screed leveling method

In case anyone is interested in my floor screeding job (SBR screed), I finally got two 2.5 metre long aluminium poles from metal supermarkets. Light, strong and straight. I set these up in big blobs of mortar to give me screeding rails, and fill between the rails slicing the screed off with a darby (long metal plate with handles) as I go. To do the next bay, I use a pole for one edge and the previous bay as the other edge. I'm doing bays about 2.5m x 1.2 metres at a time, which is about 5 belle mini-mix fulls, after which I am knackered. Half the job is the mixing ! I've ended up using a stiff mortar mix rather than a "dry" mix. I know a proper screeding team (one mixing, one laying) will do the whole thing seamlessly with just a spirit level and trowel in a few hours, but have you seen how much they charge ? Simon.