If you know a little about building and construction, then you may well be aware that one of the many requirements for any building is that the floor should be as flat and level as possible. It seems obvious but is not something that many people take into consideration, probably because it is obvious!
In order to ensure that this happens, you cannot lay the final flooring – whatever it is – directly on to the concrete substrate. You need to cover it with a layer of material that will provide as flat a surface as possible. Such a material is known as a screed or levelling compound, and for many years has simply been a mix of sand and cement that is laid thinly on top of the concrete. While this can do a reasonable job, it will never be perfect.
This is because of the way it is added to the concrete. The mix is barrowed on to the floor and then levelled out by a worker using a trowel. Sometimes the sand and cement is mixed on site in a cement mixer, and this itself can mean that there are variations in each batch, although today many of these levelling compounds are delivered ready mixed. They still have to be laid and levelled out of course.
Obviously, that takes a lot of time, and it also depends on the skills of the worker as to just how flat and level the resulting surface is.
The Latest Type Of Levelling Compound
Roll forward many years, and today we have the use of a liquid levelling compound that has very many advantages over the older type. The levelling compound in Bath that we provide at UK Screeds is made of sand and anhydrous (dry) calcium sulphate – hence the word “Anhydrite”. This is delivered to site ready mixed as you would expect, but laying it is much faster and simpler.
All we need to do is to connect a long hose and a pump to the truck and then pump it into position on the concrete base. Doing it this way, we can cover up to 2,000 square metres in a day, compared to as little as 100 by a man with a trowel!
Our levelling compound in Bath is also much better when installing underfloor heating because being in liquid form it obviously covers all of the heating pipes without leaving any air gaps, which you get with a traditional compound.
There are lots of other benefits too, one of which is that the drying time of the compound is so much faster, so it does not interfere with other trades who need to work on the site. You can walk on it in as little as 24 hours!
