Repairing a Khrushchyovka: 11 Useful Tips

When repairing apartments in Khrushchyovka, the main goal is to fight with worn-out communications, expand small spaces, and save money. This last point is particularly relevant for Moscow Khrushchyovka residents due to the implemented housing renewal program. It's obviously not desirable to invest money into apartment repairs in a building scheduled for demolition. But what to do if the relocation schedule is unknown or relocation is planned not in the current or even next year, but only in five or even ten years? We found out from professionals.

Andrey Lyamin-Borodin, General Director of the online repair service Rewedo
1. Boldly do re-planning
In many Khrushchyovka series, internal walls are non-load-bearing, which provides opportunities for re-planning by combining or expanding rooms. For example, a bathroom can be expanded at the cost of a corridor, and a kitchen can partially merge with an adjacent room, provided that doors are installed in the newly formed opening if there is a gas stove and a gas water heater in the apartment.
One of the typical features of Khrushchyovkas is heating pipes inside the inter-room walls. To form an opening, you must move away from the outer wall enough to not damage the heated part of the inter-room partition. Alternatively, you can remove the wall completely, weld pipes to the riser, and place a new wall-mounted radiator.
Khrushchyovka design in Moscow
2. Sewage: Replace, but not leave
Before making a decision to replace your section of the cast-iron riser, make sure that this step is justified. Inspect its condition, check for leaks and corrosion. If there are no such or other damages – it's better not to take responsibility and wait for a common building replacement of sewage risers. Otherwise, you must coordinate the replacement with the management company.
When replacing the horizontal section of sewage with polypropylene pipes, pay special attention to their joints with the cast-iron riser.Design: Pavel Alexeyev
3. Do not overload the slabs
The floor level in different rooms of Khrushchyovka apartments often differs, and leveling the floor is an essential step during repair. Be careful when calculating the thickness of the screed – slabs are not designed for large weight. Also, you should approach the reconstruction of floors in rooms with screed (kitchen and bathroom) and wooden floors on joists (usually in rooms) differently.
For the same reason, use only lightweight materials when building new partitions – for example, gypsum board.
Khrushchyovka design in Moscow
4. Replace wiring
Plan the technical setup of the apartment according to the power allocated for it. In Khrushchyovkas, it usually does not exceed 3 kW, which forces you to think carefully about choosing each appliance and the overall set, preferring Class A appliances.
To minimize risks, replace aluminum wiring with copper and install a separate circuit breaker for each power line.
6. Leave open wiring
The thickness of internal and even inter-apartment partitions in Khrushchyovkas is so small that it creates difficulties in creating hidden electrical wiring and installing outlets and switches.
If replacing partitions is not part of your plans, open wiring can be a good solution, which also fits various interior styles depending on the design of the selected outlets and switches.
Khrushchyovka design in Almaty
5. Insulate the apartment
The thickness of external walls in Khrushchyovkas built with reinforced concrete panels is only 30–40 cm, which provides insufficient thermal insulation. Insulating the walls, which should be done not from inside the building but from outside, is a rather complex task if done within one apartment and also violates the building's facade appearance.
When replacing radiators, add one or more sections to each room. But do not overdo it – significantly increasing the number of radiators or sections in an apartment can disrupt the thermal balance of the entire building.
Design: Nastya Antonyuk
7. Do not use suspended ceilings
After the repair, the joy of preserving ceiling height will most likely be higher than the distress of visible panel joints – so plaster and paint the ceiling instead of using a suspended one to save precious centimeters.
Design: Maxim Tikhonov
8. Improve ventilation
Do not install a fixed window between the bathroom and kitchen. On the contrary, make it opening rather than fixed. This will improve ventilation in the bathroom and help prevent mold growth without constantly keeping the door open.
9. Save cubic meters
In small apartments, it's important to minimize the thickness of finishing layers to avoid wasting precious space. For example, by choosing paint instead of tiles in the bathroom, you can save 1–2 cm on each wall.
Design: Maria Solovyova-Sosnovik
10. Do not worsen the flaws
Do not use tall floor moldings that visually shorten ceiling height or at least paint them in the color of the walls. Choose cornices for the ceiling that have a side that extends onto the ceiling.
Another way to fight for ceiling height is tall inter-room doors that visually raise the ceiling. However, being non-standard in terms of manufacturers' standards, they always increase project costs. A more affordable alternative can be a false continuation of the door upwards – for example, installing a window or painting part of the wall above the opening in the color of the door.
Khrushchyovka design in Moscow
11. Use all the space
To make 5.5 square meters of kitchen functional, place wall-mounted cabinets up to the ceiling and use the wall with a window. When installing kitchen cabinets along it, the only limitation is the height of the windowsill – lower than the standard working surface. The decision must be made individually – sometimes it is acceptable for the cabinet height to be above the windowsill if there is still a possibility to wash the windows with them partially open.
In other cases, variable (lowered in this area) cabinet height is acceptable. Or the windowsill can be continued as a narrow dining table, the required height of which matches the windowsill. A very radical variant that sometimes appears in design projects is partial window opening from the bottom to the required table height.
When organizing a P-shaped kitchen, remember that ergonomic requirements demand at least 120 cm of passage between two rows of cabinets. Sometimes, to meet this parameter, lower cabinets without household appliances need to be made non-standard, shallower in depth.
Design: Ekaterina Matveyeva