So if ive been doing it wrong all theese years without a problem, im willing to learn,tell me why it has to be used,dont ģo all technical on me i want it in laymans terms,hope its good while you must take in the forty odd years or has it all been wasted and i dont know what im doing,if i dont reply its cos my tablet keeps dying
I am a techy so I can't help but go all technical. However in as laymanny terms as I can underfloor heating causes thermal deformation of the screed I.e. Expansion and contraction under thermal cycling. Natural stone is generally relative weak in tension. The act of sticking it to a screed which is effectively moving places internal stresses on the stone. As the stone expands and contracts to a different level than the screed there are differential deformation stresses that transfer through the system and it can fracture at the weak points e.g. The veins in travertine and marble. These differentials can rarely be accommodated by the flexible adhesives as these are not flexible enough... They are only flexible to a point.
Also so especially where sand and cement screed is used this undergoes shrinkage due to cement hydration and carbonation. Modern cements are significantly different to cements from 40 years ago. One of the main differentpces is the level of compressive strength they acheive. Problem is when you increase compressive strength you I crease "hardness" and when this incRease the screed can become brittle.
also sand cement screeds from 40 years ago would have been laid very differently from modern screeds in the respect that most modern screeds are poorly compacted leading to low flexural strength which in turn can lead to both plastic and long term shrinkage cracking.
There re are a whole raft of differences between what happened then and what happens now.
I dont think anyone is one is saying you have been doing it wrong. It is a simple fact though that you have not followed the advice of the British
standard and as such that puts you at risk in the event of a failure. Your experience means that you are happy to accept that risk into your working practice. Nowt wrong with that and as long as nothing goes wrong you are fine.