New cast flooring system combines the best of both worlds

Cast floors are making breakthroughs in many areas of construction. The floors can be transported and applied with minimal manpower. They are immediately flat and stable in quality.

Ecocem Benelux BV has developed a new screed, the eco₂floor. For years, the company has been committed to making new construction as sustainable as possible and maximizing CO₂-reduction in foundation and high-rise buildings. The eco₂floor is one of its innovative products. Eco₂floor combines the advantages of existing flooring technologies and is based on the use of ground granulated blast furnace slag. This is unique in the flooring world. The mortar for the screed is delivered to the construction site in a truck mixer ready to use and then pumped into the desired area. After 24 hours the concrete floor is walkable; after 72 hours it is loadable. The eco₂floor can be laid significantly faster than other floors.

Health and Safety Friendly
Pouring the traditional sand-cement screed still requires too much physical effort. Here, the floor layer mostly works on his knees and spreads the mortar - with his back bent - as flat as possible over the floor. With the eco₂floor this is easier and faster. The floor is pumped into the building on site. "The texture of the mortar is similar to that of drinking yogurt," says Jeroen Langenberg, manager of Sales and Marketing at Ecocem. "As a result, the floor flows smooth almost by itself. The floor layer only lends a hand to level the mortar immediately after pouring, but does so in a standing position. This makes the cast floor a great advance in terms of health and safety."

Environmentally conscious
A big step is also being made in the environmental field. For the production of eco₂floor are used ground, granulated blast furnace slag, a pure residual product of the steel industry. "These slag act as a binding agent and have been used in concrete for decades," Langenberg explains. "This allowed the cement to expire, which is precisely the major CO₂-emissions caused. Thus, tons of CO₂-emissions are saved and a major contribution is made to the green chain. That makes eco₂floor extremely suitable for BREEAM projects." To secure the blast furnace slag in the future as well, Ecocem has signed long-term contracts with the steel industry.

Moistureproof
Additional plus of the eco₂floor is the applicability in wet areas such as kitchens and bathrooms. This is because the anhydrite or plaster - the vulnerable factor to moisture - is eliminated. "With this, eco₂floor the best of both worlds, that of screed and sand-cement flooring," Langenberg summarized. "Eco₂floor is fast hardening, easy to install, health and safety and environmentally friendly, recyclable and moisture resistant."

Guaranteed quality
"It took a lot of time and effort to develop the floor," says Manfred Mille, manager of Research & Development at Ecocem. "A cast floor has to meet high requirements. The floor must not crack or curl up, it must be shrink-proof and have sufficient compressive and flexural tensile strength. It took between 3,000 and 4,000 trial mixtures to get the perfect recipe on paper. We always started with small test pieces to later expand them into floor sections of 1 x 1 meter up to 10 x 10 meters. We exposed these to moisture and varying temperatures; we stuck tiles on them and applied coatings. Now that we are literally thousands of square meters further, I can say with conviction that eco₂floor is a quality floor with great, innovative qualities." For more information, visit the Afbouw Vakdag on April 4 at the Werkspoor Cathedral in Utrecht.  

Text | Liliane Verwoolde  Image | Ecocem, AtMariet Photography Mariette Kapitein

eco₂floor

- Delivery through dealer network of concrete plants

- Easy installation

- Reducing labor costs

- Fast hardening, can be finished earlier

- Also for wet areas

- 100% recyclable