Do I need a smoothing compound on top of the screed?
Do you need a smoothing compound on top of the Screed before the floor coverings go down?
My name is Andy Parkin, Managing Director of the Multi-Award-Winning Speed Screed.
The simple answer is generally no. So, if you are laying ceramics, engineered woods, carpets, etc. then, the answer would be no. The finish would be perfectly adequate for all those systems.
Thin floor coverings
The only time when a smoothing compound generally would be recommended would be if you are laying thin vinyl, any thin floor coverings such as Antico, etc.
The manufacturers always recommend that there is a smoothing compound and literally, the smoothing compound is just something that’s going to be a 3mm covering and literally, does what it says, it just smooths out any slight blemishes.
You look at the Screed and think, yes you can put the vinyl directly down, however literally, the light will catch the vinyl and you can just see slight imperfections there.
So, it is recommended, it does mention it’s within the British Standard and it is something that is recommended by the final flooring manufacturers and general floor layers. When the floor layer comes in, they will normally expect to lay a smoothing compound to take out any of those small blemishes.
Now, it may be that you’ve just got an existing concrete floor and you just want a smoothing compound, maybe a few odd differences in levels and you want a smoothing compound just to put down of there and then of course, that would mean that it’s ready straightaway to lay those floor coverings.
Essentially you are looking that the majority of products flooring doesn’t require a smoothing compound and you’ve got that open textured Screed which is going to be a fantastic surface for bonding to.
So that also covers the flowing screeds as well as the calcium sulphate screeds, they would still need a smoothing compound before laying thin vinyl. So, you can just bear that in mind because I suppose if you imagine a flowing Screed, you’re thinking it’s going to be like a smoothing compound but you will have those blemishes, that you know, will cause issues with the vinyl floor coverings.
Across the board, with any of the screeds, if you have got thin vinyl then, you need to take advice from your flooring contractor. It’ll be generally the case that it would be a smoothing compound that’s required.
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