Although epoxy and urethane screed flooring is more of an art form than a science and every contractor has their own specific personal preferences there are several items than must be used to achieve the required result. Products vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and not all systems are the same. The list below is for 6 mm and 9 mm urethane screed systems. Urethane screeds can only be installed by experienced and specialist flooring contractors.
Floor Preparation Tools
- A good quality concrete scarifier. Scarifiers for concrete differ from scarifiers for asphalt. Concrete scarifiers are designed to remove surface cement fines and to expose stone. They are not designed to mill down or scabble out large quantities of material. Good concrete scarifiers tend to be light and fast, instead of heavy and slow.
- An edge grinder 125 mm to 180 mm with relevant diamond cups or a hand-held scarifier. This is for preparing floor edges and vertical surfaces.
- Angle grinder and crack chasing blades. Crack chasing and injection is a function often omitted with long term consequences and costs.
- Vacuum cleaners designed for cement dust. These are required during the preparation process and the installation process and are vital to success flooring installation.
- Joint Cutter. Used for cutting expansion joints after installation and for cutting anchor grooves along perimeters and joint lines prior to installing the urethane screed.
- Extension cables. Every site has insufficient plugs and power.
- Dust Masks.
Mixing Tools
- High quality, high torque electric hand-held screed mixer with relevant spindle. If large quantities of material are to be mixed or additional aggregate is to be added, we would recommend the use of a screed mixer or pan mixer.
- Mixing buckets.
- Chipping hammer for chopping tins and edges.
- Old scraper for opening tins and buckets.
- Flat 350 mm plastering trowel to scrape tins and buckets.
Installation Tools for Urethane screed Systems
- Moisture meter to determine concrete moisture content.
- Concrete Rebound Hammer ( Schmidt hammer ) to determine the PMA or compressive strength of the concrete surface. This is important as urethane screeds have extreme shrinkage when drying and will delaminate if applied to substandard quality concrete. Urethane screeds cannot be applied to cement screeds.
- Coving trowels and coving strips for installing epoxy or urethane coves.
- 15 mm V-notch trowels for applying the urethane screed.
- Screed floats – PVC for floating and levelling the urethane screeds.
- Plastering trowels or pool trowels for final finishing before rolling.
- Textured sponge rollers designed for final finishing of many urethane screeds.
- 31 mm spike rollers. Certain urethane screed systems will require spike rolling prior to the application of broadcast aggregate.
- White Rubber Squeegee – for the application of sealer coats after the application of the broadcast aggregate.
- Medium nap, solvent resistant, no-shed rollers designed for priming.
- Quality, natural & blonde, 50 mm, no bristle loss paint brushes.
- Putty knives for patching compound.
- Extension poles for gauging rakes, rollers and spike rollers.
- Gloves, knee pads, safety glasses, cotton cloths.
- Garbage bags, barrier tape, masking tape, plastic sheeting.
- Xylene, acetone or other required solvent.