When they begin to consider the issue of floor insulation, specialists from the very beginning discourage the introduction of complex systems, since the most common insulation materials are quite able to cope with this task.
Therefore, you should not spend money and effort on the construction of complex structures, but it makes sense to learn how to make a floor screed with expanded clay with your own hands.
It is so simple to work with this material that anyone can cope with the screed device, no special equipment or tools are needed.
The only thing you have to pay attention to is the thickness of the stacked layer. It should be at least three centimeters. As a rule, expanded clay is used when it is required to level the floors in all rooms.
Such problems have to be solved often, and the material is often used when warming floors in private houses, apartments and other rooms. The light weight makes expanded clay even more popular with the installation of insulation screeds, since the whole structure does not weigh down the floor slabs, which have an individual safety margin. If you want to organize a screed with a thickness of more than 10 cm, then it should be made not just from a clean mixture of sand and cement, but with the addition of a light filler - expanded clay. Styrofoam or gypsum sheets are often used.
If the floor slabs do not inspire confidence, and you decide to insulate the floor yourself, a floor screed with expanded clay is what you need. Is it difficult to do it yourself?
Expanded clay screed
Let's look at how a floor screed is made with expanded clay with your own hands. The process is not complicated, but it will require attention and effort. Expanded clay is ordinary clay balls subjected to heat treatment. In other words, burnt clay.
Future gender level
First, you should determine the line along which it will be necessary to level the floor. It is convenient to use a laser or water level. As a result, horizontal lines should appear on the walls of the room along which the surface will be aligned.
Repairing floor defects
After the level of the future floor is applied to the walls, it is necessary to get rid of various defects. You should not hope that the screed itself will fill in all the bumps, holes and chips, since you have to fill the floor with expanded clay, and therefore there is a chance that it will not be possible to get rid of all the flaws. Therefore, it is better not to spare time and money and seal them with a liquid solution similar to that which will be prepared for screed.
Beacon Installation
The next important step of the screed device is the installation of leveling beacons. To do this, you will have to determine where the highest point of the base of the floor is. Exactly in this place the first of the lighthouses should be installed. This is the most important moment when a floor screed is made with expanded clay with your own hands.
Lighthouses are ordinary guides made of metal, sometimes made of plastic. They are laid along or across the room, dividing it thus into sections. Expanded clay falls in between lighthouses.
In order for all the guides to be in the same plane, wooden wedges or just pieces of boards or plywood are laid under them. However, you can do even easier: spread the gypsum with water and lay out this doughy mass along the proposed installation site of the guide. Put the beacon on the slide and evenly distribute the solution using a level.
To align long beacons, it is convenient to use a rule or a level of two meters or more. When determining the distance between the guides, it is based on the size of the rule: the beacons are positioned so that it is convenient to put the tool on two adjacent guides or three. If, for example, the width of the room is four meters, then beacons should be placed at a distance of no more than 70 cm, because then the level will cover not two, but three guides, which will positively affect the speed and quality of the work performed.
Filling the base with expanded clay
After the lighthouses are exposed and aligned, it is necessary to fill the floor with expanded clay. We can assume that the floor screed with your own hands is almost complete. Expanded clay fall asleep strictly on the marked areas that border the lighthouses. Backfilling is considered the easiest step when installing the screed. The main thing is to monitor the height of the expanded clay layer. It should be evenly distributed so that there is still enough space for the screed itself, that is, for a mixture of cement and sand. In other words, the expanded clay layer should be such that another 25–20 mm remains to the upper level of the beacons. After expanded clay is evenly sprinkled between the beacons, we prepare the "milk" of cement. They fill our insulation.
The role of cement milk
This solution is a material designed to fasten the insulation. As a result, it will be possible to safely walk along the expanded clay layer. In addition, the solution covers the granules with a special film that will reliably protect them from moisture, otherwise moisture from the liquid cement screed will be absorbed into the expanded clay. This is also necessary because if the screed loses moisture, the quality of the cement slurry will inevitably decrease. Subsequently, cracks, chips and other defects will appear. In other words, the floor screed with expanded clay made in this way will lose strength.
The proportions of the preparation of cement milk
It should be understood that this is the same cement-sand mortar, only in liquid form. Here you can not do without experiments. In a mixture of cement and sand you need to pour three times more water than for a conventional screed. Then fill the resulting solution with a separate small area with expanded clay and look at the behavior of the mixture. If it spilled through expanded clay, and there was no trace left on the granules, then too much water was added. If there is a residual layer of milk on top of the insulation, we can conclude that there is not enough water. A compromise must be found.
After the entire surface is filled with cement milk, you must let it dry completely. This takes at least 24 hours. Only then can we begin the next stage of work, which will be the floor screed with expanded clay itself.
Screed mortar preparation
To prepare the mortar for the screed, cement of a grade not lower than M400 and building sand are used, which are mixed in a ratio of 1: 3, respectively. In this case, it is better to use a special construction mixer, rather than a regular shovel.
Remember that usually two liters of water are added per ten kilograms of the mixture. It is much more convenient to pour the solution into the water, and not vice versa, although the instructions attached to cement often indicate the “wrong” method.
Using a mixer, the mixture is thoroughly mixed for 5-10 minutes. Then leave for 5 minutes to settle, and after five minutes, mix again for about 2-3 minutes. Now the solution can be used.
Pouring mortar to the floor
Pouring the solution onto the floor, it is leveled with a trowel, applying the rule if necessary, to distribute the composition evenly throughout the floor. The rule is laid on the lighthouses and stretch the cement mass throughout the site, trying to ensure that the surface takes a strictly horizontal position, and there are no bumps and depressions. This is exactly what the floor screed with expanded clay do it yourself.
How to quickly prepare a solution
There is an easier way to lay expanded clay insulation under the screed. Preparation of the base is done in the same way as described above. Only the solution is prepared differently. Water is poured into the container and expanded clay is poured. After this, a cement-sand mixture is poured, which is thoroughly and quickly mixed and laid between the beacons.
Thus, do-it-yourself floor screeding is done even faster: expanded clay is a material that will help speed up the process. However, when choosing this option it is extremely difficult to guess with the proportions of its components. In this case, it is recommended to use ready-made mixtures, which are sold in construction stores and in markets. They are poured into a container where water has already been poured and expanded clay is added. In another way, this method is also called "wet."
There is a "dry" option, and this is also a floor screed with expanded clay. Features of the technology are that much less water is added. If you take such a solution in your palm and squeeze it into a fist, then liquid should not drip from it. But the disintegration of the mixture is also unacceptable. After such a solution is distributed between the beacons, it must be compacted. It dries quickly enough, and this allows you to start the next stages of construction work without spending time on drying.
This is how a standard floor screed with expanded clay do it yourself. The instructions may vary depending on specific conditions, but the principle of its creation is the same for most rooms, in which there is a need for leveling floors.
Saving money is the trump card in our difficult time. Do not be afraid that you will not succeed in screeding with expanded clay: installing screeds with your own hands is a simple process, the most important thing is to follow the technology and not to forget about some important points. Then it will serve you faithfully for a long time, and you will not have to constantly repair the floors.