Types of construction - brick, panel, EPK. What are the differences? 🤯

There are differences between old and new construction. One of the big differences is the different square footage between 2 apartments with the same aspect ratio. For example, a two-room apartment of old construction and a two-room apartment of new construction. The difference is that in the old construction, we necessarily have a separate kitchen in the apartment, which does not count as a room. This type of apartment in the old trinity does not include a terrace, balcony, basement or attic in the total square footage - only the net area of ​​the apartment is considered.

Panel The panel blocks are easy to recognize, no taller than 9 stories, with classic uniform balconies and look. The prices of such apartments are lower than others, but a lot depends on the location and improvements in the property. The characteristic of panel construction is that it consists of walls of concrete slabs connected to each other by "ties". As a minus here, we can say that these homes have almost no heat and sound insulation, they quickly accept the outside temperature. The appearance of mold often occurs due to poor connections between individual panels. Another minus is that with this type of construction, alterations are limited. It is characteristic of this type of construction that there are no restrictions on the number of entrances.

PK (Creeping Formwork) The essence of the "creeping formwork" method consists in the construction of continuous vertical and mostly wall structures of reinforced concrete - along the entire height of the building. Disadvantages are: greater consumption of concrete and steel - possible reconstructions during the building's expansion are not allowed! PK construction can be recognized by the fact that they are from 9 to 12 floors.

EPK (Large Area Formwork) These are the other easily recognizable blocks as construction, these are all tall blocks above 10 stories. This type of construction is more resistant to earthquakes. One of the main differences with panel construction is that with EPK concrete is poured entirely during construction, which makes buildings more stable and more expensive than panels. In EPK construction, the interior walls, which are not load-bearing, can be built from different materials, even from bricks, which gives a greater possibility for alterations, unlike panels. The heat and sound insulation of this type of construction is slightly better than that of panel, although this can be changed.

Brick construction This seems to be the best option for housing, but we should not ignore the fact that these are also the most expensive housing. The biggest plus, in contrast to panel and EPK construction, is that brick buildings have the best heat and noise insulation. With this type of construction, we have larger and more interesting possibilities for remodeling. The downside here is mainly price, brick buildings are one of the most expensive and keep their prices over time. It is good to know that there is a factual difference between old and new brick construction. We recommend brick buildings as the most effective long-term investment.  Old brick buildings are most often found in neighborhoods such as Center, Oborishte, Doctor's Monument and Lozenets. And the new brick buildings predominate the most in the newest neighborhoods of Sofia, these are Studentski Grad, Malinova Dolina, Vitosha, Krastova Vada and Manastirski Livadi.

Row They have a wooden load-bearing skeleton on the outer and inner load-bearing walls, which are brick or adobe masonry on lime or clay mortar. The floors are made of wooden joists. In the past, residential buildings were built in this way.