With more than 50 years’ industry experience and more specifically 15 years in the liquid screed industry, producing in house at our facility in Cong, Co Mayo, Ireland, Cemfloor and McGraths Limestone are industry leaders in the Cement based liquid screed market.
Cemfloor is a high-performance cement based, free flowing, self-compacting liquid screed developed by McGraths of Cong Co Mayo. It can be installed quickly (up to 2000m2 per day) saving time, foot trafficked in 24-48 hours and dries within 28 days with minimal shrinkage (<0.05%). It is suitable for a variety of applications; commercial and domestic floors, underfloor heated floors, wet rooms, Bonded, unbonded or floating floors, new builds or renovations and single or multi story projects. Cemfloor is only installed by fully approved and trained applicators ensuring quality is never compromised.
It’s reduced drying times ensure floor coverings can be applied quickly without delaying the project. At a final moisture content of 2.5%CM cemfloor screeds will have achieved a relative humidity value of <75%; compared to gypsum based screeds which need to be dried to a final moisture content of 0.5%CM to achieve a relative humidity value of <75%. The reduced drying times of cemfloor ensure strict project timelines can be adhered to without long delays waiting for screeds to dry out.
Cemfloor boasts exceptional thermal conductivity of up to 2.9W/mk and is very suitable and responsive to underfloor heating due to the fact it can be laid in very thin sections. This ensures lower energy bills and running costs.
Liquid admixture based cementitious (OPC based) flowing screed products have been available for many years. Some of these have been quite impressive in their performance but none have gained any significant market share in the UK or Ireland, often resulting in their withdrawal from the market.
The problem has always been that although liquid admixtures can be used to create screed materials, they always require very tight control of dosages and the parameters for delivering and installing the screed.
It is, of course, possible to control the quantities of all constituents of a screed, including liquid admixtures, quite accurately but it is difficult to consistently achieve this in the “real world” environment of a concrete plant. Even more difficult is to control the conditions for the screed after it is mixed. How much time will elapse between mixing and installing. How long will it be from the time the screed is placed to when it is finished. Will the temperature remain consistent during this time and for the first few hours or days? These, and other, variable and uncontrollable parameters do have an effect on flowing screeds based on liquid admixture packs and this effect can be severe.
It is often said of this type of screed that they work very well most of the time but that when they go wrong they go very wrong. It is this more than anything else that has limited their acceptance in UK.
Cemfloor, using technology designed by Cemex in France, works quite differently. The producing concrete plant receives a powder binder that is used as a part of the mix. Since it is a substantial quantity that is added there is no need for control of tiny quantities and so accuracy is easier to achieve. It is possible for this binder to contain all necessary plasticiser but usually it does not and a plasticiser is added at the mortar production stage.
Cemfloor is a relatively simple blend of its “active ingredients” and carefully graded Calcium carbonate. Though all constituents are very carefully blended in exact proportions each is chosen and designed to allow for some margin of error. Similarly, the exact amount of Cemfloor binder in a m³ of RTU screed is equally well controlled but with some latitude for the “real world” errors being tolerable without severe detriment.
Cemfloor has been designed and refined over many years to control the properties of the screed, and, in particular, the shrinkage movement at every stage of the screeds life:
If the benefits of the Cemfloor System are to be described in one word it is “Robustness”. Every aspect of Cemfloor is controlled in fine degree, but safe in the knowledge that small changes in the way it is mixed or used will not lead to disaster.
• Increased Speed of Installation. (up to 2000m2 per day)
• Reduced Build Times. (Floor coverings can be applied faster)
• Certified material with full batch records and test results.
• Consistency in quality from job to job.
• No shrinkage, cracking, or curling.
• Can be laid at reduced depths.
• Lower Carbon Footprint.
• Lower Heating Costs.
• No risk of any reactions taking place with other construction materials.
• Compatible with all types of flooring adhesives including fast track tile adhesives.
• Can be used in wet areas with no risk of deterioration if wetted.
We have over 50 plus distributors in Ireland and the UK with 100 plus approved applicators. Cemfloor has being used on many large commercial & residential jobs throughout Ireland, UK and France.
Contact Us for more information through the contact details on our website.