Semi Dry vs Flowing Screed: Which is Best?

Have you ever wondered which one is better? Semi Dry Screed vs Flowing Screed.

Ask yourself: How do I choose the right screed for me?

Semi Dry Screed

The Semi Dry Screed is the traditional Screed. It is a 1-4 or a 1-3 type mix. A Semi Dry Screed is used in 78% of all the Screeding projects in the U.K. It has been around for years and is still the most popular Screed.

There are certain benefits to using a semi dry screed:

Obtain a high degree of accuracy with it because you’re finishing it with like a 2 and 3-meter straightedge. It allows you to be very accurate. It’s only accurate in the hands of trained installers, so you need trained installers. They should be able to achieve a finish which easily surpasses what you actually required for the particular project. You will be able to use it in wet rooms and you will be able to put additives in. You can also put the fibers in to reduce shrinkage.

Anything with watering shrinks which is why to avoid the shrinkage cracking, you can put the appropriate fibers in. You can put other additives into the Screed to make it dry quicker. That means if you need to put the floor coverings on within a particular timescale and can’t wait for 2-3 months, then this is something that will be a benefit for you.

You can put additives in it that will increase the strength while it’s newly laid. During this time, you can put the additives in too.

Also, it can be a plant based mixing system and delivered to site. If you’re mixing on site, there will be delivery vehicles waiting to deliver Screeds or materials. You can also have it on site waiting for the product to go off and control when and where you lay and when you stop so, it’s the most convenient for you. When you do this, you end up wasting less product.

Flowing Screed

The benefits of a flowing screed centre around productivity. A traditional typical team will lay about 125 square meters in a day. The number of teams can be multiplied to increase the productivity. A screed can be laid in the region of 1,000 – 1,500 square meters per day.

Another factor is density so because Screed is denser than a Semi Dry Screed. What that means to a Heated Screed is the thermal conductivity will be better which means the Screed will potentially heat and cool quicker.

Semi Dry vs Flowing Screed?

The products all have different minimum depths for bonding, insulation, membranes, etc.

Semi Dry Screeds can be modified while there are some Flowing Screeds with extra strength  to allow the Screed to go down even thinner.Semi Dry Screed, flowing screed, flow screed, liquid screed

It really depends on your requirements and what we would always try to do is NOT have a product and then sell that to a customer. We’d like the requirements of the customer to be identified and the appropriate product matched to the requirements.

Finding out exactly what you need and what you don’t need and what and knowing if you need to traffic it; do you need it dry in a certain time, do you need good thermal conductivity are essential factors to consider.