Liquid screeds are transforming UK construction, driven by efficiency gains,
labour shortages, and modern building demands, says Andy Vincent
MOST observers would have noticed a big increase in the use of liquid applied flowing screeds in the UK over the past five years or so. The reasons for this may seem obvious, but it is perhaps less easy to understand why this hasn’t happened before.
The first real use of liquid screeds began in the UK in the very early ‘90s when anhydrite (gypsum) based liquid screeds became available. At that time, there was an expectation that they would see rapid growth and that the UK would move substantially to liquid instead of the traditional sand and cement based, hand-applied materials that were used before.
The reasons for the expectation of rapid adoption of liquid screeds were obvious. The substantial increase in labour efficiency and speed that they offered should have been enough. Better performance at thinner sections, greater stability and resistance to cracking, relative ease of installing to high buildings, improved performance of underfloor heating (though this was relatively unused at the time), much better health and safety for operatives – the list was extensive, but the rate of growth in the use of liquid screeds was not quite what might have been expected.
The growth in the use of liquid screeds has been consistent but steady until five or six years ago, reaching about 15% market share. This is at least in part due to the fact that anhydrite screeds, despite their obvious benefits, were not initially universally well received.
Those who have been resistant to anhydrite screeds would offer two reasons for this. Firstly, they would say that anhydrite screeds take a very long time to dry, and secondly, they would say they’re difficult to stick floor finishes to. Neither of these things are strictly true.
They are not properties of the screeds, and certainly not faults, but they have come to be believed due to the fact that in the UK we don’t treat screeds well and we certainly do not manage the process of drying or the correct ‘aftercare’ of the screed. This can have consequences with all screeds, but it is more important with gypsum based ones as the effects can be much more severe.
The past five or six years, however, have seen the growth that we had expected to happen much earlier. Today, liquid screeds are widely reported to account for comfortably more than 40% of the market.
The arrival in the UK of liquid screeds based on cement rather than gypsum has certainly been a factor in market development, but despite the rapid increase in the use of these materials, the gypsum products have also seen growth. Perhaps the cement materials have ‘stirred things up,’ but it seems apparent that market conditions have also been a factor.
The construction industry is seeing a labour and skills shortage in general, but this is very apparent for screed installers. Plainly, a labour shortage can be offset by using installation methods that are quicker by ten times or more, as liquid screeds are.
The speed is also of benefit to the project itself, as is the ability to pump materials to height relatively easily. London has been the earliest and quickest adopter of liquid screeds, and it’s not difficult to see why with its prevalence of large and high buildings.
Underfloor heating has seen a rapid increase in use in the UK in recent years, driven by the need for energy efficiency and the regulation changes that support this. The benefits to underfloor heating of using a liquid screed are manifold.
In short, the same list of benefits that we saw for liquid screeds in the early 90s seem now to have been recognised and are being realised. Every indication is that the rapid growth of the last five years will continue for the next three at least, such that we will see the overall share of liquid screeds over 75%.
Liquid screeds are certainly here to stay. We can expect that there will be more brands arriving over the next year or so and more companies will become involved in the manufacture and installation. No doubt there’ll be even higher performance materials developed, and we might see even more efficient installation methods.
One thing we’re not likely to see is anybody who’ll be sorry to see the back of the old, slow, and labour-intensive screed installation methods that are already beginning to look a bit archaic.
www.flowingscreedsassociation.com
Andy Vincent is sales & technical specifications at Cemfloor and a board member of Flowing Screeds Association