Major Considerations for Liquid Floor Screed

The desire for liquid floor screed to support a number of different finishes has grown substantially in recent years. Whether it’s luxury tiles or fancy polished concrete flooring designs, a smooth and solid liquid screed flooring installation will allow you to achieve the effect you want. However, the key to a good liquid screed floor isn’t just the quality of the mixture you use, and relies on a number of different things.

Structural Floor Base

Screed can be laid on wood but they are more commonly laid on a concrete sub-floor. Before your installation starts, you must effectively review your floor base and establish the surface characteristics as well as how much room there is for the screed to be placed on top. This thickness can determine various requirements for how the screed is composed and installed.

A liquid screed contractor, who uses cement or anhydrite screed in Bristol should be able to inform you about the condition of your sub floor and how this will affect the overall installation of your liquid screed mixture.

Meeting Quality Standards

Liquid screed can naturally achieve a high level of evenness due to its self-levelling properties, however, certain floor finishing options will require your screed to be incredibly smooth and completely free of blemishes. If you are planning to use a finishing material that is think and delicate, such as vinyl, ceramics or stones, which are bonded to the floor, then your liquid screed floor will need to meet the highest quality standards.

Strength

Liquid screed can be built to offer a great deal of durability and strength, however, if you are installing a floor for certain locations or work sites that will receive a large amount of foot traffic and weight, you should establish this early on with your contractor or designer. Your provider of cement-based and anhydrite screed in Bristol should help you build this into your specifications.

Materials

The usage and aesthetic requirements of your floor will determine the kind of mixture and materials you need to use. While very basic screed mixtures that are made primarily of cement and sand can be used for a wide range of applications, if you want to achieve luxury smoothness and consistency with extremely thin screed layers, you will have to use certain materials like anhydrite compounds that can be pumped into the specified location.

This is where liquid screed has an advantage over other flooring methods, as they provide better flexibility in laying with a high level of strength.

Bonding Requirements

Depending on your project requirements, you will either want to have a screed that is bonded to the sub-floor or separated with a layer of damp-proof material. For thin screeds that are bonded, these can be poured directly onto the sub-floor to bond the materials together, making the sub structural concrete and new screed layer cohesive.

Underfloor Heating Systems

If you are laying a thick enough screed, you can place any piping or heating system components directly into the screed. However, you must consider using supporting conduits and specifically designed screed to handle heating pipes. This might also include plastic reinforced pipes that can adapt with the different temperature conditions – reducing the likeliness of screed cracking.

Movement Joints

Movement joints should be considered to restrict the stress that can build up within the screed material and also control cracking. Movement joints should mirror any large areas of movement in the building, and when possible, the overall shape should be as rectangular as possible.

UK Screeds provides liquid screeds across England and Wales and has eleven local branches.