Buyer's guide
Concrete vs Liquid Screed — Which Should Your Floor Use?
Concrete, sand-and-cement screed and liquid screed all get called "the floor" — but they're three different products. Here's a plain-English guide to which one your build actually needs.
Not sure which one you need?
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Three products often get muddled together on drawings and quotes: structural concrete, traditional sand-and-cement screed, and modern liquid screed. They're not interchangeable — and picking the wrong one costs real money in remedial work.
This is a buyer's-eye guide. No brand spin, no industry jargon. Just what each product is for, what it costs, and where the choice actually lies.
The three products in one table
| Product | Job it actually does |
|---|---|
| Structural concrete | Load-bearing slab (150–250mm). Takes the building's weight. |
| Sand-and-cement screed | Non-structural topping (65–75mm) hand-laid over the slab. Traditional. |
| Liquid screed | Non-structural topping (30–50mm) pumped over the slab. Modern replacement. |
The real choice: sand-and-cement vs liquid
Sand-and-cement screed
- Cheaper per m² in materials
- Slower — ~40m² per gang per day
- Thicker — 65–75mm over UFH
- SR2 flatness typical
- 5–7 days before foot traffic
Liquid screed
- Faster — up to 500m² per day
- Thinner — 30mm over UFH
- SR1 flatness routine
- 24–48h foot traffic
- Better UFH thermal response
The honest cost picture
Sand-and-cement screed is typically cheaper on materials and dearer on labour. Liquid screed is dearer on materials and cheaper on labour. For a single small room, sand-and-cement often wins on total cost. For anything over ~40m² — especially with UFH — liquid usually wins.
The one place cost isn't the driver: if UFH is in the build-up, liquid screed's thinner cover and better thermal response usually pay back the material premium in running-cost savings inside a couple of winters.
Quick decision rules
- UFH in the floor → liquid screed, almost always
- Single small room, no UFH, tight budget → sand-and-cement is fine
- Big open-plan ground floor → liquid screed for the flatness and continuity
- Wet room or basement → cement-based liquid screed (Cemfloor)
- Listed / period building → lime screed
Frequently asked
Not sure which one you need?
Send us the build-up drawings or a quick sketch. We'll come back with an honest recommendation — including "stick with sand-and-cement" if that's genuinely the right answer.