Can anyone advice me on the tools I need to do a decent job on screeding my sand bed. What size piece of timber would be preferrable and do I need to use a plasterers float (I think that's what there called!) to get a nice smooth finish?
The width of my drive is 9m so I suppose I need to put some tramel bars in, are these best bedded into the sand or can they stand proud and run a notched scraper across the top of them?
:;):
Tools needed for screeding
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84-1094545549
At 9m wide, you really need to do three separate screeds at 3m apiece, so you need a decent length of timber that's around 3.6m in length, or a length of aluminium if you can find one. Whatever you use must be dead true. Look along the edge - is it perfectly straight? If there is any bowing or curvature, it's nay good as a screeder board.
I like 100x19mm timber, but you can use 150x19, 75x25, 100x50, or whatever suits your grip best. Timber is handy because it's cheap and you can cutba notched end to run off established edges courses, if necessary, but a nice piece of stiffened/ribbed aluminium is great for those sections that are run off screed rails exclusively. It's light and manoeuverable and won't sag or flex. You can sometimes cadge 3-4m lengths from double glazing manufacturers, especially if you cross their palm with beer vouchers.
20mm or 25mm steel conduit is damned handy stuff to use as screed rails. You can get 4m lengths for less than a tenner from lecky suppliers, and no decent contractor should be without half-a-dozen lengths. Don't be tempted by the cheaper price for the plcky conduit - it just bends and flexes and goes all over the place, leaving you with a screeded bed that is neither use nor ornament.
A bull float is handy, too, for levelling out minor imperfections and titivating where the screed rails have been removed, but any float or brick trowel will do almost as well.
You'll find that a 1200mm spirit level makes a handy screeder board for smaller areas and for creating hog-backs or troughs: in fact, it's an essential bit of kit for tidying up and checking levels as you proceed.
I like 100x19mm timber, but you can use 150x19, 75x25, 100x50, or whatever suits your grip best. Timber is handy because it's cheap and you can cutba notched end to run off established edges courses, if necessary, but a nice piece of stiffened/ribbed aluminium is great for those sections that are run off screed rails exclusively. It's light and manoeuverable and won't sag or flex. You can sometimes cadge 3-4m lengths from double glazing manufacturers, especially if you cross their palm with beer vouchers.
20mm or 25mm steel conduit is damned handy stuff to use as screed rails. You can get 4m lengths for less than a tenner from lecky suppliers, and no decent contractor should be without half-a-dozen lengths. Don't be tempted by the cheaper price for the plcky conduit - it just bends and flexes and goes all over the place, leaving you with a screeded bed that is neither use nor ornament.
A bull float is handy, too, for levelling out minor imperfections and titivating where the screed rails have been removed, but any float or brick trowel will do almost as well.
You'll find that a 1200mm spirit level makes a handy screeder board for smaller areas and for creating hog-backs or troughs: in fact, it's an essential bit of kit for tidying up and checking levels as you proceed.