Semi-dry floor screed contractor in Bali

The advantages come from the low water. Less water means less shrinkage, so a semi-dry screed curls and cracks far less than a wet mix, and it dries faster — which in a climate sitting at 80 per cent humidity is worth weeks on a programme. Compaction is what gives it strength: the mix is placed in layers, tamped or power-floated, then levelled to the laser rather than to a string line and somebody's judgement.

We work to tile-ready tolerances of ±3 mm under a 2 m straightedge, with falls formed accurately in wet areas and movement joints set out where bay sizes and column lines call for them rather than where they are convenient. Underfloor pipework, insulation and acoustic layers are built into the make-up when the design includes them. And the pump reaches upper floors without a single barrow going up a ramp, which on a three-storey house removes days of labour and most of the mess.

Semi-dry against a hand-laid wet mix

The traditional Bali floor screed is mixed on the ground, barrowed in, spread between screed rails and rubbed off by hand. It works, and on a 40 m² room it is the sensible answer. On 400 m² it becomes a different job: a gang of eight, a fortnight of labour, cold joints between yesterday's work and today's, and levels that drift because the datum was a string line and an experienced eye.

Above roughly 150 m² the machine method changes the economics. One crew and a pump place the same area in a day. Levels come off a rotating laser, so tolerance holds from the first bay to the last regardless of who is on the trowel. Water content sits near the minimum needed for hydration, so shrinkage is small and edge curling is rare, and the floor dries in a fraction of the time. On tiled floors that means the tiler starts sooner and the tiles stay flat afterwards.

Drying time is the number that runs your programme

Screed strength arrives in days; dryness takes much longer, and it is dryness that decides when tiles, stone, vinyl or resin can go down. The working rule of one day per millimetre for the first 50 mm assumes moderate conditions. Bali at 80 per cent relative humidity with no air movement slows it considerably — a 50 mm screed in a closed-up house can still be wet at week eight, which is how tiles end up lifting six months after handover.

So we plan around it. A semi-dry mix starts with far less free water than a wet screed, which is most of the battle won. Then we ventilate, bring in dehumidifiers on tight programmes, and take moisture readings before the next trade rather than counting days on a calendar. Where an early handover is genuinely needed, we specify a fast-drying binder that accepts tiles inside a week and price it honestly against the time it buys.