All year round, three meals a day. Although the kitchen carries the love of the family, as time goes by, the new house becomes an old house. Compared with the living room and bedroom, the kitchen is the top priority of the renovation of the old house!
Common kitchen problems
✕Insufficient storage, messy countertops and floor tiles with oil stains
✕More and more electrical appliances accumulate over time, but there are too few sockets, which are not enough, and the electrical wires are messy.
✕The walls, ceilings and floors have been eroded by oil for a long time, dirty, and sticky to the soles of shoes
✕Wall tiles fall off, countertops crack, flue smells, door panels deform and make strange noises
Kitchen renovation strategy
- Confirm before starting construction First, confirm whether the kitchen renovation needs to change the layout
Generally, there are the following layouts:
Island kitchen
One-shaped kitchen
Two-shaped kitchen
L-shaped kitchen
U-shaped kitchen
Then confirm the kitchen appliances and size + confirm the water and electricity route of the kitchen and bathroom. Before the renovation, you must confirm the appliances you are going to install, which ones are embedded, where you want to install them, and what the size is; and you must also determine the route of water and electricity-whether the water pipes and wires are on the top or on the ground. These details must be communicated in advance to avoid rework.
- Main renovation
Whether it is a full-house renovation or a partial renovation, the first step of the construction is demolition and renovation. As long as the load-bearing walls, beams and structural walls are not removed, there will be no big problem. However, it should be noted that most of the inner walls of balconies are structural walls and are not recommended for removal. When removing the original cabinets and other furniture, leaving only tiles, you must pay special attention to the following:
✕ Do not change the gas pipeline at will to avoid gas leakage and leave safety hazards
✕ Do not remove the wall at will, especially in old houses with a house age of more than 15 years
✕ Avoid removing tiles, because the internal pipelines are complicated and there are many joints and valves. Removing bricks may damage the original pipelines, and once the bricks are moved, waterproofing must be redone
- Water and electricity transformation
There are two points to note in the waterway transformation:
One is the water inlet and outlet of the gas water heater, and the other is the floor drain. When the kitchen is far away from the bathroom, it is best to bury a return pipe. In addition, many old houses used to have kitchens without floor drains. If necessary, they must be installed at this stage.
There are also two points that must be paid attention to in circuit transformation:
Leave as many sockets as possible, especially the sockets in the cabinets. If you want to install lights on the cabinets, such as the light strips under the wall cabinets, don't forget the light wires on the cabinets. This is a step that must not be forgotten! If the original circuit in the kitchen meets the standards, it can be retained. The newly added sockets and lighting circuits need to be routed separately from the distribution box. In addition, if there is a problem with waterproofing, waterproofing should also be done again.
- Pipeline transformation
In old houses with a long history, the pipes are generally cast iron pipes or galvanized pipes, which are easy to rust and may leak, and there may be problems with hot water pipes and water lamps. When renovating, the water pipe material can be changed to PPR pipes.
- Plastering and leveling + tiling
After the floor and wall are demolished, the cement is smoothed to make the uneven positions of the wall and floor flat. As for tiling, you must pay attention when choosing kitchen tiles. Try not to choose tiles with many seams (such as mosaic tiles) and make good seams, otherwise the gaps will be full of oil stains, which will be difficult to clean after a long time. If the budget is limited, the cheapest and possibly less beautiful tiles can be used in the areas covered by the cabinets, but tiles cannot be left out, because cement walls are prone to moisture, which will affect the life of the cabinets.
- Doors, windows and partitions
If it is a closed kitchen, you can just install a door, but an open kitchen will involve windows or partitions.
Whether it is doors, windows or partitions, it is best not to choose wooden ones, because wooden boards are too easy to be damp and deformed. It is recommended to choose aluminum alloy and glass. The specific choice of glass and style should be based on your own budget, preferences and the overall style of the house.
- Determine the kitchen ceiling and floor materials
It is best to choose safe, solid, pollution-free, water-resistant, fire-resistant, and heat-resistant materials for kitchen walls and floors, with few gaps and not easy to accumulate dirt. It can be cleaned with a wipe, and it is waterproof, moisture-proof, scratch-resistant and wear-resistant. Choose a material with good anti-slip effect for the floor to avoid accidental falls caused by water or oil dripping. The anti-slip coefficient of ordinary floors is between 0.4-0.6. It is recommended to choose an anti-slip coefficient of more than 0.7, such as SPC stone crystal floor, which is a very safe level and is very suitable for families with elderly and children. As for the ceiling, it is strongly recommended to install recessed lights. After all, non-recessed lights will be partially exposed. Over time, in the kitchen environment with oil smoke, the gaps will inevitably become sticky, black, or even moldy, and it is difficult to wipe.
- Install furniture and appliances
Although the size and location of the appliances have been confirmed first, if the custom cabinets and embedded appliances are not the same products, it is necessary to coordinate the installation time, let the two parties enter the site at the same time, and reconfirm and coordinate the installation location and size to avoid mistakes. Kitchen renovation is more laborious than rough kitchen decoration. After deciding to renovate the kitchen, try to consider some details clearly and communicate with the designer in detail.
