FLOOR FINISHESFLOOR FINISHES

• Screeds

• Terrazzo (in-situ type)

• Ceramic Tiling

• Granite or Marble

Cement Screed

• A cement and sand screed finish to a concrete floor may be an acceptable, low cost finish to small area floors of garages, stores and outhouses where the small area does not justify the use of a power float and considerations of ease of cleaning are not of prime importance.

Fibre Reinforced Cement Screed

• Premixed, dry bagged cement and sand screed material reinforced with polymer fibre is available. The fibre reinforces against drying shrinkage and cracking.

• Cement + Sand

• Thickness: 20 - 75 mm

• It is the base for upper covering materials.

Laying ScreedLaying Screed• The traditional method of screeding a large area

is to divide the floor up into bays not exceeding 3.5 m in width.

• The bays are laid alternately working to screeding battens which have been carefully levelled and aligned, and firmly bedded throughout their length.

• The first bays are left for 24 hours, then the battens removed and the remaining bays completed.

Terrazzo (in-situ type)Terrazzo (in-situ type)

• Composed of a thin, stone-chip topping adhered to a mortar base or concrete slab, a terrazzo floor is divided into sections by thin divider strips that help to control cracking.

• Traditional terrazzo is composed of graded marble or aggregate (70% or more) in a cement matrix. Colour is often added to the cement matrix in order to highlight the stone aggregate, which itself is a mix of colours and sizes.

• A terrazzo floor is divided into sections by strips, usually brass, zinc or plastic.

• The divider strips create weakened vertical planes inducing unavoidable cracking to occur at these locations.

• Maximum spacing of divider strips ranges from 120 cm to450 cm depending on the type of terrazzo system employed.

Ceramic TilingCeramic Tiling

• A bed of semi-dry cement and sand, mix 1:4, is spread over the concrete or screed base and packed to a thickness of about 3,5 cm. the bed is then covered with a grout (wet mix) or cement and sand, mix 1:1, into which the tiles are bedded, levelled and the joints grouted or filled. The semi-dry bed accommodates relative movement between the base and the tiles.

• To take up possible expansion of tiles an expansion joint should be formed around the perimeter of a tiled floor. The joint is filled with an elastic sealing compound.

• For large areas of tiled floor, additional expansion joints should be formed both along and across the floor with grout of cement or a mix of cement and fine sand.