CA grades for Ilford town centre apartment blocks
Flats account for 32% of Redbridge homes, and the newest are going up around Ilford town centre. On apartment floors like these, the screed usually floats over an acoustic layer, and the grade is written into the engineer's specification. The specification may also set depth, heating details and the finish class the flooring contractor needs.
Those grades follow the European screed standard for screed materials. Take CA-C25-F5: CA tells you it is calcium sulphate, 25 is the compressive strength and 5 the flexural strength, measured in N/mm2. The C20 grade, CA-C20-F4, is for homes where floors see little wear. Most homes, apartments and offices are specified at CA-C25-F5. For harder wearing floors, CA-C30-F6 is used. If the drawing for an Ilford block says one grade, that is the grade that goes in.
An engineer may also choose an alpha hemihydrate screed instead of a standard grade. That happens when the floor must dry sooner or be laid thinner, and the maker's data sheet then sets the depth and heating rules, overriding the usual guidance.
Low shrinkage is the reason calcium sulphate suits large apartment floors. Bays can be much bigger than with cement screeds, and joints are fewer, but they still need planning: over door thresholds, between heating zones and where the structure changes. We mark out where the bays and joints go before anything is pumped. The guide to anhydrite screed has more background on the material.
Laitance, primers and moisture limits in Redbridge flats
Calcium sulphate screed needs finishing after it dries. Its top surface dries to a thin, crumbly film known as laitance, which we sand away so that adhesive or compound grips the real screed. The sanded floor is then primed with a product made for calcium sulphate. Using a primer meant for cement can leave the flooring poorly bonded.
Moisture is the next check. Anhydrite has to be drier than a cement screed before most flooring makers will accept it, so the floor layer's start date waits on a hygrometer. Where an Ilford apartment has heating pipes in the floor, they can usually be run from about day 7 to speed that drying.
Outside the new blocks, a calcium sulphate floor in Redbridge is more likely to go into an extension or conversion, right next to older rooms. Bathrooms and showers in those homes should not get it at all; those rooms get a flowing screed made with cement, or a sand and cement floor laid for wet use. Where the sanded floor needs SR1 for thin vinyl, a skim of smoothing compound over anhydrite finishes the job.
Anhydrite & Flow Screed prices in Redbridge
Liquid flowing screed (which includes anhydrite): £24 to £31 per m² supplied and laid (MyJobQuote, August 2026), so £960 to £1,240 for 40 m². MyJobQuote does not say whether these figures include VAT. See our floor screeding cost guide or screed calculator.
Who lays your anhydrite and flow screed in Redbridge
K & B Screeding’s own team, led by director Donatas Bardisevicius. Founded 2019, company 12298780.
See what customers say in our Google reviews and on our testimonials page.
Anhydrite & Flow Screed from Slough to Redbridge
As the crow flies, our yard in Slough is about 30.9 miles from Redbridge, which lies to the east. Postcodes here include IG2, E11, IG6 and IG5, and Chigwell (2.4 miles), Waltham Forest (3.2 miles), Barking and Dagenham (3.5 miles) and Newham (4.1 miles) are close by.
More on anhydrite screed, part of our screeding services.