Screeding - Any advice

yop

Lads + Girls

We are looking to screed our hut next weekend, we have screeded sheds, back streets and a couple of rooms but not a whole house before, I would accept that the principle is the same.

Now based on your experiences any advice on the do's and don't etc


cheers

rooferPete

Hi Yop,

I expect nothing more than the obvious, don't have the screeds too far apart and allow plenty of time to allow the screed to cure so you can give it a final finish with the steel trowel.

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yop

Cheers Pete,

Out of interest, as we have always mixed our own, what "state" is the screed in that is delivered, is it dry, will it last for long outside or would you think you really should have it all moved in and laid in X amount of time???

Any good tools out there that a man should invest in to make life easier?

I was trying to get my hands on a pump to pump it into the rooms but no dice

rooferPete

Hi Yop,

Really worth having a word in the drivers ear before he unloads the mix, some of them tip it with too much water in it and you could find yourself using a pick to loosen it to wet it again, depending on the strength of the mix you can get the same result from a fairly dry mix.

Personally I prefer it just wet enough to be mixed, that way you add water as you need it, but it can happen that the mix is stronger than you ordered so check with the driver it can save a lot of time and sweat.

There is a small size dumper, like a wheel barrow that when matched with a mini digger could almost drive in the door, I'm not sure if it would pay you to hire it as it depends on how far away the concrete is from the door.

If you can get your hands on a piece of steel channel it can help to drag the concrete between the screeds, rope on both ends.

I expect you are working to room sizes at this stage so there is no point in hiring a motorised set of screeds, besides I'm not sure they are a good idea with underfloor heating.

The hands must be hard enough now so no worrying about blisters

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