Month: June 2020

Laying a screed on to a floor is the simple process of adding an additional layer of sand and cement or a gypsum-based screed on to a concrete floor in order to provide a sturdy and hard-wearing sub-floor on which the final flooring will be laid. Alternatively, it may be what is known as a wearing screed and become the final floor surface itself.

Floor screeds have traditionally been made of sand and cement and have been used for years for the purpose of levelling out a concrete substrate so that the surface on which the final flooring is going to be laid is as level as it can be. This is particularly important when the flooring is going to be something like tiling which has to be affixed with adhesive: if the surface is not level, the tiling is going to get cracked when people walk upon it.

A floor screed is also used for the installation of underfloor heating. Heating pipes or electric heating cables or mats are laid, and the floor screed laid on top. This helps to produce an even level of warmth in the room above.

At this time of the year, not many people are thinking about heating their homes. If anything, they are thinking about how to cool them rather than heat them, especially after the recent hot weather in many parts of the country.

However, believe it or not, it won’t be all that many weeks before the weather cools again and people will be switching on the heating once more, even if only a little to begin with. Heating costs money, and many heating systems can be quite wasteful. Radiators, for example, send a lot of heat up to the ceiling and they don’t heat the room evenly, either. This means that there are colder spots, so the radiator gets turned up some more in order to warm them up.

Many people believe that underfloor heating systems are a relatively new development and are the height of luxury reserved for high-end properties, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Underfloor heating has been around at the very least since the Roman times, and some reports go back further than that. In those days, channels were cut into the floor of a home and were topped with stone which was then heated from fires in specific places.