SCREEDS
GOING WITH THE FLOW
Andy Vincent, sales & technical specifications at Cemfloor and board member of Flowing Screeds Association, outlines the history and benefits of flowing screeds for commercial flooring projects.
Most observers would have noticed a big increase in the use of liquid applied flowing screeds in the UK over the past five years or so. The reasons for this may seem obvious, but it is perhaps less easy to understand why this hasn’t happened before.
The first real use of liquid screeds began in the UK in the very early 90s when anhydrite (gypsum) based liquid screeds became available. At that time, there was an expectation that they would see rapid growth and that the UK would move substantially to liquid instead of the traditional sand-and-cement-based, hand- applied materials that were used before.
The reasons for the expectation of rapid adoption of liquid screeds were obvious. The substantial increase in labour efficiency and speed that they offered should have been enough. Better performance at thinner sections, greater stability and resistance to cracking, relative ease of installing to high buildings, improved performance of underfloor heating (though this was relatively unused at the time), much better health and safety for operatives
– the list was extensive, but the rate of growth in the use of liquid screeds was not quite what might have been expected.
The growth in the use of liquid screeds has been consistent but steady until five or six years ago, reaching approximately 15% market share. This is at least in part due to the fact that anhydrite screeds, despite their obvious benefits, were not initially universally well received.
Those who have been resistant to anhydrite screeds would offer two reasons for this. Firstly, they would say that anhydrite screeds take a very long time to dry, and secondly, they would say that they are difficult to stick floor finishes to. Neither of these things are strictly true.
They are not properties of the screeds, and certainly not faults, but they have come to be believed due to the fact that in the UK we do not treat screeds well and we certainly do not manage the process of drying or the correct ‘aftercare’ of the screed. This can have consequences with all screeds, but it is more important with gypsum-based ones as the effects can be much more severe.
The past five or six years, however, have seen the growth that we had expected to happen much earlier. Today, liquid screeds are widely reported to account for comfortably more than 40% of the market.
The arrival in the UK of liquid screeds based on cement rather than gypsum has certainly been a factor in market development, but despite the rapid increase in the use of these materials, the gypsum products have also seen growth. Perhaps the cement materials have ‘stirred things up', but it seems apparent that market conditions have also been a factor.
16
www.tomorrowscontractfloors.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42
