Screed Point Loading

I am Andy Parkin Managing Director of the Multi Awards Winning Speed Screed. Today I would like to cover screed point loading.

What Exactly Is Screed Point Loading

When placing a load onto a screeded floor it is supported by the floor covering, the screed, insulation, and structural substrate.  These layers spread the point load across the floor.  If the load used on the floor is disproportionate this can cause the layer of insulation to compress and may also result in the screed cracking under the load. This is due to the compressive strength of the insulation not being adequate to support the load.

What Are The Issues? 

Most common screed point loading issues occur in buildings where there are heavy equipment and plant.

It is not only the end use of the building that needs to be considered, but also during the construction phase of the build.  Often projects have cherry pickers, and mobile platforms working on the surface of the screed.

Insulation Strengths

Insulation is supplied with varying degrees of compressive strength measured as kPa (kilopascals).  With base commercial products starting at 100 kPa.  Compressibility needs to be considered when determining the insulation requirement of the build.

Structural Engineer

It is always recommended that the calculations need to be carried out by a qualified structural engineer as they would need to determine the force transmitted through the screeded floor system and strength and types of materials to be specified.

There are various factors that can affect the calculation of the load such as the point load weight of the load the area of the load in contact with the floor depth and type of screed and the angle of the load through the floor depth of insulation.

To give you an example using a typical C20 Screed.

Screed with a minimum compressive strength at 28 days of 20 N/mm2 would therefore afford a point loading of 20,000 KN/m2 and 2.04 Kg/mm2.

I hope this gives you some insight into screed point loading and the complexities surrounding it.

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