Screed Compaction – From Great Yarmouth

I’m Andy Parkin Managing Director of the Multi Award Winning Speed Screed.  Today I would like to talk about screed compaction.

While on holiday I thought I would demonstrate just how important screed compaction is when laying floor screed.

My daughters took a bucket each and both built a sand castle.  ***no cement was used in the experiment, just sand and water***

Screed Compaction – British Standard

Scarlett compacting in layers, following the British Standard, which is compacting in 50mm layers.

Darcy filled the bucket as quickly as possible, and the only compaction was made on the surface.

Having trowel finished the screed (well smoothed over the surface with a plastic spade).  Both had what looked like a perfect finish, smooth, compact surface, ready to take the final floor finishes.  However there was a deadly secret, Darcy’s screed without the required compaction was a disaster waiting to happen.

The Great Reveal

With both girls ready to reveal there screed castles, the buckets were lifted, and we were left with two very different screed castles.  Scarlett’s compacted version was near perfect, and would surly meet a 50 or 100 design life specification.  Where as Darcy’s effect, collapsed into pile.

It is very clear to see the impact correct compaction can have on screed, and whilst the demonstration was quite dramatic you can easily see how poor compaction will cause failure in your screed.  It may not have issues over night, but with constant loading over the weeks and months there will not be the required durability.

The screed looked pretty, finished nicely, but did not have the screed compaction required.

Keep your screed safe and we love to help please contact us.