Is fast-setting screed necessary for a walk-in shower?

Hello everyone,

My two floor-to-ceiling showers, which are to be tiled, the tiler wants to prepare for tiling using ordinary concrete screed. My contractor told me that he should use fast-setting screed. Now I'm stuck in the middle again. Of course, the concrete screed is considerably cheaper. But I also know that the concrete screed first has to dry before it can be covered. Or can the tile be laid immediately? The underfloor heating was also installed in the shower area. What can you recommend? Thanks and have a nice day.

Hello "lars-steina". First of all, to clarify: the term "Betonestrich" does not exist! Although you often see container labels in hardware stores with this term, it actually does not exist! It is either concrete or screed. For the barrier-free shower area, a standard cement screed is completely sufficient, but you can also use a fast-setting binder (cement). Every building material requires time to harden and time to release the mixing water into the ambient air. With fast screeds (only based on cement for the shower area), there is a rapid strength development. However, this has nothing to do with the laying maturity, i.e. the drying behavior! Certainly, fast cements are more expensive than standard cements, but what area are we talking about? For a few square meters, you should not necessarily watch every cent, that would be futile. However, at 500m² (I mean a large area, so no shower), it becomes interesting to weigh up. Ceramic tiles in showers are also not laid directly on the screed, but first a sealing layer and also the adjacent sealing tapes and corner solutions must be applied. Only then do we lay the ceramic tiles. Whether the laying maturity is present must be confirmed by moisture measurements. With a heated screed, the screed installer must (or should) mark the spots with plastic flags where the floor layer can safely take its sample without hitting the heating elements. -------------------------- Regards: KlaRa

Drive to the next building materials dealer and grab a few bags of fast screed and leave them there. With the normal screed mortar, he can neither properly carry out the sealing work nor lay the tiles in a timely manner. I wouldn't even discuss something like that. Best regards

Quick decisions made from half-knowledge have never created a serious and reliable basis for decision-making.
One can neither achieve any waterproofing with a standard screed mortar nor with any other binder of a screed.
Screeds are always only load distribution layers. One builds on them; with Portland cements as well as with rapid-setting cements.
Here, lumping the waterproofing measure together with screed binders certainly does not belong to the trust-building answers that a questioner is waiting for. However, it does belong to the confusion-causing ones!
Anyone who does not have the expert knowledge should begin with "... I have also once ..." but should not engage in the discussion.
Otherwise, one is quickly swept away from the stage of trust by the realization of unqualified answers.
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KlaRa

Thank you KlaRa for the information. Unfortunately, I have already bought the cement screed. The building materials dealer cannot exchange the bags for fast screed because he does not carry it in his range. He only offered me PCI Estrifix. This is supposed to turn the normal screed into a fast screed. Unfortunately, I have no idea about it again. Can you help me with that KlaRa? Or should I just buy fast screed right away?

did your answer refer to me fully or partially? If yes, then you are mixing things up here, not me! You cannot apply a professional seal on a non-dried screed. That is my argument! The idea that you can/should achieve a seal with screed came from you, not me. However, I hope what you wrote was not referring to me. Best regards