not sure what your doing wrong mate. Bets latex i have ever used. As it happens i have just laid a fair bit of screedmaster ultimate (it was free before anyone asks why) in my own house. Well personaly i think its crap. Dont get me wrong, it is better than other compounds out there like Wickes compounds but i was far from happy with it
I have a pallet of mapei trade and we like it, for my 59 year old business partner to like it says something. Flows well for me, got to say only got it over green bag because my stockist got a load in.
I cannot get Laybond Ultimate to flow as i would like to,if you want to use a cheap screed then the Laybond "trade" is cheaper than ultimate.
Yes Daz, used to use it a lot but it's almost double the price of the other two so I decided to give them a go. I did a bathroom today and added about half a litre of water to the latexplan which seemed to help it flow a lot better. I did it as an experiment really because if I need to I can redo it. I'll see what it's like on monday. It was the last of the latexplan I've bought in so if that doesn't work I think I'll go back to Ultimate. Matt, what exactly is it that you didn't like about Ultimate? I can honestly say it's never given me any problems.
The way it flows. Find latexplan much better. Do you add water to the ultimate ? How do you find it without adding water if you do add water? Also the issues you have had with latexplan, what is teh subfloor? is it new concrete that is insulated? have you checked teh use by date also? do you know the subfloor temp ? A few people find issues with latex (all latex products) and how they flow on the newer insulated concrete.
Adding water is BAD if it needed water in the mix the highly paid technical team at any said manufacturer would add it to the bottle ! I love ardex or uzin products but they dont often fit within budget requirments NA is superb to work with, Uzins systems are also great to work with. These companies i have also found to be great with aftercare particulary Ardex. Laybonds screedmaster not only flows badly it seems extremely week when laid and takes forever to dry as does the tradeplan to a lesser extent. Water based is balls 300hd is the weapon of choice to be on budget and Mapei tradeplan isnt too bad either I really think a lot of the issues with flow in smoothing compounds is in the mixing, so many fitters use plasters whisks rather than a forced action whisk (look like a kitchen whisk) I experimentedby knocking up two indentical buckets of a product with the two different whisks they have a completely different texture and colour and as smoothing compounds should generaly be mixed forced action ive stuck with this form of whisk The uzin fibre reinforced for screeding over ply is far superior to the 700 flex in my opinion but yet again its the cost constraits that are the killer with that. That wasnt too bad for a first post now was it ? lol
about the only one i have not used. I stopped using UZIN products as the distributors was always sending out of date stuff. Gave up in the end. Really good stuff tho.
Uzin gold is great for very small areas but anything over a bag is dry before u get the next down Either that or I'm too slow !
Went back to fit the vinyl on friday after the customer had to postpone the fitting date and I must say that adding the water seemed to do the trick, went down much better than previously. Like Rich said, you're not supposed to add water but then the guys who make the stuff have ideal conditions in which to test it out, it isn't always like that on site. I've only ever added water to Ultimate on hot summer days, never felt the need to do it in winter, it's never given me any problems and for what it costs in comparison to others I think I'll stick to it unless I stray from domestic work.
When I was on the laybond demo day few years ago I said I add a cup of water then about 6 other fitters said I do too. The instructor wasn't pleased but we all said it flows alot better and doesn't leave trowel marks.
Lol. I know a lot of fitters that do the same. The thing is, by the time you factor in a bit of spilt liquid or a bit of powder lost during storage etc, a cup of water in a 5litre mix isn't going to make a lot of difference to the chemical makeup of the compound. If it helps it flow a bit better then I personally don't see the harm.
