Gradually the time of curved walls, ceilings and floors is leaving our life. Today, homeowners in different ways go to align the lines in their apartments and houses, the floor plays the most important role here. It is from the floor that the general horizontal of the room will be "drawn". In order to keep it level, a screed is often used with reference points on the level - the so-called beacons, when correctly installed, the floor turns out to be smooth and perfectly even. How to set up beacons for floor screed on your own, without attracting highly paid specialists in this field is a difficult question, but resolvable ...
Types of screeds
Construction practice suggests that in different conditions and requirements emanating from the customer manufacturing the floor, there may be different types of screeds. At the moment, there are three main types:
- Dry screed. It is often used for leveling expanded clay insulation, on top of which a “wet” screed will be produced.
- The screed is concrete, cement mortar and dry. The most popular type to date, used in the process of building new premises and repairing old ones.
- Screed from a bulk floor. A relatively new type in which special self-leveling building mixtures are used.
Tip: the choice of beacons for floor screed should be made based on the type of future coverage.
Lighthouses used for dry and semi-dry screed
For this type of floor leveling, most often masters use the usual profile used in installing the wall frame under the drywall. However, there are at least two ways to install beacons:
- The first is that the beacons are laid on a low mound from a building mixture, and then, using the rule and level, the necessary plane is reached.
- The essence of the second method is that to set the level using screws and a dowel-pair, screwed into the base of the floor. First, the two extreme ones are screwed, after which the thread is pulled in level, then every 30 cm it is necessary to screw the missing ones. The profile itself for lighthouses for floor screed is installed on top of the screws and in several places is fixed with a building mixture.
Tip: if you use gypsum mixtures for fasteners, you can start the main work in a few hours. When using a cement mortar, you will have to wait at least a day, or even more (depending on the brand of cement), until the mortar sets.
Types of lighthouses for semi-dry cement-sand and concrete screed
This type of screed is the most popular at the present time both among professionals and among the people. Its mass can be explained by two factors:
- Materials for the preparation of the building mixture are available for the average citizen, and everyone who is interested in self-repair knows them. It is cement and sand.
- The technology for performing the work is quite simple. Any person who has started repairs in his apartment will cope with it.
Beacons can be distinguished by the materials used for their manufacture: specialized, from mortar, profile, steel pipe and wood. It should be said right away that the first kind of lighthouses is cheap, but it plays a lot, so installing it requires more time and perseverance than everyone else. The question of how to set up beacons for floor screed and correctly make them yourself is asked by many beginner self-taught builders. However, having studied all the nuances of this process, it is quite possible to do it yourself.
Pipe lighthouse
A very convenient way to quickly set the floor level in the room. The undoubted advantage of the pipe is its strength, the lighthouse will not “play”. The downside is the high cost, however, if pouring is performed repeatedly and in large volumes, this option takes place. At the beginning and end of the pipe, heaps of thick solution are poured, the pipe is laid on them and the height at the beginning and end of the room is adjusted using the water level .
Tip: it is preferable to use a professional pipe (it is rectangular), because even edges when setting the level are more convenient than round pipes.
Beacon from the profile installed on the solution
All that needs to be done is to prepare the solution (thicker), to lay it with a knoll in the direction from the far wall to the exit, to install a U-shaped metal profile on it in an inverted state. The solution can be used on the basis of gypsum or cement.
Tip 1: professionals recommend using the same material that will be used for the entire screed to set beacons, otherwise premature damage to the fill may occur.
Tip 2: the gypsum base under the lighthouse will dry in a couple of hours, cement and sand - in a day or more, as a result of which you will have to wait a longer amount of time.
Lighthouse from a profile mounted on self-tapping screws
This type of leveling is one of the most used. Its essence lies in the fact that small blocks with edges of about 1.5 cm and a length of up to 15 cm are attached to the bottom of the floor, fixing is done after 25-30 cm. After that, you need to screw in the screws (first extremely, then medium), according to the level, using a chop thread for this. Further, everything is simple - a U-shaped metal profile is taken, which is used for the wall frame made of drywall, and is installed on top of the screws. The lighthouse is ready!
Solution beacon
In this form, only a solution is needed. The initial stage is similar to the first method - a thick solution is laid with a mound, then a chop thread or colored fishing line is stretched according to the level, then the mound is aligned to the set level. After drying, the lighthouse can be used for its intended purpose.
Tip: this type of lighthouse is, firstly, relative (a perfectly flat line is almost impossible to reach). Secondly, at such a level, when filling, the rule will not slide well. As a result, in those places where the lighthouse passes, various “goose bumps” will appear.
Wooden Lighthouses
The metal profile in construction appeared quite recently. As for the filling of the floor, it was used in ancient times and in Soviet times. Then, in the form of lighthouses, wooden bars were used. Their disadvantage is that, firstly, it is quite difficult to find perfectly even products, and secondly, they can become deformed when dried.
Tip: before placing beacons for screeding the floor from the bar, it should be soaked well, otherwise the bar can adversely affect the quality of the screed.
Combined
There is also the existence of a combination of several types of materials. The bottom line is that after a meter, a dowel-pair is driven into the base of the floor. They are screwed in level screws. The void between the dowels is filled with a solution.
Tip: the level of the solution should be higher than the self-tapping screws are placed, since in the future you should take the rail (or profile) and press the composition to the same level with the self-tapping screws.
Semi-dry screed beacon
Some folk craftsmen, who are trying this type of pouring for the first time, are interested in answering the question: “How to properly set up beacons for screeding floors from a semi-dry mortar?” When using this method, some masters do without the usual lighthouses and work only according to certain guidelines.
For this, small heaps of mortar are laid out in each corner, after which they form platforms, as it were, on one level - they will act as landmarks for the future screed. After the pads are frozen, you can lay out a semi-dry solution and fill the distance between the landmarks.
Tip: it is desirable to use this type of lighthouse in small rooms, because the width of the rule should “cover” the entire distance between the sites.
Floating screed beacon
In some cases, the usual substrate on the base of the floor for insulation is not enough, and builders use a layer of foam as an additional insulation. In this case, the screed is popularly called "floating". The best version of the lighthouse in this case will be on self-tapping screws. Initially, self-tapping screws are installed taking into account the thickness of the insulation in the base of the floor by level, then a layer of foam is laid (it is necessary to pierce it at the locations of the beacons).
Tip: after installing the beacons for screeding with your own hands, unscrew the screws and fill the voids with a solution.
Beacons for bulk floors
Recently, self-leveling mortars have appeared on the market. According to the manufacturers, to complete the screed from this material, the need for beacons is no longer necessary. Professionals do not advise to neglect setting the level. In the role of a lighthouse, special tripods are used - benchmarks that are installed on the basis of the floor. Their undoubted advantage is that the height is regulated by a simple turn clockwise or counterclockwise. Their minus is a relatively high price.
Instead of benchmarks, you can use ordinary screws, which are removed from the solution after pouring.
Tip: set the benchmarks or self-tapping screws at a distance of 1 meter from each other.
Do lighthouses need to be removed from the floor screed?
In order to answer this question, it is necessary, at least in general terms, to have an idea about the behavior of various materials with changing temperature and humidity. From the school course of physics, everyone knows that liquids, metals and gases expand when heated, and when they drop in temperature, they contract. Moreover, it is necessary to take into account the fact that for each chemical element the volume varies in different ways. This also applies to changes in humidity. For example, a raw beam may be 1 cm thicker than dried.
Based on this, we can understand that the screed should be monolithic - from one material. Therefore, all foreign objects (timber, profile, pipe, self-tapping screws) must be removed. In addition, the metal has a high sound conductivity, which is also undesirable in living conditions in high-rise buildings. Therefore, after the issue of how to set up the beacons for screeding and all the work has been completed, the moment of withdrawal follows.
Smooth floors are half a good repair. Floor and ceiling give the main lines of visual perception of the room. That is why such an interest is shown in this question by professionals and craftsmen. Summing up, we can confidently say that any craftsman, having studied the above process, can easily determine which beacons for floor screed will be preferable in certain conditions and what nuances must be remembered when carrying out work.