The oversite concrete is laid during the early stages of the erection of buildings. It is practice to lay floor finishes to solid ground floors after the roof is on and wet trades such as plastering are completed to avoid damage to floor finishes. By this time the site concrete will have thoroughly dried out. A layer of fine grained material such as sand and cement is usually spread and levelled over the surface of the dry concrete to provide a true level surface for a floor finish. As the wet finishing layer, called a screed, will not strongly adhere to dry concrete it is made at least 65 mm thick so that it does not dry too quickly and crack. Electric conduits and water service pipes are commonly run in the underside of the screed.
As an alternative to under concrete or surface damp-proof membranes a damp-proof membrane may be sandwiched between the site concrete and the floor screed, as illustrated in Fig. 28. At the junction of wall and floor the membrane overlaps the damp-proof course in the wall.
Fig. 28 Sandiwch damp-proof membrane.
