Screeding guides and technical advice
Practical UK guidance for main contractors, developers, specifiers and residential clients — written to answer the questions that actually come up when a floor is being priced, specified and programmed. These guides are educational. They do not replace a project specification or the manufacturer data for the system being installed.
Built around the questions that decide the floor: system, depth, programme, finish and verification.
Based in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire.
Plan and compare
What a floor is likely to cost, which system suits the project, and how long it needs before the following trades can work.
- Cost
Floor screeding costs in the UK
What actually drives screed pricing — area, depth, system, access, preparation and programme — and why a square-metre rate on its own rarely survives contact with a real floor.
- System choice
Sand and cement vs liquid screed
A straight comparison of traditional and flowing systems across depth, programme, underfloor heating, finish requirements and site conditions.
- Programme
Screed drying times
How drying estimates are built, why walkable is not dry, and how depth, system and site conditions change the date a floor can realistically be covered.
Specify the build-up
The two questions that decide whether a screed specification is buildable: what tolerance is required, and how thick the floor needs to be.
- Standards
BS 8204, SR1, SR2 and SR3
What BS 8204 is and is not, how surface regularity classes work under a 2 m straightedge, and why surface regularity is not the same thing as level.
- Build-up
Screed depth and minimum thickness
Why there is no universal screed depth: bonded, unbonded and floating build-ups, traditional versus flowing products, and pipe cover over underfloor heating.
Verify and hand over
Proving the floor is ready for what goes on top of it, and preparing the surface so the finish bonds as intended.
- Verification
Screed moisture testing and flooring readiness
Sealed hygrometer RH, CM carbide and oven-dry testing, why handheld meters mislead, and how cementitious and calcium sulphate criteria differ.
- Preparation
Preparing and priming screed before tiling
Laitance, sanding, priming and system compatibility — including why the correct preparation differs between sand and cement and calcium sulphate screeds.
Guides define the project. A quotation prices it.
These guides help you settle the system, the build-up and the programme. A formal quotation still depends on the actual floor area, depth, build-up, access and programme, which is why we review a project before pricing it rather than publishing a rate.
Looking for the work itself rather than the theory? See all screeding services or commercial screeding packages.
Still deciding which screed the project needs?
Send the drawings, the build-up and the programme and we will set out the realistic options and what each one means for depth, drying and the finish. For straightforward sand-and-cement work, an indicative estimate takes a minute.