Screeds
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Screeds are long, straight, stiff tubing or boards used to smooth and roughly level wet concrete shortly after it is poured. Screeds are available in different sizes and can even be project-specific, such as those used for building concrete bridges. For hand-screeding, the screed must be longer than the width of the concrete form so that it can ride along the top edges of the form as the concrete is flattened.
For many smaller jobs, such as sidewalks, garage and driveway slabs, and patios, a simple straight piece of dimension lumber, usually a 2 x 4, suffices as a screed. There are also commercial screeds available, which are often aluminum "boards" with a shape similar to a 2 x 4. They are sold in commonly used lengths, such as 6 ft., 8, ft, 10 ft, etc. Some commercial screeds come with leveling vials attached to them to make it easy to level slabs as the screeding is done.
