Flowing screed for high rise residential apartments

With an ambitious and striking design, Galliard Homes Baltimore Tower is an exclusive residential development, offering coveted high-rise homes in one of the London’s most fast paced districts. The unique design of the tower means each apartment will come with its own curved balcony offering panoramic views of London. Specialist screeding contractor, TCS, brought Tarmac onboard to help deliver the building’s floor plan. The project’s demanding technical requirements meant that a depth of just 30mm would be used on the floors; less than half the depth and weight of a cement screed solution.

Working collaboratively with the project team from early on to understand the client’s requirements, Tarmac was able to design a customized, self compacting blend of its TOPFLOW SCREED A to help TCS deliver this complex and high profile project. Tarmac’s unique screed blend also had another important function - its strength. In order to deliver the 30mm thick screed without risk of cracking it was necessary to provide a product with a 35N/mm² comprehensive strength and a flexural strength of F6. When Tarmac tested their TOPFLOW SCREED A blend they found that it surpassed specifications. Regular testing has proved that the screed installed, comfortably exceeds these requirements.

The reduction in depth meant
that the weight and volume of
screed in the tower was reduced
by more than 2,000 tonnes, equating
to approximately 45 tonnes per
floor; meeting the engineering
requirements. In addition, the
number of truck movements
needed to deliver the material to
site was cut by 25%. Compared to
a standard 40mm floating screed
installation the 30mm screed
allowed the client to maximize
headroom in the apartments.
Because TOPFLOW SCREED A
is much quicker to lay compared
with more traditional alternatives,
the TCS team managed to cover
an area of about 700m per day.
Designed to be self-compacting,
installation of TOPFLOW SCREED
also requires fewer people to
smooth the floor.