How to Clean a Screed Floor

Screed flooring offers a smooth, level surface finish and is commonly found in commercial and industrial properties that encounter high foot traffic, such as a schools and warehouses. It can be left as a sub-floor or used as a floor finish.

If you’re preparing to lay tiles, carpets or floorboards over your screed floor, you will need to ready the screed by removing any dirt and stains left following construction. Even if you decide to leave your screed floor bare as the floor finish, it will still need to be well looked after. But how exactly do you go about readying or cleaning a screed floor?

As commercial concrete and screed flooring specialists with over 34 years’ experience supporting both trade and residential projects throughout the UK, Wright Readymix are best placed to explain to you how to clean a screed floor. Read on to learn how to prepare for cleaning your screed floor, along with regular and deep cleaning techniques to keep your screed floor looking its best.

Contact us today to arrange your screed flooring quote.

Preparation before cleaning a screed floor

Before beginning the regular or deep clean of your screed floor, we propose you take the following steps:

Vacuum large dirt

Prior to a wet clean, large amounts of dirt can be hoovered up using a vacuum cleaner or sweeper (depending on the size of unwanted debris).

Scrape off stubborn dirt

For any stubborn dirt remaining following construction (such as paint or tar), we recommend careful use of a spatula or blade to remove it.

Universal stain remover for adhesives and varnish

Should scraping prove too troublesome, we suggest applying a universal stain remover to a cloth to rub off any unwanted varnish, paint or adhesives. Do note that diluted self-gloss emulsions (e.g. polyethylene and paraffin waxes) should never be used as it will damage the screed floor’s coating.

Equipment for cleaning a screed floor

In general, we recommend utilising a scrubber dryer for cleaning your screed floor. Because of their multiple tempo settings, scrubber dryers can accommodate for lighter maintenance cleans as well as deep cleaning that requires higher roller brush speeds.

Regular maintenance cleaning techniques – for light soiling

Wet maintenance cleaning is conducted using a scrubber dryer on a reduced contact pressure and lower brush speed. We recommend using a suitable cleaning agent and utilising your scrubber dryer’s automatic cleaning function.

If wet cleaning is not required, we suggest carrying out maintenance cleaning using a vacuum cleaner or sweeper.

Deep cleaning techniques

If maintenance cleaning fails to successfully remove all the unwelcome residue, we advise on the following deep cleaning course of action.

For removing stubborn dirt

We propose setting your scrubber dryer onto a high or full contact pressure, conducting the clean at intervals to avoid the screed floor getting too wet.

For removing skid and tyre marks

For any skid marks or tyre tracks left by heavy machinery, we suggest applying a suitable, high-performance, multi-purpose cleaner. Then, apply the scrubber dryer without any added cleaning solution to remove the marks.

Wright Readymix is a specialist concrete and floor screeding company

Having built our reputation on excellence, Wright Readymix supply high quality liquid screed flooring, concrete blocks and ready mixed concrete across the South West of England and South Wales. Our team of experienced and skilled concrete contractors have a wealth of knowledge and pride themselves on giving expert advice across our commercial and residential clients.

For more information on how we can provide screed flooring for your property, or to learn more about our wide array of concrete services, contact our friendly team today on 01179 582090.