New screed: Doubts whether it is okay?

Hello,

in our single-family house (built in the 1950s) new screed was installed last week. It is 3cm cement screed, which is mixed with a hardener and accelerator (Retanol Xtreme). Since the floor installer (bonded parquet and tiles are to be laid on it) will not come for a few weeks and I am not familiar with this, I would be happy if someone could give me a tip whether the screed is okay. It looks porous in several places (see photos). As a result, there are also holes in the new screed (up to 5mm). Is that normal?

It would be nice if someone could help me because the invoice should be paid next week...

Thank you very much!
hausbau0711

Let's put it this way: I don't know any screed without "holes". However, I can't see from the photos that anything should be porous here - it looks solid.
Best regards, Yvonne

Our screed looked exactly the same... completely normal. Smaller cracks are also okay.

Our screed did not have that ?!

As a student, I sometimes worked for a screed company. It looks like the screed was not smoothed after being applied. Naturally, this also results in some loss of compaction and strength. 3 cm is also a bit thin, was that no longer possible?

Hello questioner "hausbau0711". Whether someone has experienced this before or not is rather completely irrelevant here! The screed was made with "Retanol Xtreme," which means that it reaches or can reach its final strength very quickly. The manufacturer, PCT Chemie, promotes this screed additive for producing screeds with a thickness of 30mm or more. That may be true, but it is and remains a special solution!! Cement screeds in construction must - in order to achieve a flexural tensile strength of at least 4 N/mm² - have a minimum thickness of 45mm at flexural tensile strength F4. Now, the screed may possibly meet this requirement. But since it is and remains a special construction, proof must be provided that this is actually the case. And: the special solution must be agreed upon with the client before execution!!! If this last point is not already met, then the "screed" trade is faulty, whether we achieve the 4 N/mm² or not. However, the holes are not usual. They occur when the screed surface is too dry during rubbing. Aggregate particles then pull out of the already hardening screed matrix, resulting in such a surface appearance. At only 30mm thickness, this whole thing is more than worrying!! -------------------- I am writing this to you not as just anyone, but as an expert who deals with this matter professionally and is knowledgeable about it. Regards: KlaRa