in characteristics to Moscow ones, but in appearance some popular series are noticeably different. The most characteristic of St. Petersburg’s old panel can be called the six hundredth series - “ship houses”. Once upon a time they became a breakthrough in St. Petersburg urban planning and were considered prestigious. The houses of the 1-LG-600 series really look like ships thanks to the continuous rows of windows along the facade. It is simply impossible to confuse them with other series. Houses may have a different number of entrances and floors, as they have been periodically modified and span several generations. The characteristics of the apartments are almost the same as those of Khrushchev: ceilings are 2.5 meters, kitchens are 6.2-6.3 sq.m., however, there is a separate bathroom here. An obvious disadvantage of the series is poor thermal insulation; these houses are among the coldest in St. Petersburg. And another chronic drawback is leaks along the facade.
Quite recently it became known that on Siqueiros Street in St. Petersburg (by the way, the street is named after Alfaro Siqueiros, a Mexican muralist who contributed to architecture) a staircase collapsed, and this is the second time. So over time, ship-houses discovered another significant drawback.
, 1-LG600A/70 stands out in a positive way . The external difference is that the sections are arranged with protrusions, and the peculiarity of its layout is in large kitchens with an area of about 12 sq.m. The advantages of the series include the location in old residential areas. Thanks to this, they are quite competitive and liquid in the secondary economy-class housing market.
Source
Remodeling a two-room Khrushchev house
Typical apartment layouts in Khrushchev-era buildings, which even received their own individual “folk” names, are in most cases considered outdated and inconvenient. In comparison with the variety of options for the arrangement of rooms in new buildings, they really lose out a lot. However, according to statistics, such housing is considered the best-selling due to its low cost. Therefore, the demand for redevelopment projects for outdated apartments is not decreasing.
Book
The Khrushchev “book” got its name due to the external similarity of the apartment’s layout to an open tome. The premises in two-room housing are arranged in a line and connected to each other by doors. One room becomes a passage. It is usually used as a hall. On the sides there is a bedroom and a kitchen with a bathroom and a hallway. As a rule, such apartments come with a balcony or loggia (usually located in the hall). This type of layout is considered the most unsuccessful. It is very problematic to redo anything in the “book”. The only thing the owners can count on is the partial demolition of the walls between the hall and the hallway. The doors to the living room and bedroom lead into the enlarged corridor, leaving the connection with the kitchen intact. The previously existing entrances from the hall are being removed. In this way, they get rid of the passage space and isolate each room, but at the same time sacrifice a small area of the hall. There is also another, more labor-intensive option. The wall between the kitchen and living room is demolished, combining the two spaces into a studio. At the same time, the area of the hall is reduced, as in the previous version. In this small cul-de-sac it is convenient to arrange a pantry or dressing room.
Tram
The Khrushchev “tram” (as people affectionately call this type of apartment) has a corner location at the end of the building. A small hallway leads to the kitchen, bathroom and one of the rooms of the two-room apartment, which, in turn, is a passage and communicates with the second room. The designers propose not to make major changes to the trams. The kitchen and bathroom are not affected at all, but the passage room is getting rid of. Its footage will decrease slightly, but two isolated rooms will appear. Changes are made by increasing the area of the hallway. They simply extend it all the way and make two exits to the rooms. It turns out to be a long corridor in which it is easy to arrange a pantry or dressing room, thereby unloading the rooms. The new layout vaguely resembles a two-room “butterfly” with the only difference that there is no kitchen in the middle. Whether to divide the corridor with a partition into two sections (hallway + passage area with doors) is decided by the owners themselves.
Mini-improvement
The mini-improved apartment is practically no different from standard apartments in nine-story buildings, with one exception - the small size of the kitchen (5.5 sq.m.). It is this deficiency that most owners are trying to correct. As a rule, such apartments have a storage room and a separate bathroom. To increase the usable area of the kitchen, it is necessary to move the bathroom and toilet, using the area of the former pantry. You can also combine the bathroom. If the mini-improvement has a balcony or loggia, then they can be combined with the living room as an office or with the kitchen, using it as a dining area.
Interior design of a 4-room apartment
Baby vest
Another popular type of layout for two-room apartments is the vest. The windows in such housing face different sides. The rooms are somewhat reminiscent of shirt sleeves, connected by a “body” in the form of a kitchen or corridor. Young families with a child usually share space rather than combine it. A partition is installed in the large room, which is used as a living room. Thus, it turns out to be a small children's room. A partition is preferable to a brick or plasterboard wall in rooms where there is only one window. In order not to leave one of the rooms without natural light, it is better to separate them using furniture or sliding doors. In other options, the kitchen is combined with the living room, sometimes adding a hallway. The latter case is more suitable for “bachelor” housing for one person. The combination with the living room is carried out by those families who like to receive large groups of guests. This makes it really more convenient to prepare dinner and set the table without being distracted from the conversation.
Khrushchev buildings
Construction of Khrushchev apartment buildings began in 1959 and was completed in the 80s. The first houses were block houses; since 1963, construction has accelerated due to the development of panel housing construction. Ceiling height is 2.5 m, houses are from 3 to 5 floors.
Khrushchev's houses are found in the central part of most cities in our country
Prefabricated panel houses were not of architectural value, but they made it possible to quickly solve the problem of the lack of housing. The facades of the houses are nondescript.
Low sound insulation, walk-through rooms, small total area, tiny kitchen and bathroom - all this is about Khrushchev-era apartments. The staircase is not very spacious. There are no elevators in five-story buildings.
Interior of a Soviet-era Khrushchev building
Total area of Khrushchev buildings:
- for a one-room apartment from 28 to 33 m2;
- for a two-room apartment from 38 to 46 m2;
- for a three-room apartment from 48 to 58 m2.
There are very small apartments without a bathroom with an area of 24 to 26 m2.
A modern approach to design allows you to make even a tiny Khrushchev-era kitchen cozy and comfortable
The bathroom in Khrushchev apartments can be combined or separate. In the first case, there are 4 apartments on the staircase, in the second - 3. The houses have low sound and heat insulation. Their only advantage is their low price.
How to distinguish a block house from a panel one
Khrushchev, regardless of whether it is panel or block, is a great construction site. Block houses consist of massive concrete rectangular blocks. The seams on the front facade and at the ends of the building indicate the material of the walls.
Small seams under the window openings indicate that they are formed by vertically installed blocks and one small one below. The thickness of the walls in a block house is 400 mm.
Block Khrushchev
The thickness of the walls of panel Khrushchev buildings is less than that of block ones and is about 300 mm. Window and door openings are cut out in flat slabs, the dimensions of which correspond to the width and height of the room.
Most Khrushchev buildings have 4-5 floors; in small towns there are 2- and 3-story buildings. Three-room apartments account for only 15%; one- and two-room apartments are more common in such houses.
The height of the premises is usually 2.48 m. The kitchen in Khrushchev-era buildings is very small. Even in three-room apartments its area is 4.9-6 m2. And the bathroom does not exceed 3.2 m2.
Panel Khrushchev
The living room area is from 16 to 18 m2, the bedroom area is from 10 to 13 m2. There may be a pantry or closet niche in the hallway. One room is walk-through. There is a window in the partition between the bathroom and the kitchen.
Advantages of Khrushchev buildings
Oddly enough, they are:
Khrushchevkas were erected in entire microdistricts, in which social and public facilities were immediately provided. Each had the required number of schools, kindergartens, shops, clinics and consumer services enterprises. At least 25% of the territory was allocated for public gardens, parks, and playgrounds.
Since the Khrushchev buildings were built, cities have grown significantly. The old housing stock turned out to be mostly in the central part. Convenient transport connections were designed between the microdistricts.
Khrushchev houses, especially panel ones, were and remain a budget option compared to other secondary market houses. But due to the location in the city center the price increases.
On the staircase, unlike newer houses, there are no more than three or four apartments.
Khrushchev apartments are profitable in terms of utility bills, maintenance and repairs due to standard window and door openings, low ceilings and small footage.
Khrushchevkas are younger than Stalinists. Their wear and tear on average across the country does not exceed 20%, since the service life of such houses is designed for 100-150 years.
After redevelopment, apartments in such houses are transformed and become more comfortable to live in.
Disadvantages of Khrushchev
A lot of them:
Low sound insulation of internal partitions due to their small thickness. In such an apartment you can hear the neighbors' conversations, not to mention the TV on. In block houses the situation is a little better.
A through hole for a socket between two adjacent apartments.
Due to insufficient thermal insulation, the Khrushchev building is uncomfortable in both winter and summer.
When leveling floors, the screed must be kept to a minimum using soundproofing materials. This reduces the load on the supporting structures of the house and protects the premises from noise.
Usually the commission refuses permission for redevelopment in Khrushchev. The maximum that can be done is to move the openings. But first you need to conduct a study of the premises by contacting the design office.
Even a three-room apartment seems cramped and uncomfortable due to the low ceilings. We must try very hard to make it seem more spacious. A person with taller than average height will feel uncomfortable in such an apartment.
There is practically no place to store seasonal items in a Khrushchev apartment. There are no balconies in one- and two-room apartments.
The windows face one side, so there is either not enough sunlight or a lot of it.
The corridors and staircases are narrow, which creates difficulties when carrying massive objects.
Layout features
Each minivan of the 1-464 series has a balcony and a small storage room. There is no garbage chute or elevator in the building. They were built since 1958 for 6 years. The apartments have 1, 2 and 3 rooms. There are 4 doors on the staircase.
Space zoning
If the layout of a 2-room Brezhnevka , for which one large space is created, then it will have to be divided into several separate segments that have their own purpose. Zoning is possible using several methods:
- multi-level lighting;
- bar counter or other interior items;
- portable partitions;
- various finishing materials;
- podiums.
Partitions made of glass or plasterboard look beautiful. They can be represented by sliding or rack structures. In the following photos of Brezhnevka you can evaluate different ways of zoning space.
Series of houses Ekaterinburg. Regional series of houses
Regional series of houses are series that are mainly distributed in provincial cities and regional centers of the Russian Federation. As a rule, houses of these series were and are being built by local DSK. Houses of some regional series can be found not only in Russia but also in Ukraine and the Republic of Belarus.
| Series | Wall material | Number of storeys | Years of construction |
| 1-447 | brick | 3, 4, 5, 9, 12 | 1958-1980s |
| 1-440 | brick | 3,5 | 1958-1960s |
| 1-460 | brick | 4,5 | 1950s-1960s |
| 1-300 | brick | 5 | 1960s-1970s |
| 80 | brick | 5 | 1970s-1980s |
| 85(114-85) | brick | 6,9,12 | |
| 86(114-86) | brick | 2-5, 9 | |
| 87(114-87) | brick | 9 | 1980s-1990s |
| 124 | brick | 9-12, 14 | 1970s-1990s |
| E-93 | brick | 5, 9-12, 14 | |
| "Optima", "Makarovskaya" | panels | 3-16 | |
| 464(1-464) | panels | 4-5 | 1958-1960s |
| 1-466 | panels | 3-5 | 1959-1970 |
| 75 | panels | 5,9,10 | |
| 25 | panels | 2-5 | |
| 1-467 | panels | 2-6,9 | 1970s-1980s |
| 60 | panels | 3,5,9 | |
| 468(1-468) | panels | 5 | 1960s-1980s |
| 78(111-78) | panels | 9 | 1970s |
| 81 | blocks | 5-9 | |
| 83(111-83) | panels | 5-10 | |
| 84 | panels | 4,5,9 | |
| 90(111-90) | panels | 2-10 | |
| 91 | panels | 5,9 | ?? |
| 93 | panels | 5, 9, 16 | 1979-1990s |
| 93m | panels | 9,10 | 1985-1991 |
| 97(111-97) | panels | 5,9,10 | |
| 108(111-108) | panels | 5,9 | |
| 125(111-125) | panels | 5,9-10 | |
| 135 and 135m | panels | 5,9 | |
| 141(121-141) | panels | 5-10 | |
| KPD-4570 | panels | 5 | 1957-1990s |
| P-101 | panels | 5,9 | |
| 182-Mobile | panels | 3,5,10 | |
| II-60 | panels | 16 | 1970s-1980s |
Wall materials
To decorate the walls of residential premises, you can choose ceramic tiles, non-woven or paper wallpaper, as well as wall panels. Paintable wallpaper is considered an effective solution, since you can periodically change the color of the walls.
When choosing materials, the chosen design style and color of the furniture are taken into account.
High-quality surface leveling
During the repair of a Brezhnevka, the coatings on the walls, ceiling and floor of the room are changed. After dismantling old materials, people usually discover various irregularities, deformations and other problems. Therefore, you have to level the base, for which you can use plaster and putty.
For flooring, self-leveling coating is considered the ideal solution. The walls can be leveled using sheets of plasterboard, but this will lead to a significant reduction in space, which negatively affects the efficiency of use and layout of a two-room brezhnevka .
Ceiling finishing
If the surface is smooth, it can be whitened or painted. If various irregularities and problems are detected, then it is advisable to focus on tension or suspended structures. Leveling the ceiling is a complex and lengthy process that it is advisable to trust to professionals.
When choosing a stretch ceiling, you can create beautiful multi-level lighting using spotlights. The canvas can be glossy or matte.
