It doesn't rain it pours!

Well after yesterdays fiasco with the UFH I totally forgot that I'd scheduled the water board to lay the water mains down the drive today!  SO we've now got three dirty big gaping holes in the drive at 10:30am and the screed delivery was due at lunchtime - OMG!!!!

And to make matters worse Derek wasn't on site today either so I had to negotiate with the screed company to take the long route to the site to avoid another spoiled screed delivery nightmare.  Having explained the situation to the water board the contractors pulled out all the stops to get the mains pipe "moled" down th drive and temporary covers installed by 12:30 - 30 minutes to spare before the screed company arrived with the mixer wagons.

Screeding is a popular technique for bedding UFH pipework.  There are different mixes available from the dry mix where is is wheel barrowed into the house footprint then "tamped" down and "scraped" level or the increasing popular wet mix which allows the installer to pump a watery slurry into the house footprint then gravity takes over and with a little encouragement self levels.  The benefit of the wet system is that the time to install is significantly reduced although is more costly compared to dry.  The real advantage is that within an hour the screed is complete and going off.

Can I just say that the guys from A1 PUMP CRETE did a fantastic and professional job and explained every step of the process including aftercare - highly recommended.

The only slight nervousness I had was with the size of the trucks and the narrowness of the driveway - as you can see the drivers had to sugically extract themselves from the cabs - not one for the conniseur of bacon butties though!

Still I think you will agree the finished product is something special...just like glass!