Screed not dry after 6 hrs, amtico going down tomorrow

[andy3101]

Hi, just after some advice/reassurance. Having a bit of a nightmare with an Amtico floor at the moment. It was laid last week and pulled up today as it was poorly fitted (subfloor preparation not as good as it should have been; lots of ripples and bumps).

The adhesive was scraped off and a green product applied over top of existing screed. After about an hour, a very wet screed was applied (quite thinly). I was told that this would be dry in about 2-3 hrs. The screed has now been down for 6 hrs and is still very wet and mushy. I've had the heating on & airing the room as advised.

I'm just a bit concerned about the screed. If it is taking this long to dry compared to the time stated by the flooring company, could it have been prepared wrong, and if so, is it the right preparation for Amtico or will it cause problems?

Thanks

 

[andy3101]

Will just add that it's now been down for nearly 9 hrs and it's still like custard in places (and that's near an edge where it's only about 1mm thick)

 

[bathstyle]

Find out what stuff these guys laid and then phone the technical department tomorrow or view online Data sheets on PDF if available.

 

[andy3101]

Find out what stuff these guys laid and then phone the technical department tomorrow or view online Data sheets on PDF if available.

Ok will do, thank you. Floorers said themselves 2-3hrs and couldn't understand why it was still wet 6hrs later when I called them.

If screed has been incorrectly prepared, what impact might this have on a vinyl tile going down? I'm concerned about screed being too soft, or breaking up, or whatever else could go wrong. (I've 'been there, done that' with a soft subfloor with Amtico on top 2 years ago. Don't want to go through the same again, which is why I'm being cautious (or possibly paranoid!)

 

[mattysupra]

do as the post above has adviced.

 

[andy3101]

Thanks. Found out last night that floorer admitted he watered down the screed to get it to run better. Have got up this morning - still wet, still mushy in places. What has dried it now crumbly and dusty and breaks up when you run your finger over it.

 

[bathstyle]

It has to be re done, I would sack the fitters and get someone else in, are they even Amtico approved?

 

[andy3101]

28 hrs later and still not dry in places. I can run my finger lightly across the wet bits and get a skim of wet screed on my finger (compared to the dry bits where they is a flaky surface coating). Needless to say, nothing has been laid today

Temp indoors has been 18 degrees all day - it was 20- 21 degrees for around 12 hrs after screed was laid yesterday. Humidity indoors is currently 60%, so not that much higher than I usually get indoors.

 

[mattysupra]

it needs to come back up mate.

What sort of compound is it he has water down? Water based/ acrylic based / latex based?

And this is there second attempt of getting this right? Think you need to find a professional floor layer.

 

[andy3101]

it needs to come back up mate.

What sort of compound is it he has water down? Water based/ acrylic based / latex based?

And this is there second attempt of getting this right? Think you need to find a professional floor layer.

Stopgap300. it's only 1-2mm thick. Was supposed to be getting Amtico-approved installer. The guy who turned up wasn't. Long story/history about this job.