Dismantling works: answers to the main questions

The way the rein­forc­ing struc­ture is made depends on many fac­tors: the mate­r­i­al of the walls, the width and loca­tion of the open­ing, the num­ber of storeys of the build­ing, etc. It is allowed to cut open­ings of arbi­trary sizes and shapes in non-load-bear­ing par­ti­tions. Pho­to: profine Group

What dismantling works are required to be coordinated, and which are not?

It is not nec­es­sary to obtain per­mis­sion only for dis­man­tling built-in fur­ni­ture: cab­i­nets, mez­za­nines that do not form inde­pen­dent (that is, includ­ed in the BTI doc­u­men­ta­tion) premis­es, as well as for the demo­li­tion (full and par­tial) of non-bear­ing par­ti­tions. Note that in the sec­ond case, after the com­ple­tion of the work, a change in the plan of the apart­ment will still have to be for­mal­ized with the hous­ing super­vi­sion author­i­ties.

Any rede­vel­op­ment affect­ing the load-bear­ing struc­tures of the build­ing and / or asso­ci­at­ed with an increase in the load on the floors must be approved by the Hous­ing Inspec­torate. This require­ment applies, in par­tic­u­lar, to the device, chang­ing the loca­tion or size or seal­ing open­ings in load-bear­ing walls, as well as the dis­man­tling of non-bear­ing par­ti­tions that receive an addi­tion­al excess load of the ceil­ing (unload­ing).

Before start­ing dis­man­tling work, you should seek advice from the one-stop shop. Take with you a copy of the plan of the apart­ment, hav­ing pre­vi­ous­ly not­ed the pro­ject­ed changes on it, and you will be con­sult­ed on the approval pro­ce­dure.

During dismantling, it is prohibited:

1. Con­struct open­ings, cut nich­es, punch holes in pylon walls, diaphragm walls and columns (racks, pil­lars), as well as at the loca­tions of lig­a­ments between pre­fab­ri­cat­ed ele­ments.
2. Arrange open­ings between liv­ing rooms and gasi­fied kitchens with­out a tight­ly clos­ing door, as well as com­bine gasi­fied premis­es with res­i­den­tial ones.
3. Elim­i­nate nat­ur­al ven­ti­la­tion chan­nels and reduce their cross sec­tion.
4. Increase the load on the sup­port­ing struc­tures in excess of those allowed by the project (cal­cu­la­tion by bear­ing capac­i­ty, by defor­ma­tions) when replac­ing par­ti­tions made of light mate­ri­als with sim­i­lar ones from heavy ones.
5. Trans­fer heat­ing radi­a­tors con­nect­ed to the gen­er­al house hot water sup­ply and (or) cen­tral heat­ing sys­tem to log­gias, bal­conies and veran­das.
6. Make grooves in hor­i­zon­tal seams and under inter­nal wall pan­els, as well as in wall pan­els and floor slabs for the place­ment of elec­tri­cal wiring, pipelines (in stan­dard series hous­es).

Who is responsible for demolition work?

Only a spe­cial­ized com­pa­ny that has a cor­re­spond­ing cer­tifi­cate issued by SRO NP “Asso­ci­a­tion of Gen­er­al Con­trac­tors in Con­struc­tion”. The prices of such com­pa­nies are quite high, but there is no alter­na­tive, because a ran­dom team can cause irrepara­ble dam­age to the build­ing. Often, such “mas­ters” are armed with only a low-pow­er punch­er, a small grinder and a sledge­ham­mer, and most often it is the lat­ter that is used. Strong vibra­tions that occur with this method of dis­man­tling have a detri­men­tal effect on all near­by struc­tures of the house: the adhe­sion of con­crete to rein­force­ment weak­ens, inter­pan­el seams diverge, and com­mu­ni­ca­tions may suf­fer. Even improp­er stor­age of wall frag­ments (with an increase in the local load on the ceil­ing) can lead to defor­ma­tion and dis­place­ment of the build­ing’s load-bear­ing ele­ments.

Pho­to: “Resource”

What is the technology for arranging openings in load-bearing walls?

The order of work is always described in detail in the rede­vel­op­ment project. In the stan­dard ver­sion, first, with the help of spac­er racks, the ceil­ing is hung above the open­ing in order to par­tial­ly unload the wall. Then, with a wall saw, a cut is made along the con­tour of the future open­ing (if the wall thick­ness is more than 220 mm, a con­crete chain saw is used). Then, in the dis­man­tled sec­tion of the wall, sev­er­al rows of holes are drilled with a dia­mond drill. After that, a frag­ment of the wall is destroyed by a hydro­cline, grad­u­al­ly remov­ing small parts (weigh­ing up to 30 kg). The per­fo­ra­tor refines the open­ing in the cor­ners, where the cut made by the disc has insuf­fi­cient depth.

As a rule, the design orga­ni­za­tion lays down the strength­en­ing of the open­ing in the doc­u­men­ta­tion. For this pur­pose, a met­al struc­ture is weld­ed from cor­ners, I‑beams, tees, chan­nels and pipes. The method and pro­ce­dure for its instal­la­tion for each case is indi­vid­ual. For exam­ple, some­times in the wall above the future open­ing, grooves are first made on both sides, into which two chan­nels are placed and bolt­ed togeth­er, thus form­ing a lin­tel beam. Then, again, the side ones are installed in the bars and only then a frag­ment of the wall is removed.

The way the rein­forc­ing struc­ture is made depends on many fac­tors: the mate­r­i­al of the walls, the width and loca­tion of the open­ing, the num­ber of storeys of the build­ing, etc. Pho­to: Slom-Ser­vice

Is it allowed to demolish a fragment of the wall under the window overlooking the balcony or loggia?

Such a solu­tion is not always accept­able. It all depends on the method of fas­ten­ing the car­ri­er plate of the bal­cony or log­gia. In many typ­i­cal hous­es (most­ly built in the 1960s–1970s), the bal­cony slab is hung out as a can­tilever, not con­nect­ed to the main floor, and is held by the front pan­el being pinched (jammed). By remov­ing a frag­ment of this pan­el, you risk los­ing the bal­cony (espe­cial­ly if you take into account the gen­er­al wear of the struc­ture).

In most new build­ings, such rede­vel­op­ment is pos­si­ble, but only accord­ing to an agreed project.

We empha­size that a wide open­ing between the log­gia and the room can­not be left open. The prob­lem is solved by installing a translu­cent par­ti­tion (includ­ing a slid­ing one) at this place, which is not infe­ri­or in terms of resis­tance to heat trans­fer to the win­dows of liv­ing rooms.

Instead of a win­dow and a bal­cony door, in some cas­es it is pos­si­ble to install a slid­ing or fold­ing “por­tal” with dou­ble-glazed win­dows. Pho­to: Moscow Win­dows

What is a sanitary cabin and how to dismantle it?

A san­i­tary cab­in is a ready-made block-room of light­weight con­struc­tion, which is low­ered by a tow­er crane onto the floors of the build­ing under con­struc­tion. Until the ear­ly 1990s. its walls and ceil­ing were made of asbestos-cement slabs on a wood­en frame, and the floor-pal­let was made of heavy con­crete. Lat­er, asbestos-cement slabs were replaced with mono­lith­ic rein­forced gyp­sum 50 mm thick.

Dis­man­tling the plumb­ing cab­in is a rather time-con­sum­ing process that can only be car­ried out at the ini­tial stages of repair, before the fin­ish­ing work starts. The cab­in is destroyed grad­u­al­ly, beat­ing off small frag­ments and saw­ing the rein­forc­ing cage. The main thing is not to allow sig­nif­i­cant shock loads on the floor and not to dam­age the water and sew­er pipes. Such works cost from 12 thou­sand rubles. plus 3–4 thou­sand rubles. for the removal of con­struc­tion debris.

• Source: Ideas for Your Home Magazine#4

Mate­r­i­al pre­pared

Vladimir Grig­oriev