Latex over mixed bases in Abingdon-on-Thames conversions
Ask a flooring fitter for latex and they mean a two part compound. The powder is cement based, and instead of mixing it with water you mix it with a latex liquid supplied alongside it. The result spreads into a thin coat, usually a few millimetres, that bonds well to surfaces a plain compound would struggle with and stays slightly flexible once cured.
That makes it useful where an older Abingdon-on-Thames building has been converted. Under an old carpet or vinyl there may be a concrete or screed floor with patches, the hard remains of earlier adhesive, or a strip of tiles left from an earlier use of the room. If each of those is sound and stuck fast, a latex coat can tie them together into one smooth face for the new floor. Anything loose, flaking or soft comes off first.
The base type sets the primer. Concrete and cement screed take one kind, ceramic tiles another, and a calcium sulphate floor needs its laitance sanded off and a primer suited to it before any latex goes on. Get it wrong and a thin finish can let go.
Latex is a finishing layer, not a way to gain height. Where a conversion floor is badly out of level rather than just rough, levelling compound for Abingdon-on-Thames floors or, for a deeper fault, a new screed is the better route. Springy timber or a damp reading also has to be put right before any thin coat goes down.
Old tiles and timber in Abingdon-on-Thames period houses
Period houses near the historic centre bring different bases. Lift an old covering in one of these and the surface underneath might be quarry tiles, a run of timber boards, or a solid floor with no membrane at all.
Firmly bonded quarry or ceramic tiles can usually stay. Once they are cleaned, degreased and primed, latex fills the grout lines and gives a flat face, which avoids breaking out an old floor. Tiles that ring hollow come up first.
Boards need plywood. Latex is never spread on bare floorboards, because the joints open and close as the boards move. The boards are screwed down, flooring grade plywood is fixed over them at close centres, and the latex goes over the ply.
Damp changes the plan. A solid floor without a membrane may need lifting and rebuilding, and latex laid on top would simply trap the moisture under new vinyl. We take a reading before agreeing to lay it, and where the floor has failed we point you to a rebuilt sand and cement floor instead. Terraced houses make up 25% of Abingdon-on-Thames homes, and in a narrow terraced kitchen the choice between latex and relaying often comes down to that damp test.
How we price latex screed in Abingdon-on-Thames
A fixed written price within 24 hours, once we know the area and the base. See our floor screeding cost guide.
Who lays your latex screed in Abingdon-on-Thames
K & B Screeding’s own team, led by director Donatas Bardisevicius. Founded 2019, company 12298780.
See what customers say in our Google reviews and on our testimonials page.
Latex Screed from Slough to Abingdon-on-Thames
Abingdon-on-Thames is about 29 miles west-north-west of our Slough base as the crow flies, with postcodes including OX14. The nearest towns to it are Didcot (4.7 miles), Oxford (5.7 miles), Wantage (8.4 miles) and Kidlington (10.5 miles).
More on latex screed, part of our screeding services.