Latex screed under new Andover kitchens and bathrooms
Latex screed is mixed from two parts that come together: a cement based powder and a latex liquid that replaces water. The latex makes the set layer slightly flexible and helps it hold onto surfaces that would not suit a normal water mixed compound. That is the reason it gets used over awkward bases.
Take the terraces and semis from Andover's overspill decades. When a kitchen or bathroom in one of them is stripped out, the ground floor slab may carry old tiles, patches of screed and adhesive from previous coverings. If the tiles are solidly fixed and the residue is thin and sound, both can be cleaned, primed and covered with latex in place of breaking the floor out. Upstairs, timber floors are covered with screwed flooring grade plywood first, and the latex goes onto the ply, never onto bare floorboards.
Newer estates have their own version. Where a home at Augusta Park or Picket Twenty is having its flooring changed, the surface left once carpet or laminate comes up may still need smoothing before sheet vinyl or LVT goes down.
Primer comes before latex every time, chosen for concrete, ply, tiles or adhesive. Calcium sulphate screeds have their laitance removed and are always primed.
The finishes that benefit are the thin ones: sheet vinyl, LVT, lino, rubber and safety flooring, along with carpet. A few millimetres of latex removes the board edges, grout lines and small hollows they would otherwise show. For bringing a whole floor into a flatness class, read our Andover floor levelling page.
When an Andover floor needs work before latex
There are floors latex should not go on, and spotting them before the flooring is ordered saves money.
A damp floor is one. Latex will not stop moisture rising through an old slab, and a floor that tests damp needs a membrane in its build-up. Ground floors in overspill-era houses are often replaced anyway, with insulation the originals lack, and rebuilding it with a traditional sand and cement floor suits a damp slab far better than a thin topping.
A springy timber floor is another. Boards that move will crack a thin layer above them, however good the product, so loose boards are fixed and the floor is overboarded first.
The third is a floor that is well out of level. Latex is meant to be thin, and building it up to fill a sunken floor risks cracking and the layer letting go. Local high spots or ridges can be ground off first, and real hollows filled with a screed or repaired under our screed repairs service.
Flats bring their own mix of bases. All flats together are 18% of Andover's homes, and in an upper floor flat the floor may be timber, concrete or a screed, each needing a different primer.
Whether the house is in East Anton, Saxon Fields or close to Peake Way, the checks are the same: dry, firm and close to level first, then latex.
How we price latex screed in Andover
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 Andover
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 Andover
As the crow flies, our yard in Slough is about 42.5 miles from Andover, which lies to the west-south-west. Postcodes here include SP10 and SP11, and Tidworth (8.4 miles), Winchester (12.4 miles), Amesbury (13.3 miles) and Newbury (14.9 miles) are close by.
More on latex screed, part of our screeding services.