Screed Repair – Do You Have A Failed Screed? – All You Need To Know About Screed Repair

Screed Repair Find Out Andy’s Thoughts – All You Need To Know About Screed Repair

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screed cracks
crack repair
how to repair a screed floor

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Screed Repair

I’m Andy Parkin, Managing Director of the Multi-Award Winning Speed Screed. I’m here today to talk about a very touchy subject at times, very stressful, and that is screed repair.

Fixing The Problem – Screed Repair
With any screed problem, we need to find out why your floor needs a screed repair in the first place, and to treat the cause, not just the symptom of why the screed has been damaged. We need to look at the possible reasons as to why it could fail, and there is quite an extensive list, but I think it is important to understand why, as the thing you don’t want to do is carry out a screed repair, and then end up with the same issue at a later date.

Materials
It could be just wrong materials, or the wrong screed that has been specified for a particular project, and it does not meet the requirements.

Strength – too weak
Thickness – too thin
Cement – too low strength
Sand – incorrect grading
There could be a multitude of reasons as to why it is unsuitable, and so it is important to make sure that the correct screed is specified in the first place.

If you have the correct, can you obtain the minimum/maximum depths? All screeds have a minimum depth requirement for each product, and so have you got the coverage? Sometimes you may have the coverage in the majority of the areas, but you end up with high spots that don’t comply. It is important to conduct a survey of the area to determine the available depths. When a screed is too thin a screed repair may not be the solution.

Structural Substrate
The substrate is paramount, the screed is only going to be as good as the substrate that it is laid onto.

When laying screed the substrate needs to be:

Needs to be sound – no crumbling
Free from contamination – oils, grease, foods, dirt, curing agent, laitance (when bonding)
Insulation needs to stable – if the insulation is rocking then you have a problem, it needs to be tightly butted.
Gaps in insulation – as you start to compact a sand and cement screed, the force can open up the boards, and screed is pushed into the gaps in between the boards. So not only have you got an issue with heat loss, you have a weak spot for the screed.
Mix Water
When the screed was mixed, has there been too much water introduced? Is it too wet? Or has there been too little water put in and you are not getting full hydration of the cement? There are two reasons for adding water into a screed mix.

To react with the cement particles, this process is known as hydration. If there is not enough water, then not all the cement particles hydrate and thus overall strength is reduced.
Placement of the screed, this allows the screed to be shaped and levelled. Workability of the screed is directly effected by water content.
Too little water
Struggle to finish
Weak and friable surface
Poor compaction
Not all cement will hydrate
Too Much Water
Poor finish
Weak, dusty and friable surface
Increased shrinkage cracking
Screed Curing
As we have just discussed water is very important for the screed, and the loss of water when the screed has been laid needs to be controlled by “curing”. The most popular method of curing screed is to use a plastic membrane to retain moisture. A liquid curing membrane can be sprayed onto the surface to do the same job as a plastic membrane.

The majority of cementitious screeds need a membrane over to keep the moisture within the screed, so it is available to hydrate the cement.

A lack of curing may cause:

Weak and friable surface
Not all cement will hydrate
Poor Mixing
We often see teams mixing onto a board on the ground, with a shovel, or straight into a wheelbarrow. Free fall site mixers are used on a regular basis, and this promotes the “balling” of the screed. It’s not going to mix a semi-dry mix screed correctly.

There needs to be good site practice, using the appropriate machine. It could be a paddle mixer, screed pump, or a forced action mixer.

Mix Proportions
When mixing, there needs to be the correct proportions of sand and cement, there might not be enough cement, and you could end up with a weak screed. Or the wrong grade or poor quality of sand.

Compaction
Any semi-dry screed needs to be well compacted (just like a sand castle). Screed needs to be compact in layers, if the depth is more than 50mm. If you have 100mm, that would be two layers