Home / Wet-area and engineered screeds
Engineered screeds laid to falls to waste under sheet vinyl in bathrooms, showers, hospitals, aged care, change rooms and commercial kitchens across Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast, delivered as one complete Ardex system from the slab to the finished floor.
Sheet vinyl is around 2mm thick. Every ridge, hollow and trowel mark in the screed shows through it, and the adhesive only bonds to the top few millimetres of the screed surface. A screed that would hide under ceramic tiles can fail under vinyl.
That is why AS 1884:2021 only accepts engineered screeds under resilient flooring, not a standard sand and cement screed. The most common failure we see is a screed that has been supplied and pumped in, then left to whoever is on site to place: not properly bonded, not compacted and not smooth enough for vinyl. We have removed and reinstalled more than one of them.
When we build a wet-area floor, we take responsibility for it from the slab up. It starts with moisture testing and floor preparation and finishes with coved, heat-welded safety and sheet vinyl.
One complete Ardex system, so every layer is compatible with the ones above and below it. Each stage is a hold point, checked and recorded before the next layer goes on.
The slab is mechanically prepared to a clean, open surface and moisture tested.
An ARDEX WPM 300 under-membrane on green slabs, or where the project calls for it.
Engineered screed bonded wet-on-wet, compacted, and checked for bond and fall to the waste.
Bond breakers and reinforcing at junctions and the waste, then the membrane over the screed and up the walls.
Feather Finish, then sheet vinyl coved, heat-welded and bonded into the waste.
Wherever there is a floor waste, NCC 2022 requires the floor to fall continuously to it at between 1:80 and 1:50. Screed thickness follows from that: we start at the minimum bonded thickness of 15mm at the waste and work back to the furthest point of the room.
At 1:80, a point 2.5m from the waste needs about 46mm of screed. If the structural slab is not set down far enough, the screed either cannot achieve the fall or ends in a ramp at the doorway, so set-downs are worth checking at design stage.
Our technical bulletin BFTB-003 covers the standards, why wet-area screeds fail under vinyl, our full system and the details that make or break it, for builders, project managers and design teams.
Clinical areas, training kitchens, retirement living wet areas and school amenities, including Grace Lutheran College.
Completed 2024
Spring Hill, Brisbane
Flooring for Queensland Fertility Group’s new IVF hospital over two floors of 525 Boundary Street: three operating theatres, IVF laboratories, sterilising (CSSD) rooms, recovery, wet areas, offices and waiting areas, delivered for Shape Australia.
Recovery ward. Image: Shape Australia
Completed
Robina, Gold Coast
A multi-level fitout of TAFE Queensland’s newest campus, recognised as Australia’s first sustainable vocational education and training campus. Commercial training kitchens, hair and beauty studios, lecture rooms, a gym, classrooms, and a conference and bar level for events.
Image: Shape Australia
In delivery
Manly, Brisbane
Retirement apartments on the heritage Lota House site, built alongside an operating aged care community.
Image: FKG Group
Not under our recommendation. AS 1884:2021 only accepts engineered screeds under resilient flooring. Standard sand-cement screeds dry slowly (often 40 to 60 days before vinyl can safely go down), are relatively weak, and are hard to get smooth enough for a 2mm vinyl sheet.
Under NCC 2022, wherever a floor waste is installed the floor must fall continuously to the waste at no less than 1:80 and no more than 1:50. Older details often show 1:100, which no longer meets the code for floors with a waste.
It is set by the distance from the floor waste and the fall required. We start at the minimum bonded thickness of 15mm at the waste and build up from there. For example, 2.5m from the waste at 1:80 needs about 46mm at the furthest point, which is why slab set-downs should be checked at design stage.
No. AS 3740 classes sheet vinyl as water resistant rather than waterproof, because of its welded seams. Showers and rooms with a floor waste need a waterproofing membrane under the vinyl.
Much sooner than on sand-cement. On ARDEX A38, Ardex smoothing cements can go on after 24 hours, and resilient flooring is normally ready after about two days once a moisture test confirms the screed is dry.
Yes. Commercial kitchen floors that are washed down must be graded to a floor waste with no hollows and coved at the floor-to-wall junction. Councils typically ask for a minimum 25mm coving radius under the food premises requirements.
We install engineered screeds and wet-area floors for builders across Brisbane, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast and South East Queensland, from hospital and aged care wet areas to apartment bathrooms, school amenities and commercial kitchens.
Send the drawings, finishes schedule and program to our estimating team. We’ll come back with an itemised price and any clarifications.
