Screeding is the first finishing step: a straight board, aluminum straightedge, vibrating truss or laser-guided machine is drawn across forms or screed rails in a sawing motion, cutting off high spots and filling lows. It sets the grade and flatness that later steps can only refine. Laser screeds strike off large slabs to tight tolerances in one pass, while hand screeding relies on wet screed strips or grade pins, and in Britain the word also names a cement-sand floor topping.
Two guys on the screed, one on the come-along, and keep a little extra mud in front of that board.
Also heard as
- strike off
- screed board
- straightedge
- laser screed
Related terms
Bull float
A wide flat float on a long handle, pushed across a fresh slab right after screeding to smooth and close it.
Cream
The cement paste and fine sand that finishing tools bring to the surface, giving finishers something to work.
F-numbers
FF and FL, the paired numbers that measure how flat and how level a concrete floor is.
Floating
The finishing step that levels, compacts and opens the surface of a slab once the bleed water is gone.