Why the Quality of Your Floor Screeding Can Make or Break Your Project

As any experienced floor screeding contractor knows, a poor quality subfloor is a headache that isn’t so easy to remedy. A poorly compacted or weak screed may require complete removal which can cause significant extra cost and delays to project completion.

Floor screeding is an investment and the last thing you want is for your expensive stone tiles to start cracking because the screed installed is not strong enough to support them. If the screed has been used to cover an underfloor heating installation, the impact is even greater if it needs to be replaced. That’s why we aim to get a floor screeding application right the first time every time.

How We Approach Every Project

We achieve the best possible results by considering the final performance requirement for the floor before we start a project. Most flooring is designed from the concrete base upwards and the decision about the final floor finish is often made last. However, this approach can leave a project open to failure, with joints installed in the wrong place, no installation of intermediate movement joints and drying times not being taken into account.

That is why we aim to design every floor from the top down so that we can ensure that the base and subfloor is suited to the final floor covering.

Our Floor Screeding Process From Start to Finish

Once we have decided how we are going to approach a project, the floor screeding process can begin, as follows:

• Check the area is free of materials, debris and all trades except screeding operatives.
• Check the area is watertight.
• Ensure the correct screed depth can be achieved by measuring down from what is known as the datum level. We will cover this in a future blog post.
• Ensure that all movement joints, acoustic thermal layers, membranes and expansion perimeter strips are in place.
• Check the screed mix specification.
• Use a forced action mixer, such as a screed pump or pan mixer.
• Add the fibres into the mix and agitate for two minutes.
• Check that the screed has a plastic-like consistency.
• Apply the screed to the required area.
• If high volumes of traffic are expected the next day, and we are not using a fast drying floor screeding, we will install the necessary screed protection.
• These protective measures will usually remain in place until the final floor finish is installed.

Common Screed Problems That Can Be Avoided

There are many things that can go wrong with your floor screeding. Here are just some of the issues we avoid through our stringent planning and quality control processes and which we can also remedy:

• Soundness and hardness of the screed does not meet the required specifications
• Unacceptable deviations in the level of the installed screed
• High moisture content in the screed
• Cracked screed
• Screed collapse
• Wrong level of screed

Get in Touch

The quality of your floor screeding can make or break your project. Ensure the best quality finish by getting in touch with our experts today. We would be delighted to assist you.