One of the things we have always had our hearts set on is "tinted screeds". This has however proven to be a rather complicated process. A few Sundays ago we spent a few hours testing out different oxides as well as different application techniques. I was not convinced with the out come nor the colours, so during the week phoned around to try find out what the correct technique is. Greg and Mel also tried to help by explaining the technique they had used. I tried to explain to the "men" and my words fell on deaf ears. Naturally, this sent me back to the drawing board. I was starting to get desperate so I phoned around to get prices (labour & material) per m2 and was shocked to hear quotes ranging from R180 - R260 per m2.... I can get good Italian tiles for that. I also know that the labour only subies charge around R25 m2 and materials come to no more than R30 m2. I like to think I am not a fool and I am not prepared to be taken for a ride with such astronomical profit margins. Martin the plasterer has the technique but we had to get the colour right. All the oxides just didn't seem to suit the house. We wanted to try get a grey/white marbled effect and tried to find a white oxide - NO LUCK! I then had a brainwave - what about a mix of white & grey cement. In theory this would give that marbled effect. So off to the hardware to buy a bag of white cement - yes, you do get white cement, however it costs more than 3 times the price of standard grey cement. Anyways, I bit the bullet and loaded the 50kg bag into my car. The urgency was that on Thursday the cabling for the under screed heating was being laid and the screeding had to be done super fast to prevent damage to the cables. Martin got stuck-in and we are both very happy with the result. His rate is a far cry from the person who wanted to charge me R260 m2. Now we need to let it cure and seal it with a polyeurathane finish.
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