One of the essentials when constructing the floor of a building is to ensure that it is as level as possible. You don’t want bumps and dips in it, particularly if it is going to be tiled or have stone laid on top of the substrate. The way to make certain that it is as level as possible is to use screed as a final finish on the concrete base. A screed is a thin additional layer that can be levelled to a far greater accuracy than concrete.
Today, we have a range of liquid screeds available. These are made using gypsum as the binder, and the advantage is that they can be laid in a liquid form. This has all sorts of benefits, especially if it is a long floor in Newbury. You will save endless hours of work.
A traditional sand and cement screed is often mixed on site, which of itself is a time-consuming process, although some are now delivered ready mixed. Either way, the screed then has to be barrowed into position and spread out and levelled by hand by a worker with a trowel. If the building has a long floor in Newbury, then this can take ages to try and achieve a level finish.
Our liquid screeds at Top Mix are mixed to the right consistency at our plant and are then delivered to the site ready mixed. They don’t need to be barrowed into position because we simply attach a hose to the delivery vehicle and pump the liquid on to the floor.
Self-Levelling
Now here’s the best part: Because it is in liquid form, it levels itself out. No need for a worker on hands and knees trying to get it flat using his trowel. If it is a long floor, we may need to send more than one load, but it takes very little time to pump into position. All we need to do is to run a dappling bar over it so that it removes any air bubbles, and then it can be left to dry.
There are big benefits when installing water-based underfloor heating too, because the screed will completely envelop the pipes so that there are no air pockets. Another big advantage of our gypsum screeds is that the heat transfer is almost double that of sand and cement. That means that the room heats up faster, and in turn that means that you use less energy to achieve the right temperature. So, you save money over the whole life of the building.