Plans for four-room apartments

It is imperative to change the plan of a 4-room apartment in a panel house. The architects and developers who planned the Soviet panel high-rise buildings seemed to have foreseen that the Russians would massively change the original layout.

The layout of the 4-room Khrushchev includes the following premises:

1. two bedrooms located in the farthest zone;
2. the third room is a living room, which is a walk-through for these bedrooms;
3. the fourth room is another bedroom located next to the kitchen;
4. kitchen, bathroom and toilet are located next to the hallway, close to the entrance;
5. at the end of the hallway next to the living room there is a wardrobe compartment.

The next historically later type of a multi-storey building - a panel 9-storey building, "Brezhnevka" - has some differences from the "Khrushchev". Bedrooms and living rooms, kitchen and bathroom are located approximately the same as in 4-room "Khrushchev", but differ in size. Higher ceilings - 2.7 m (compared to 2.45-2.5 m in "Khrushchevs"), the presence of an elevator and a garbage chute made the life of the population more comfortable.

In St. Petersburg and Moscow, over the past few years, a renovation program has been carried out - old "Khrushchevs", many of which are recognized as emergency, are subject to resettlement and dismantling... In return, construction companies, by order of federal and local authorities, will erect new buildings in which the area of ​​rooms will grow slightly. Kitchens, bathrooms and corridors (including hallways) will become noticeably larger.

Brick "Khrushchev" and "Brezhnevka", regardless of the number of rooms in apartments, have less ventilation and improved sound insulation.

Intending to change the layout of a 4-room apartment already formed by the builders in "Brezhnevka" or "Khrushchev", keep in mind the following.

1. Not all partitions can be demolished. All of them are made of thin reinforced concrete (or from simple concrete floors) - even the thickness of the partition of 7-10 cm (compared to 40-50 cm outside) gives significant support for the floors. The fact is that the total area of ​​a 4-room apartment sometimes reaches 72 sq. m, which is more than a couple of times difference compared to 31 "squares" in "odnushka". The laws of physics have not been canceled: the floors are the same in terms of characteristics. Large spans between load-bearing (external, inter-apartment) walls, devoid of additional support, increase the chances of deflection of horizontal slabs. And those, in turn, are the floor and ceiling at the same time on all floors, except for the first and last. Therefore, any demolition of partitions (partitions) cannot be carried out without permits from the housing office and other utilities. Alteration "on the quiet" will lead not only to a fine when trying to sell a re-planned apartment, but also increase the chances of collapse of the overlying floors in the entrance to you and your neighbors. The latter is punished criminally - up to life imprisonment.
2. You cannot change the area of ​​the bathroom. This can seriously damage the waterproofing. If your water supply breaks, the sewage system leaks, the washing machine breaks down, the floor may be flooded. An extended bathroom will lead to water leakage down to the neighbors living on the floor below, with all the ensuing consequences.

So, the standard layout of a 4-room apartment in panel high-rise buildings has the following disadvantages:

1. narrow and long hallway;
2. lack of space for kitchen furniture;
3. living room and kitchen are separated by one of the bedrooms and are communicated only through the hallway;
4. impracticality of a loggia or balcony for installing furniture;
5. the combined bathroom is limited due to the adjoining of neighboring rooms.

If these disadvantages are significant for you, it's time to change the apartment plan. When obtaining permits from authorities to demolish partitions, follow these steps.

• Hallway zoning - division into zones for dressing rooms and seating areas. It is recommended to put a designer wardrobe and a couple of small poufs.

• Kitchen for a 4-room apartment - a place for placing a large number of dishes: as a rule, such an apartment is purchased when the family has many children. The basis is a U-shaped layout, in which the dining table is the central place. For a quick snack or breakfast, a folding table is organized, which serves as a continuation of the windowsill. Often, the partition from the kitchen is demolished, which turns the adjoining bedroom into a part of the kitchen-living room.

• If the bedroom is connected to the kitchen, then the living room can be furnished under the first. Here the living room itself migrated and merged with the kitchen. The third bedroom will be larger than the other two.

• One of the outermost bedrooms can be converted into a nursery. The furnishing of the nursery is carried out according to the general rules: it must have a comfortable bed, chair and table.

At this point, you may need, for example, hanging shelves located above the table, and a wall bars with a horizontal bar for physical education.

• The second distant bedroom remains unchanged. It is furnished in the same way as any adult bedroom and is temporarily available to guests. But when the family has two children, it can be arranged in the same way as the one that is given for the nursery. As a result, each of the children has their own room.

• A separate bathroom will be re-planned into a combined - there is a shower cabin, a sink, a toilet and a washing machine. All appliances are compact, hanging or built-in; in addition, there is room in the bathroom for towel racks and a pair of hanging shelves.

• In the largest room you can fence off the space for a separate dressing room... Then the size of the room will be the same as the size of the bedrooms in the back of the living space.

• Loggia is combined with a room, the door from which goes to her. After additional insulation, the loggia is suitable for a study.

• In the "brezhnevka" of a later period (up to 1995 construction) the living room and one of the bedrooms have changed places. The creation of a kitchen-living room has been greatly simplified - there is no need to move the bedroom to a room farther from the entrance. The total area of ​​the apartment is close to 100 "squares".

Redevelopment options for old apartments basically boil down to the following.

• After redevelopment, the kitchen, combined with the nearest bedroom or living room, acquires an arched or other non-standard shaped passage. Shelves can be placed in it, securing them at one end with a vertical suspension.

• The bathroom will become more compact and more functional.

• A top-loading washing machine will free up another 0.5 sq. m of space.

• The kitchen-living room itself is two zones: for quick snacks and for a general meeting of guests at the dining table.

• The kitchen, as a separate area, is a compact place for preparing food. The place for breakfast for two people vaguely resembles a bar counter.

Such a redevelopment of a four-room apartment in an old panel house will turn boring housing into the apartment of your dreams.

"Khrushchevs" and "Brezhnevkas" staked on the future. New buildings in the 2000s are significantly superior to them in terms of convenience.

Below are a few more options for redeveloping a four-room apartment.