How to Legally Attach a Balcony or Loggia: Expert Tips

A balcony or loggia in an urban apartment is extra space that can be converted into a study, wardrobe, dining room, winter garden, or gym. However, not all design ideas can be implemented within current legal norms. Experts from "Metrium Group" have reviewed the main possibilities for lawful reconfiguration.

Natalia Kryglova, Expert
General Director of "Metrium Group", a real estate and consulting company operating in the Moscow region.
Choose the Purpose of the Space

How do you want to use the area of the balcony or loggia? There are options. On a loggia adjacent to the kitchen, a storage room or relaxation area is usually placed. Next to a bedroom, it makes sense to set up a study, gym, or wardrobe. In a children's room, a workspace or play area may be moved outside the original room boundaries. 

Estimate the Volume of Work Required
The main question: do you plan to join the balcony to the living area? Demolishing a window opening or wall between the room and loggia requires permission from the Moscow Housing Inspection (Moszhilinspektsiya). Specialists from BTI will carefully monitor that you do not compromise the integrity of the building's thermal envelope. 

Do Not Violate the Law
The strictest rules apply to panel buildings, as the outer wall is usually load-bearing, and its removal can damage the building's structural integrity. Therefore, owners of panel houses are often limited to removing only the window frame, leaving the sill in place. However, even this solution can be successfully used. For example, when combining a loggia with the kitchen, the balcony partition becomes the base for a bar counter, and in a children's room, it is used as a countertop for a workspace. 

Design: Marina Sarkisyan

In brick and monolithic buildings, it is possible to fully demolish the window opening along with the sill, but in some cases, additional structural reinforcement is required. If a radiator for central heating is located under the window, it must be relocated.  

Design: Sergey Bakharev

The law unambiguously forbids relocating the radiator to the balcony, even if it is well insulated. Installing a radiator on another wall or even doing away with it requires permission from the Moscow Housing Inspection. Interestingly, even if a flat owner decides to switch off central heating in favor of underfloor heating, they are still required to pay the full heating fee. 

Design: Sergey Bakharev

Plan Everything in Advance
Full or partial wall demolition must be coordinated before starting renovation work. For this, you will need a project and technical conclusion from a construction company authorized to carry out such works. The Housing Inspection requires including a thermal calculation in the project, showing that heat losses after reconfiguration do not increase. 

Design: Concept 58

Perhaps a compromise will suit you
A compromise is a sliding partition (which can be made of glass), which divides the living space and loggia, preventing heat from escaping outside the room. Sometimes owners remove this partition after a property inspection by a BTI specialist. However, if the property has to be sold, the partition must be restored in place, presenting the apartment to potential buyers according to its technical passport. 

Design: Natalia Yanson

Pay attention to the threshold between the room and balcony: it is not allowed to remove it, as it helps keep the balcony slab or seals the joint between the floor slab and balcony, and also protects the apartment from freezing. If the threshold seems inconvenient to you, its height may be reduced: this parameter is not reflected in technical documents.

Design: Natalia Yanson

On the cover: a project by Ludmila Krystal.

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• Two-Room Apartment with Study on the Loggia