How to insulate a Khrushchev refrigerator under a window. Khrushchev refrigerator" in the kitchen: improvement or replacement? Methods of restoration and redevelopment

Remove Khrushchev refrigerator
Video: an example of work on arranging a niche under a window in Khrushchev

Khrushchev refrigerator, or rather a refrigerated cabinet under the windowsill in the kitchen, is an integral part of many heritage houses from the 50-70s of the last century. In those days, not many could afford a real refrigerator, and this was taken into account by designers and builders. A fairly large box under an equally wide and immense window sill allowed the people, at least in winter time store part of perishable food in a cool and easily accessible place. It is about how to remake the Khrushchev refrigerator with your own hands that will be discussed further.

Many will agree that in modern world such refinements are no longer needed, or at least require some refinement to fit into modern interiors. Although they are called "Khrushchev's", they also met in the so-called stalins.

Actually, in any such apartment, the layout does not allow enough to place everything you need in a small kitchen. And as an option, you can use the cabinet space under the windowsill for more applied tasks. And most importantly, it is clearly necessary to do something with thermal insulation, because now everyone understands that the better the house is insulated, the lower the cost of heating it will be. However, not everything is so simple with the possibility of altering or improving the Khrushchev refrigerator. It is important to take into account a number of very important points that are often forgotten by many homemade ones.

For the sake of order, consider the options for modifications that can be applied to the Khrushchev refrigerator and explain especially important points in the implementation of the chosen method. It makes sense to think of four possibilities:

Completely or for the most part close up the space under the windowsill. This ensures a decent and high-quality thermal insulation. As a result, the wall will be leveled or a small recess will remain sufficient for installing a heating radiator.
Modify and properly insulate the Khrushchev refrigerator in order to use it for its intended purpose and store food and pickles in it. Even with the fact that no significant alterations are required, there is still a lot to be done in order not to leave even a chance for the cold to penetrate inside the apartment and not get a bunch of negative consequences.
This niche can be completely reoriented, for example, into a cabinet or under the installation site of equipment that is unpretentious to low temperatures.
Dismantle a thin half-brick partition outside and perform glazing in the strength of a French window. The most radical decision. Perfect for cases where the kitchen window faces either the north side or is closed from sunlight buildings or trees, the amount of daylight entering through such a window will more than cover the lack.

Remove Khrushchev refrigerator

The simplest option is to completely seal the niche. This solves the problem of heat leakage through a half-brick wall and unreliable wooden doors. For residents of the northern regions, this is actually a very rational option. Because any other modifications of the Khrushchev refrigerator will require too much investment to do everything right.

The niche will be closed with a brick. This is the only way to create sufficient protection against external bad weather. You can use SNiP 23-02-2003 (SNiP II-3-79), which provides calculations to determine the required wall thickness. However, it is already clear that for reliable thermal protection it is enough to either simply level the niche with the rest of the wall or leave a smaller niche with a depth of no more than 12-15 cm.

Read and see how to lay bricks in apartment conditions here.

It should be noted that it is best to lay bricks. Plasterboard sheathing options using various heat insulators can subsequently go sideways. This is mainly due to the principles of building walls as such, vapor permeability, etc. If you do not go into details, then if you simply sheathe it with drywall with insulation, then condensation and frost will certainly begin to form between the sheathing and the outer wall, as a result, the wall will begin to bloom and collapse.

Remove Khrushchev refrigerator

If a niche with a depth of 12-15 cm is left, then you can safely use it to install a heating radiator. Although the alternative would be to simply leave it unused, because the window sill, and it is simply huge, is often used as an additional countertop in the kitchen and it is better to leave space under the window sill for legs.

Khrushchev refrigerator improvement

The very idea, albeit seasonal, but of a refrigerator under the window in the Khrushchev kitchen is very practical, it is quite reasonable to try to leave the niche in the same capacity. It is only necessary to bring it into proper condition so that it and appearance had according to the new repair and functioned better. We list the main points associated with the Khrushchev refrigerator:

The back wall is only half a brick, most often there is a vent for the entry of external cold air;
From the inside there are only wooden doors that separate the interior from the cold of the street;
Due to the ventilation holes inside the Khrushchev refrigerator, for the most part, outside air with low absolute humidity outside gets in, so that this protects against the appearance of frost and condensate.

So, it becomes quite logical that the main alteration of the Khrushchev refrigerator may consist precisely in replacing the inner door. It should provide maximum thermal protection, which is appropriate in this place. An excellent solution for this task would be to install a door with one leaf made of metal-plastic. It is better to make one sash due to the fact that the profile will be selected the same as on the door or for windows, and it is wide enough. As a filler, you can insert both a single-chamber double-glazed window, for example 4x10x4, and a sandwich panel.

It is better to choose accessories the simplest in terms of functionality. There is no need to add a fanlight system, especially since the overall dimensions will not allow inserting anything significant anyway. The metal-plastic door will be fixed with anchors on the side walls of the Khrushchev refrigerator. Top and bottom is enough to seal the space mounting foam. The resulting door will normally withstand the weight of the window sill on top.

Plastic hinged door option

The second option could be a sliders system with sliding doors. Again, it is better to order them from glazing manufacturers. In this case, the sliding door system will reliably isolate the apartment from the coolness in the niche. In fact, the result is a plastic Khrushchev refrigerator.

Having completed the lining inside of plastic, you get a good well-groomed appearance, not far from the same in a real refrigerator. The main thing is not to stint on the installation of a normal sliding door lock system with fine-tuning. Because such a system is significantly inferior in terms of thermal insulation to conventional swing systems plastic windows and doors. Not fully closed sash will lead to a strong draft of cold air through the legs.

And what about the inside of the niche? The hole to the outside, if there is one, is better not to close up, again, because when low temperatures let outside air come in rather than hot and humid inside. So you can be safe and prevent the formation of condensate in in large numbers. Enough hole by any vapor-permeable heat-insulating material e.g. mineral wool. Options such as foaming or plugging with foam will not work. The inner walls can be sheathed with both moisture-resistant plasterboard and plastic, or even plastered.

Advice: As an additional "bells and whistles" you can bring lighting inside. Again, given the specifics of this niche, it is better to use low voltage (12V, 24V) powered lighting using step-down converters.

We make a useful locker from the Khrushchev refrigerator

A perfectly acceptable option would be to use the niche of the Khrushchev refrigerator as an additional kitchen cabinet. In this case, it is inappropriate to use its coolness in winter, so you have to insulate the wall and only after that proceed with the installation of drawers or shelves behind the door.

The reasons why you should not insulate the niche wall from the inside and explanations on this topic may take a separate article. Everything is tied to the dew point and the detrimental consequences after condensation will inevitably appear between the insulation and the outer wall, and subsequently it will be flexible and mold. You can learn more about this in articles on the topic of insulating the walls of the house from the inside.

We make a useful locker from the Khrushchev refrigerator

So what to do? Most the best way this is if the apartment is already insulated on the outside of the building with the help of cladding with polystyrene foam boards or mineral wool. Then the problem with the insulation of the Khrushchev refrigerator disappears by itself. It is enough to finish the Khrushchev refrigerator with drywall or tiles installed on the mortar, and proceed with the further installation of shelves or drawers.

Otherwise, if not external insulation, then the most suitable would be laying at least one more layer of brick. At the same time, the hole for accessing cold air is sealed over the entire length with a mortar with brick chips, or blown with mounting foam.

Important: If any through holes in a residential building or apartment are blown with mounting foam, then the protruding foam must be cut off from the outside and plastered with a mortar layer of at least 3-4 cm.

On top of the sheathing, you can already install either a built-in cabinet, assembled separately, or mount shelves or drawer rails directly on the walls of the niche. In any case, the depth remaining after the back wall is insulated is quite enough to subsequently put a lot of kitchen utensils into the resulting cabinet.

We make a useful locker from the Khrushchev refrigerator

Using a Khrushchev refrigerator to store kitchen utensils and non-perishable food

Alternatively, with any alterations of the Khrushchev refrigerator, one should not forget that the height of the window sill itself can be transferred for one thing. For the most part, this concerns the window replacement process. Along with these activities, you can move the height of the window sill and equalize it with the height of all other kitchen surfaces. Often it turns out to combine the window sill with a single surface with the transition to the main cutting table. The result will be almost 1.5-2 square meters usable area, and this will appeal to any housewife. It is also important to take into account changes in the size of the ordered windows.

Glazing instead of the Khrushchev refrigerator

You can do it quite radically. Thin, which defines the outer wall of the refrigerator and, in fact, the side walls to the edge of the window opening do not carry any load. Accordingly, these parts of the wall can be completely dismantled and glazed from the floor itself to the upper part of the window opening. The result is something similar to a French window. This will significantly increase the amount of daylight in the kitchen.

V simple version, of course, there will be no room for a wide and comfortable window sill. However, this is also solvable. It is enough to divide the window space into two parts and still mount the window sill. A significant advantage will be an increase in the useful area of \u200b\u200bthe kitchen. However, such redevelopment may not fit into every design solution. So you should think carefully and weigh everything before starting work.

Obtaining permits can become a significant difficulty in such a rework. Still, this is actually a redevelopment and, like any change in the plan of the apartment, this will require the design of the project and coordination with the authorities. In addition, this will affect the overall appearance of the building and the city authorities simply may not allow such extensive changes.

As can be seen from the proposed repair ideas, you can usefully use such a gift from the past as a Khrushchev refrigerator. It is important to take into account those moments that can affect the comfort in the apartment or thermal insulation, in everything else you just need to show a little imagination and provide your kitchen with another useful element.

Video: an example of work on arranging a niche under a window in Khrushchev

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V modern conditions the concept of a refrigerator under the window, for most people, may be incomprehensible. The fact is that this type of refrigerator is a thing of the past due to impracticality. He rescued people in the winter in the cold season, helping to save a lot of money. They were popular with engineers in the 50s, but now there is no need for this device. Most people either dismantle or wall up the refrigerator under the window, because it is only used in winter and modern refrigerators completely in terms of volume and practicality, this device was replaced.

Refrigerator design

The refrigerator is a niche under the window, deep, with a small layer of brickwork separating the street from the room. It has technological gaps and slots, air passes through them into the device in cold weather, and in winter.

The dimensions of the refrigerator under the window made it possible to save a lot of space in the kitchen before, and keep perishable foods in a suitable place for six months. Very convenient window sill replaces the table in the warm season. It can also be used as a shelf. In summer, the refrigerator can be used as storage for cereals, flour, and other things. This allows you to save a lot of space, both in winter and in summer.

Advantages of the refrigerator under the window:

The appearance of additional space, without compromising the premises.
The ability to change the niche in the case when there is no need for a refrigerator.
Saving electricity, refrigerators under the window can significantly save on electricity.
A great place to store conservation and other things in the warm season.

Refrigerator conversion options

The refrigerator under the window has its drawbacks, which do not suit many, such as poor thermal insulation of the room, and therefore, most devices of this type have undergone various modifications.

There are three main options:

Completely or partially seal the space below the window sill, and leave a small niche for installing the battery
Paste the refrigerator with insulation, especially the door, so that air does not penetrate into the room in winter, and use it for its intended purpose, in summer as a cabinet, in winter as a refrigerator.
Completely remove the partition separating the room from the street, remove the window sill, and put big window. Naturally, the thermal insulation will become even worse, and in order to compensate for this, it is necessary to make a loggia or a balcony so that there is another layer of air.

We remove the refrigerator

This best option, which is suitable for most, because in the warm season it is very hot indoors, and cold in winter. For residents of the northern regions, this is an ideal option to ensure a good heat capacity of the room.

It is best to seal a niche with a brick to ensure the reliability and durability of the structure. Ideally, it is better to align the niche with the main thickness of the wall. It is advisable to leave a space for air in the middle so that there is no condensation due to a sharp temperature drop. You can insulate the wall on top of the brickwork from the inside, which will make the problem area much more comfortable. There is an option for insulation outside the room, then the entire surface is sheathed with foam boards, plus plaster along with surface painting, which will completely eliminate the problem of a cold room.

You can leave a small niche for the battery, 10-15 cm, and install a heating radiator to fully compensate for the lack of a cold wall. The window sill can be replaced, because in houses with such a refrigerator they are very large, due to the space below.

Advice ! You can also use the window sill as a tabletop, and use the space under it for a chair and other things, it will not interfere with your legs.

Refrigerator improvement

It is quite possible to improve the refrigerator on your own without the help of specialists.

chief trouble spot in the refrigerator there is a door, if it is well insulated, it will make the room more comfortable. It is better to take a metal-plastic door, from the same profile as the window. You should not install sliding and other doors with unreliable fixation and many gaps, which are more expensive and will let a lot of cold into the room.

Advice ! Attention should be paid to the snug fit of the door to the refrigerator, it is possible to glue an additional insulation tape at the point of contact.

As internal material you can use special sandwich panels that optimally store cold and do not let it through the structure. This will make the refrigerator a little smaller, but it will help to isolate the air in it and not spread it to the walls and into the room.

With the simultaneous replacement of the window sill with a smaller one, and when the brick row has not yet been laid out (if any), it is possible to slightly increase the refrigerator in height, reducing the useful part of the window.

The interior space can be sealed with plasterboard or plastered. Drywall must be puttied at the joints, and edges should be made at about 20 degrees to avoid deformation, because it can expand, and the plastered edges will take on the entire load.

In any case, the interior space must be insulated so that the cold does not penetrate the walls, but is concentrated and remains in the refrigerator, and in summer the heat also does not reduce the comfort in the room.

In order to avoid the destruction of the wall from condensate, it is necessary to make gaps between the drywall / sealant and the wall so that there are additional layers of air to minimize a strong temperature difference, a warm homely atmosphere and a cold street.

You can make a light in the refrigerator so that you can see better, using simple elements for standard refrigerators, for example, a transformer and others, fixing them in a box next to the refrigerator, in a warm place with a stable temperature.

They can withstand negative temperatures, but the moisture and frost that is inside the refrigerator can damage the device and take up additional space.

Important ! Inside the refrigerator is the most inappropriate place for electrical equipment.

The rear wall can also be insulated with a layer of brickwork, but one should not forget that the main source of cold in winter is the holes in the wall, which are best left uncovered. Also, when plastering, they cannot be sealed.

When building a veranda or when insulating an existing one, we must not forget about the need for air to enter the holes. To improve efficiency, you can lead the tube through the veranda to the outside, and carefully seal everything around it so that the air goes only through the pipeline, and glue it with a heat insulator, the best remedy to maintain the temperature and efficient operation of the refrigerator can not be invented.

At the last stage, shelves and drawers are attached.

Advice ! They should be oversized and simple to save precious space.

Glazing of unnecessary space

This is in a good way a visual extension of the kitchen, and makes it a great design masterpiece, a large window is essential to set the mood every morning if you live in an area with not-so-cold winters.

This part of the wall, with a refrigerator, does not carry a special load, so you can safely remove it.

First, you should measure everything, and make at least an approximate plan for the future window or veranda, find out the dimensions in the store, and order the future window using them.

It is possible to leave the window sill, but be careful with it, not forgetting that both below and above are glass.

Important ! When removing a partition above the first floor, it is important that there is a person below, or an indicator that work is underway. Ideally, you should limit the possible fall zone of building materials with a bright tape so that people see the danger and pass this area more carefully.

After cleaning the refrigerator and part of the wall, it is important to clean the edges so that the installers do not have to break up unnecessary and interfering areas for half a day.

After inserting the window by the workers, the gaps need to be blown out with mounting foam, wait until it hardens, and cut off the excess with a knife.

Advice ! So that the foam does not deteriorate from moisture and the sun, it should be puttied or plastered

If you plan to make a small veranda, you should fix the channel on the floor with anchors from below, and sheathe the protruding part with iron sheets.

The resulting step from the channels can be carefully decorated, the railing can be fixed in the wall, and fixed above the platform with stops on the floor.

If the veranda is completely sheathed with glass, this will help to keep warm.

Advice ! Additionally, you can make floor heating, in order to make the room much more comfortable, since through such windows there is a large loss of heat.

But for these works in the apartment, a permit is required, because what we will do will possibly damage the entire structure, floors above and below. As well as with the demolition of load-bearing walls and other elements that can lead to the destruction of the entire building.

Conclusion

The refrigerator under the window is a very convenient and practical tool, which, unfortunately, many have said goodbye to. If you are lucky and you still have such a refrigerator, then it can be used to save money on electricity, and as an additional place for food storage and conservation.

If you do not need it, then you can make a beautiful veranda that will cheer you up every morning at breakfast.

How to make a refrigerator under the window you can additionally learn from the following video

Behind the niches under the window sills of old brick houses built in the 50-70s of the last century, which were equipped in the kitchen, the folklore name "Khrushchev's refrigerator" was firmly entrenched. In the years of hopeless shortages, underdevelopment of light industry, low level lives of the vast majority of the population, house design engineers standard series, developed in the late 50s and early 60s of the twentieth century and built in brick design, found a good way out of this situation - to arrange a niche in the wall of the house, separated from the street space by a thin brickwork, and from the side of the apartment - a closed wooden door. The functional purpose of the refrigerator under the window is the storage of food and preservation during the cold season.

The times and the standard of living of the population in the 21st century have changed radically, and millions of square meters of housing built in the era of N.S. Khrushchev, and having worked out its resource of strength, to this day continue to regularly serve a huge number of Russians, despite sarcastic reviews about its quality and layout.

Disadvantages of a refrigerator under the window

The most significant drawback that a winter refrigerator has under the window is the low thermal insulation properties of the door material - wooden frame with a canvas of chipboard or fiberboard. With the onset of cold weather, the niche becomes suitable for storing perishable products, but at the same time there is a problem of constant drafts arising from the loose fit of the refrigerator door or its freezing. The kitchen becomes cold and uncomfortable.

Another significant disadvantage is through hole connecting the internal volume of the refrigerator with the external environment. Some refrigerators were equipped with a louvered grill, which made it possible to regulate the flow of outside air into the refrigerator, while most simply had an opening that was not closed by any damper. When the air temperature outside dropped to below zero temperatures, the food in the refrigerator froze, the cans with preservation burst, and the door closing the refrigerator was covered with a layer of frost.

These shortcomings forced the owners of the Khrushchev "chorus" to fight the cold with any available improvised means:

the opening to the street was plugged with rags or walled up tightly;
the walls of the niche were lined with cardboard or batting from the inside;
the doors were insulated with old blankets;
the slots in the doors were hammered with a felt mat or rubber seals.

But these measures did not exclude the freezing of the internal space of the refrigerator under the window in severe frosts and drafts on the floor in cases where a frontal wind blew.

This led to the fact that, having purchased an electric refrigerator, people stopped using the refrigerator under the window for its intended purpose and used it as a box for unnecessary trash, or simply laid it with brickwork or clogged it with foam.

Advantages of a refrigerator under the window

The layout of the "Khrushchev" provided for very small kitchens: 4.5 - 6 m 2. Place on this area kitchen furniture and household appliances is extremely difficult. Every centimeter counts. Therefore, having a niche under the windowsill can be very useful. But for this it is necessary to make some efforts and redo it, taking into account the changed building materials and technologies.

In the period from October to April in the Central European climatic zone, an outdoor refrigerator, reliably protected from freezing, can be successfully used to store vegetables and canned winter preparations, saving a modest kitchen area.

Possible reconstruction options

We will not dwell on the radical method - laying the refrigerator under the window with brickwork or heat-insulating material and completely eliminating it as a useful volume in the household.

We will also not dwell on semi-fantastic renovation projects with the transformation kitchen window in the kitchen in Khrushchev in the "French window" from ceiling to floor. Not only will this require obtaining permission for the internal redevelopment of the dwelling, it is not at all realistic to obtain permission from the architectural supervision authorities to change the facade of the building. And the French window is just that.

Let us dwell on ways to repair and insulate a niche under the window in order to make the refrigerator useful in the household and not causing inconvenience to residents with a cold problem.

To do this, you can use one of three methods:

insulation of the outer wall;
refrigerator door insulation
A complex approach.

Insulation of the outer wall and interior space

Typical projects of "Khrushchev", built in brick, are represented by almost a dozen various variations, the main difference between which was the number of storeys and the internal layout of the apartments.

The main parameters - the outer load-bearing walls with a masonry of 2.5 bricks - remained unchanged. Considering that the dimensions of the white silicate brick are 250 x 120 x 60 mm, the thickness of the outer wall in the brick "Khrushchev" is 620-650 mm.

The thickness of the outer wall of the Khrushchev refrigerator is 0.5 bricks, i.e. 120 mm.

The internal maximum volume of the refrigerator could be:

Height max - 800 mm;
Width max - 1000 mm;
Depth max – 500 mm.

These dimensions could differ significantly from the maximum, depending on the specific series and the conscientiousness of the builders. But, in any case, the volume of the refrigerator under the window did not exceed 400 liters. In practice, much less.

This is the volume of a modern two-chamber refrigerator.

Since the use of bulk insulation, such as polystyrene or mineral wool, will inevitably lead to a critical reduction in volume and make it unprofitable to invest in its reconstruction, you should choose materials that, when minimum thickness have the lowest thermal conductivity.

These are:

polyurethane foam- a liquid insulation that polymerizes under the influence of water vapor contained in the atmospheric air.
Penoteks- extruded polystyrene foam.
Isofol(Penofol, isolon) - rolled foil insulation.

The use of polyurethane foam as a heater in everyday life is difficult, since its application to the surface to be insulated requires special equipment. Therefore, we will consider the insulation of an outdoor refrigerator with the help of penotex and penofol.

Work sequence

When performing insulation with your own hands, you should adhere to the following sequence:

Completely empty the niche. Remove shelves and fasteners for them.
Clean the surface of old insulation or paint.
Clean the vent and install a louver-type metal grille on it (with the ability to regulate the intake of outside air).
Plaster the surface of the walls.
Prime the dried surface with an acrylic wall primer 2 times (with an interval of 3-4 hours).
In a foam sheet cut to size, make a hole located opposite the hole in the back wall of the refrigerator. The hole should be cut in a conical shape, with the narrow end facing the street. The resulting cone should be equipped with a loop handle and used to regulate the flow of cold air in severe frosts;
Using adhesive mastic (“liquid nails”), stick a sheet of foam with a thickness of 30-40 mm on the back wall of the refrigerator.
Paste over the top (under the windowsill) wall with foam.
Glue foam sheet insulation 3-10 mm thick on top of the foam. also paste over the side walls of the ceiling and the floor of the refrigerator with penofol (the thickness of the penofol does not play a significant role, its main function is on-screen).
Glue all the joints between the penofol with foil tape.

On this, the interior decoration of the refrigerator under the window is finished.

Refrigerator door insulation

If you plan to replace the existing refrigerator doors, then the choice should be stopped on a metal-plastic product. You can order their manufacture in any company specializing in the manufacture of plastic windows. It is better to make doors hinged, single or double - depending on the ease of use and the location of the furniture in the kitchen.

Fittings - simple, without the ability to open for ventilation.

The inner surface of the PVC door and frame should also be pasted over with foam foil with a foil layer outward - so that when the doors are closed, it faces inside the refrigerator.

If you live in a climate zone with severe cold winters, it will not be superfluous to equip an upgraded refrigerator with electric heating. To do this, you can use an ordinary electric incandescent lamp with a power of 60-75 W, which should be installed in a waterproof cartridge at the bottom of the refrigerator under the vent. Outside, the lamp must be covered with a metal mesh cover. Its power will be quite enough to keep the temperature inside the refrigerator close to 0 ° C in severe frosts.

Conclusion

A simple repair made in a couple of days will allow you to safely use the converted refrigerator in the winter, without fear that vegetables will freeze in it and get rid of annoying drafts on the floor.

In Khrushchev's high-rise buildings, the builders left it under the window (for heating batteries). But resourceful people tried to save precious space and moved the radiator to the side, and placed a winter one in a niche.

In those days, branded refrigerators were expensive, consumed a lot of electricity, so the problem was solved in a different way. The thin wall and its cooling during the cold months helped to cool the niche, so perishable food and preserves were stored there, saving precious space in the pantry and on the kitchen shelves. The disadvantage of this design is the constant wind of cold. V modern kitchens the refrigerator under the window in Khrushchev looks specific, so it can be improved, finished in a new way and used for its intended purpose.

Pros and cons of a winter refrigerator under the window in Khrushchev

The Khrushchev refrigerator under the window has the following advantages:

saving square meters;
additional option for storing pickles;
freezer during the winter months;
seasonal analogue of a refrigerator at zero finance costs;
minimum finishing materials;
ease of cleaning.

Designing a winter refrigerator under the window involves moving the heating battery to the side. According to the rules, radiators should be under the windows. The warm air from the radiator under the window rises and creates an invisible blanket that blocks the cold. If the battery is displaced, then there will be no reliable isolation from cold air currents penetrating through the window. This is a minus.

The makeshift refrigerator has another drawback - the formation of condensation or frost on the inner walls, so it will have to be wiped regularly with a dry cloth. If you cover the inner walls with ceramic tiles, it will be much easier to clean the refrigerator. Condensation appears due to a noticeable difference in temperatures outside and inside the house. Due to constant freezing and high humidity on the inner wall fungus or mold may appear, which is difficult to remove.

How to independently deepen a niche and make a finish: installation rules

The main task of arranging a refrigerator under the window is to arrange a useful and convenient compartment that will fit into the interior of a modern kitchen.

A brick house according to GOST varies from 0.51 m (laying in 2 bricks) to 0.64 m (laying in 2.5 bricks). During the construction of multi-storey buildings, the thickness of the walls in brick house decreases as it rises. The thickness of the brick outer walls of the building is about 0.6 m, and the thickness of the brick wall in the recess is 0.45 m (therefore, it is colder in the niche). In the Khrushchev buildings, well masonry was used (slag was poured into the resulting voids). He served as a heater. You can knock down plaster, disassemble one row of bricks, deepen the space under the window and increase the capacity of the refrigerator.

Concrete lintels in brick walls above the window, they preserve the integrity of the structure, so nothing will happen from careful outside interference. As a result, the wall will become thinner by 0.2 m, that is outer wall will have a thickness of only 0.25 m. A vent with a damper is left in the wall. With this device, the temperature in the niche is raised or lowered.

The resulting thin partition between the street and the room is plastered with cement and sand. It is not recommended to apply putty directly to the masonry. Otherwise, a problem may arise that the wall freezes through. In the masonry itself, there may be microcracks and cracks through which moisture will penetrate in the fall. In frosty weather, it will freeze and tear off the putty.

A practical option for finishing the internal walls of an outdoor refrigerator is ceramic tiles. It is placed directly on the plaster using universal frost-resistant tile adhesive.

It is not necessary to buy expensive tiles for facing the device. The main requirement is the smoothness of the tile. You can buy defective tiles, leftovers, or use scrap left over from a bathroom or kitchen renovation.

Plastic refrigerator doors and doors: insulated version design

There are many ways to give an impromptu refrigerator modern look. Finishing the refrigerator under the window may be different. To make the interior of the kitchen look harmonious, it is desirable that the doors are identical to the facades of the headset. For those who made custom-made kitchen furniture, it will not be difficult to order two separate doors for a refrigeration niche separately. You can decorate the refrigerator with furniture panels yourself. But if there is no desire to mess around yourself, you can invite specialists. They will do everything quickly and accurately.

Of the options - doors made of PVC profile (optionally with double-glazed windows or sandwich panels) and aluminum sliding systems. Often companies involved in the production and installation plastic windows, offer their customers to replace the Khrushchev refrigerator along with the old window. It is not cheap, but it has such advantages:

complete tightness;
ease of use;
functionality and capacity;
space saving;
attractive appearance and snow-white interior decoration.

Moreover, manufacturers give the opportunity to choose the required number of doors. If the refrigerator is small, one door is enough, large niche sizes require two opening doors. If in the first place is the desire to save money, there is an option to make the smaller half deaf, and the larger one opening. In everyday life, this is a little inconvenient, but it allows you to save money when ordering. The cost also depends on the configuration: you can order only doors for refrigerators, or you can order the entire interior decoration(cabinet under the refrigerator).

You can decorate the refrigerator with lighting. Behind transparent glasses, LED lighting is installed (this looks spectacular in a high-tech interior). The order, however, will have to be monitored especially carefully. They also order doors with tinted glass (creates the effect of a mini-bar).

It is important that the facades are hung correctly. If the doors are hung crookedly, they will not fit snugly together. And this means that the window sill refrigerator will not keep the temperature, and the warm air of the room will penetrate inside the cabinet. The edges of the recess must be even. If the tile is laid flat, then all corners will have 90⁰. Otherwise, you will have to make a frame. The spacing of the frame with the edges is hidden with a baguette.

Sequence of actions: built-in refrigerator

For those who have basic handling skills building materials and tools, making a refrigerator with your own hands is easy. To begin with, mark the center of the groove for the hinges at a distance of 20-21 mm from the corner edge of the door. The distance from the hinge center to the end edge varies from 75 to 125 mm, depending on the dimensions and thickness of the facade. If the panels are heavy, then a third loop is added in the middle for reliability. It is important to calculate the gaps between the loops so that they are not in line with the shelves.

To cut the hinges, use a wood end mill with a diameter of 35 mm. Drilling must be done carefully, otherwise the cutter will go through, since the depth of the groove is 12 mm, and thin panels have a thickness of 17-18 mm. Careful sharpening of the drill will help in the work, it is easier to adjust the drilling depth and there is no need to put pressure on the door. Furniture makers recommend using an awl as a center punch, then cutters and self-tapping screws will not slip.

The other part of the loops is attached to ceramic tiles or frame. First, the tiles are accurately marked, control drilling is done, and then they are drilled under dowels 5 mm thick. It is better to take screws with a thickness of 3-4 mm so that the panels hold firmly.

For the doors of the Khrushchev refrigerator, both furniture facades and plastic panels. But wood, unlike plastic, has good thermal insulation and keeps a low temperature in a niche. For this effect, the plastic will have to be built up with polystyrene foam or polystyrene foam. For doors, a feigned bar is made around the perimeter. It guarantees the tightness of the recess and does not allow warm air to penetrate inside. Even custom-made door panels can be equipped with a baguette porch.

If the kitchen has a small square, then making swing doors is a great luxury. Making your own door is easy. You can purchase plastic guides and attach them to the floor and windowsill. They insert suitable-sized blanks from fiberboard into them. True, sliding systems reduce thermal insulation. But if you order them from glazing manufacturers, this can be avoided. Installing a system of sliding doors with fine-tuning reliably isolates the room from the cold air in the niche.

Do-it-yourself dismantling

If for some reason the owner of the apartment decided to dismantle the refrigerator under the window, then it is better to lay it with a foam block or brick. Brackets for the radiator are installed in the brick. If the recess is deep, then the free space between the partitions is covered with slag. The place under the window sill is filled with mounting foam. After dismantling the refrigerator, the battery is returned to its old place in order to increase its efficiency. Complete niche sealing solves all serious problems with heat leakage through a thin wall and wooden doors. Therefore, residents of the northern regions, this option will seem the most rational.

Close. Screwed on first wooden slats to the brick wall, close up the ventilation hole, insert insulation sheets and screw the drywall with screws to the guides. The side walls are not insulated. They trim the former niche at their discretion. But for those who are not familiar with the principles of building walls, the notorious dew point and vapor permeability, such cladding may subsequently go sideways. Condensation forms between drywall and insulating material, which leads to flowering and destruction of the wall.

Solution options:

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A winter refrigerator under the window is a field for a splash of creative ideas. If it does not justify its intended purpose, it can be transformed at any time and endowed with new useful functions. You can decorate a niche in the wall in full accordance with your personal preferences and tastes.