A bit of a glitch - The Accidental Smallholder

Posted: Friday 27 August, 2010

by Rosemary at 10:17pm in Renovation 1 comment Comments closed

Last Saturday, the screed in the ground floor was poured - 4 cubic metres or 8 tonnes of self-levelling liquid screed. The plan was to allow it to cure for four days, with the plumber and electrician arranged for today. The screed would take a few weeks to be completely dry, but would be firm enough to walk on within 24 - 36 hours.

On Sunday, it looked exactly the same as when it was poured. On Monday, it looked exactly the same as it did when it was poured. Today it looked exactly the same as it did when it was poured. And tomorrow, the contractor will be back to sook it back out, take out the pipes for the underfloor heating and scrap the underfloor insulation.

To try to help the stuff set, we opened the windows. Of course, one of the cats decided to have a nosey. Not Bertie Bash-it, not Harry but Felix - who rarely goes out, and if he does, usually stays within 10 yards of the caravan. Having splodged through the stuff, he wasn't coming back through it, so John donned his wellies and retrieved him from the staircase. Felix and the wellies have had a wash and all are doing fine.

On Monday, the joiner will lay new insulation, the plumber will relay new pipes on Tuesday and Wednesday and a new floor will be poured on the Friday. Effectively, we've lost two weeks.

On the bright side, the contractor who supplied the screed has accepted full liability and will meet all the associated costs. Our joiner and plumber have been brilliant, rescheduling work so that they can be here next week. So it could have been much worse.

The cause? Unknown, so far. The contractor has poured hundreds of tonnes of this stuff with absolutely no problems. Last week, five jobs have failed to set.