How to make a floor on the balcony (photo and video)

In recent years, the addition of a loggia as an additional meter to its living space has become popular with almost every owner. Whatever the purpose of the future room, but knowing how to make the floor on the balcony is just as important as in the kitchen or in the living room. The floor on the balcony should be not only warm, but also of high quality, because the quality of cleaning and comfortable operation of the coating depend on it.

Although the preference has a wooden floor on the balcony, the material can vary from linoleum to ceramic tile. Usually, the repair of the floor on the balcony begins after all the finishing work, such as glazing, insulation and wall finishing.

Required materials and tools

Before you begin to arrange the floor yourself, you need to check your building materials. For independent work you will need:

• insulation;
• hydraulic and vapor insulation;
• mounting foam;
• timber;
• plywood or chipboard;
• self-tapping screws, dowels;
• floor leveling mixture;
• plaster;
• Bulgarian;
• level ;
• hacksaw;
• screwdriver and others.

Start of work: recommendations

First of all, it is necessary to decide on the material of the future floor, the selected material will depend on several factors:

1. Room functional.
2. In addition, an open or closed balcony.
3. The amount of funds for the arrangement of the loggia.

It is important to evaluate the flatness of the rough base. You can use for this purpose a special level or, in the old manner, pour some water on the floor. If the formation of puddles or runoff of water on one side occurred, the floor will have to be leveled.

Work should begin with the removal of the previous coating, right down to concrete. For a start, it is better to clean the surface with a broom, and then use a vacuum cleaner. Plaster close up seams and cracks, if any, on the base. After these works, you can proceed to the screed.

But, going to this stage, you should think about the reliability of the balcony structure, whether it will be able to withstand the increased load. For the screed can be used as a concrete screed, and solutions with a lightweight structure. When working with leveling solution, you should use beacons. If you intend to open the balcony, the lighthouses should be set with a slope from the wall of the house.

Floor Warming: features

Thermal insulation of the balcony is carried out in several stages. At the first stage, it is necessary to spread heat-insulating material on the leveled base. It should be laid on the entire surface of the subfloor. At the second stage of warming, we start laying the log of a log. Before use, the timber should be treated with antiseptic or varnish. First of all, a skeleton is installed on the base, to which the transverse bars are nailed, usually in 50-cm increments. They fasten all this with screws, and screw them onto the base with dowels and metal corners. In the cells that were formed after laying the timber, we install insulation.

Often mineral wool is used as a heater, it is light and flexible, but absorbs moisture. To prevent this from happening, a layer of waterproofing material is laid on the concrete base. Insulation fits with a margin, you can lay several layers, but at the same time to ensure that the joints on the top layer and the bottom does not match.

The cheapest of insulants is foam. You can buy it with sheets of different thickness, but you need to take into account the following: foam is combustible and non-combustible. For residential premises it is advisable to use non-combustible material. Polyfoam, unlike mineral wool, is vapor-permeable, therefore a layer of vapor-insulating material is laid on top of it.

At the end of the work, the skeleton is sewn up with sheets of chipboard or plywood, directly onto which the finishing covering is laid. After all the work is completed, the excess waterproofing is cut off, and the gaps are filled with polyurethane foam.

Floor covering on the balcony

The simplest and cheapest flooring can be called ordinary paint, good, with today's diversity, it is easy to choose the color of interest. Yes, and paint the wooden floor is not difficult.

Linoleum is considered the most durable and practical coating than paint. It is very easy to care for him, and cleaning will not cause you difficulties.The disadvantages of this material include the fact that when it gets wet it becomes very slippery. Before proceeding with the installation of the material, it should be spread on the balcony and left to lie down for a day. This is done so that the linoleum straightened as best as possible. After that, it is cut around the perimeter and fixed on a special glue, and the edges are fixed with the help of a plinth.

Using laminate on the balcony offers several advantages. This is an aesthetic and affordable material. Laminate consists of several layers: the top of a strong film with a decorative pattern, the main layer of MDF and the bottom. This material is divided into classes, which determine the purpose of the material to different rooms. For balconies, the use of class 31-33 is recommended. For all its advantages, laminate has several disadvantages. The main ones include a strong acoustic effect and a low ability to retain heat. To avoid these problems, the use of a "warm floor" system is recommended. Such a system involves the laying of a special substrate that absorbs sounds.

Basically laying laminate on the balcony has no differences from laying in the room.

The only requirement is the air temperature, it should not be lower than 5 degrees, otherwise the upper layer will detach. Before installation, the material must be kept indoors for at least 2 days. Lay the board can be both along and across, and if desired, and diagonally. Before starting work, the substrate is spread, it does not overlap, and you need to use adhesive tape to join the seams. Work begins from the wall opposite to the entrance, and the connection is performed along the length rather than the width. So that during the further use of the laminate floor does not creak, apply a sealant, which grease the seams. The remaining gap between the walls and the laminate during installation should be masked with baseboards.

Balcony floor: laying features

If you decide to use tile as a covering, then when choosing a material you should be guided by its durability. For the balcony is quite suitable tile 3 classes. An important criterion when choosing a tile is its weight. To keep the load as small as possible, a thinner material is used. It is important when choosing a tile to take care of its safety, especially on the balcony, therefore, preference should be given to tiles with a rough surface.

Installation is carried out as follows: in addition to the tile itself, tile adhesive and a special trowel in the form of a comb are needed, which is convenient for removing excess mortar. Laying, like laminate, start from the far corner of the door. Row after row the tiles are laid out, constantly controlling the plane with the help of level and gaps, using special plastic crosses.

It should be remembered that, whatever material for the finishing coating you prefer, only taking into account the exact following instructions you can get a high-quality and aesthetic coating that will delight you for many years.