As the winter months approach, so does the cold weather. Renderers know all too well you can’t apply renders when the temperature dips below 5°C outside, but using that same machine pump inside to apply floor screed is a great idea to keep work going throughout the winter months. However, to do the job correctly, take note of our tips below for pumping screeds in cold weather.
Temperature
Unsurprisingly the biggest issue is temperature and ensuring floor screeds are cured in the correct environment. We can’t speak for every floor screed on the market, but we’ve listed the installation temperature of our weberfloor screeds below:
Don’t forget, this means the temperature must not leave these ranges for the duration of the curing time, and that includes the ground temperature (substrate), the floor screed itself, and also the ambient air temperature.
Be careful when using heaters
Using heaters can seem like an easy go-to solution to increase the temperature to speed up the drying time of a floor screed, but it can be detrimental to the integrity of the finished floor layer if the heat is set too high. Heating up the room to dry a screed faster than prescribed can lead to many problems, but mostly cracking quite early on in the lifetime of the floor screed. Always follow the instructions on the product datasheet or get in touch with us to double check.
Air flow
Floor screeds dry by the moisture content evaporating. Because it is an evaporation process, air flow is very important. This means the air needs to keep moving where possible and stay at the right temperatures for the entirety of the time it takes to cure.
In doubt? Get in touch
Whatever project you’re working on, we’d rather you were 100% comfortable before laying floor screed to ensure the project runs as smoothly as possible. Our technical hotline can be contacted via:
