Latex over anhydrite floors on Amesbury new builds
In a new house on one of Amesbury's recent estates, the ground floor is often a flowing screed, liquid or anhydrite, poured over underfloor heating. Those floors are flat enough for most finishes as laid, but a change of plan often follows. An owner who moved in with carpet decides on sheet vinyl or LVT for the kitchen, and a thin covering of that kind shows small marks, joint lines and patches that carpet hid.
A latex skim gives that floor a smooth, closed face. On calcium sulphate the preparation is not optional. The weak surface skin left when the screed cured, the laitance, has to be sanded off if it was never removed, the dust vacuumed away, and a primer made for calcium sulphate applied. Latex laid straight onto an unprimed anhydrite floor can lose its bond, and the covering goes with it.
Moisture comes before any of that. A new screed may look dry long before it is, and flooring manufacturers often accept less moisture in a calcium sulphate screed than in a cement one. A hygrometer reading confirms the floor is ready; where it is not, the heating can be run to dry it under a gradual schedule.
The heating also shapes the job itself. Latex goes onto the screed that covers the pipes, and the product sheet states how the heating is handled while the latex cures, which we follow. On a cement based screed the routine is simpler: clean, prime with the right product and lay. Either way the result is a few millimetres of smooth, hard surface that the fitter can stick to straight away once it has set.
Older Amesbury homes and Solstice Park refits
Houses from 1945 to 1972 make up 17% of Amesbury's homes, and a kitchen or bathroom refit in one of them can uncover a mixed bag of bases. Firmly bonded quarry or ceramic tiles can stay, once loose ones are lifted, the glaze is cleaned and a tile primer applied. Thin, hard remains of old adhesive can often be left too, after scraping and the right primer. Uneven older concrete takes latex well, provided it is sound.
Upstairs, a bathroom on timber needs a different start. Bare floorboards move too much for latex, so they are screwed down and covered with flooring grade plywood, and the latex goes over the ply.
Refits at Solstice Park, the business development by the A303, raise the same bases on a larger scale. A staff kitchen, washroom or office with safety flooring or vinyl over old tiles is the kind of area a latex skim suits.
Latex has clear limits. It will not hold down a springy floor, stop damp or rescue a slab that is badly out of level. Those floors need concrete floor repair or a new screed first. Where the question is about general flatness on a solid floor, floor levelling in Amesbury covers it. A few miles south, there is a page on latex screed in Salisbury.
How we price latex screed in Amesbury
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 Amesbury
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 Amesbury
As the crow flies, our yard in Slough is about 55.1 miles from Amesbury, which lies to the west-south-west. Postcodes here include SP4, and Tidworth (7 miles), Salisbury (7 miles), Andover (13.3 miles) and Devizes (15.5 miles) are close by.
More on latex screed, part of our screeding services.