Had to screed a bathroom today , mixed the mapei trade plan up outside , left it for a couple of minutes another quick mix took it inside and started to pour it out , it was already starting to set , bloody nightmare had to drop some water in it and try and spread it ! I only had the one bag on , probably will have to redo it tomorrow What's the most likely problem 1 The bag and liquid has been in my van for a couple of weeks 2 warm weather 3 I was using a new mixer , mixing too fast ? After I packed all my tools up , it was virtually dry in the bathroom , so went over it with a wet trowel .......will see what it looks like tomorrow !!
Think its just the weather mate. I mixed up some fast set Tremco screed last week and it was hopeless. I think its even worse if the bottle and bag, are in the back of the van. Mine is like an oven at the moment !
weather mate. All compounds in the u.k are designed to work between around 10-20c. As its been warmer it obviously sets to fast. Just like if it was colder it would take longer to set. If you was to purchase a bag of compound from Tenerife for example it would be designed to from around 20 - 30c. If you used that product in the u.k it would take days to set. If it is hot then you keep the latex in a cool box or in a bucket of water to cool it down. And you really need to put the compound on a cold garage floor or something to suck the heat out. Never try and mix outside in this weather. Your lucky it even came out the bucket LOL you would be better off using water based when really hot.
The bonus you have with water based is the temperature of the water. As it comes out a tap it should be cold rather than a bottle of latex that was on your van and been warmed up into super fast set mode! Water based is still effected tho. But you tend to get enough time to get it on the floor before it starts setting.
i wonder how many people have tried to use the rapid set compounds over the last few days. The ones that set in 30 minutes etc. bet they are setting half way through mixing .
At Heathrow last night doing repairs in time for the olympics, we only have a working window of 10pm till 3am. Stripped up 20m2 of Lino and a couple of other little bits here an there in door ways on failed expansion joints. The bigger areas of Lino came up clean with very little of the old adhesive left quick scrape and it was good to go but we have to be seen to be latexing to much cctv to get away without it even though the floor was perfect to lay on. Door ways and expansion joints bit worse broken up screed from rumbling trolleys and cases. Doorways we had to use rapid 45, and it was so hot in there even with the air con working overtime the plastic bucket melted from the heat generated and the bottom fell out doh, neede that at 1am airside with a 2 mile walk back to the van grrrrr. The bigger areas 114 and green bag, mixed 1 an a half bags for a scratch skim no primmer and it was going off in the bucket quicker than I could get it out on the floor. All of this did make things go quick which is good as we can not leave the areas or take down barriers until its dry enough to receive foot traffic. Buy that time the lads have de-camped all tools and rubbish barriers were coming down 10 more minutes and we were gone happy days I say keep the good weather coming.
You laugh don't knock 45 I'll let you into a secret told to me last night. The touch down box as they call it at the end of 1 of heathrows runways, that bit you see when you land the black tarmac or the threshold of the runway, where it meets the concrete part. Well the concrete at this junction kept breaking up just after the tarmac, so they kept patching it with various products, nothing would hold. In the cantean a floor layer over heard the some of the runway staff trying to work out what else they could use, he jokingly said you wanna try some of our ARDURAPID 45 so they did. 30 bags went in on 1 nights repair shift. Not only did they fix it in one night, 4 years later all weather temperatures the impact and friction of heavy jumbo's landing 80 seconds apart and its still holding with no degredation what so ever. Never fear or underestimate the value of Ardurapid 45 awsome story.
I know mate it was a long walk when you're airside from the arival gate all the way back through passport control/ security and back up to the car park, gonna take my roller skates to get about on just call me the Rollin Fitter. But that story I was told about the rapid by the guy that done it at the end of the runway is pretty amazing, they tried every product available to them. And which one worked the humble floor layers mate 45 great wonder if Ardex even know what a great sales pitch for them. I can see it now in the suppliers with a picture of a jumbo touching down and the words Ardurapid 45 strong enough to take the impact of a 747 on touch down.
For sure temperature of the product affects its working time, pot life, open time - call it what you like. Colder delays it, hotter speeds it up. It gets worse if you have direct sun beating onto the screed as it's being laid, and a hot substrate will speed it up even more. Then add in the possibility of a drying breeze and you've get a cracked, curled, debonded screed. Using a polymer gauging liquid - the white liquid in the bottle - helps eliminate or reduce some of these problems, since they plasticise and improve workability without the need for more water. Too much water creates the risk of more shrinkage. The polymer film forms and aids curing too.
