Although most 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. The list below is for applying self-levelling cement screeds.
Although these systems are called self-levelling screeds, they are technically not self-levelling but self-smoothing. This means the system has to be placed and levelled out first, before the system becomes smooth. This is the reason you will require the list of tools below.
Floor Preparation Tools
- A good quality concrete floor grinders 250mm to 500mm wide with relevant diamond wedges, cups or segments.
- Hand grinder or edge grinder 125 mm to 180 mm with relevant diamond cups.
- Angle grinder and crack chasing blades.
- Vacuum cleaners designed for cement dust.
- Extension cables.
- Dust Masks.
Mixing Tools
- High quality, high torque electric hand-held paint mixer with relevant spindle.
- Mixing buckets.
- Measuring jug to measure the required water accurately. Too much or too little water will serious affect the material and the end result.
Installation Tools for Self-Levelling Systems
- Moisture meter to determine concrete moisture content.
- Gauging Rake for systems from 2 mm to 4 mm thick.
- Tri-Glide for systems from 3 mm to 10 mm thick.
- Floor Spreader for systems from 10 mm to 50 mm thick.
- 31 mm Spike rollers for de-aerating the self-levelling screed system.
- Spike shoes will be required to walk in the material when spike rolling.
- Medium nap, no-shed rollers for applying the required primer.
- Quality paint brushes.
- Putty knives for patching compound.
- Sandpaper for sanding down imperfections and unwanted surface grit.
- Steel sprung squeegees for smoothing the self-levelling screed before spike rolling.
- Extension poles for gauging rakes, rollers and spike rollers.
- Gloves, knee pads, safety glasses, cotton cloths.
- Garbage bags, barrier tape, masking tape, plastic sheeting.