Awkward floors under Billericay kitchen and bathroom refits
Strip out a kitchen in a Billericay semi and the floor beneath may not match the room above. There could be quarry tiles from the original build, a patch of screed where an old boiler stood, and a ring of dark adhesive left by lino that came up decades ago. Upstairs bathrooms have their own version: timber floorboards, often with a sheet of hardboard tacked on top. Latex screed is the trade name for the compound used to pull these surfaces together.
It comes in two parts: a cement based powder and a latex liquid that is used where mixing water would normally go, which gives the set layer a little flexibility and a strong grip on dense or smooth bases. It is spread thin, typically a few millimetres, and finishes smooth enough for the thinnest coverings: sheet vinyl, LVT, lino, rubber, safety flooring in a utility or cloakroom, and carpet.
Each base is prepared on its own terms. Quarry or ceramic tiles stay only if every one is firmly bonded; hollow tiles are lifted and the gaps filled, then the glaze is cleaned and primed. Old adhesive can stay where it is thin, hard and well stuck, and is scraped or ground off where it is soft. Bathroom boards are overboarded first with flooring grade plywood, screwed down at close centres, because latex laid straight onto bare boards cracks as they move.
Terraced houses make up 14% of Billericay's homes, and their smaller kitchens and bathrooms follow the same rules on a tighter footprint. Where the issue is a whole room out of level rather than an awkward surface, our levelling compound page for Billericay is the better starting point.
When latex is wrong for a Billericay floor
Latex smooths a sound base. It does not repair an unsound one, and a quick check before the price is fixed saves a failed floor later.
Damp is the first test. A ground floor in an older house with a weak or missing membrane can hold moisture that will push the compound and the vinyl off together. We take readings, and if the slab is damp the answer is a membrane system or a new floor, not more latex.
Movement comes next. Stand in the middle of a bathroom and rock on your heels; if the boards flex, they need screwing down, repairing or overboarding before anything goes on top. Latex has some give, but not enough to ride on a springy floor.
The third limit is level. A room that drops well over a centimetre from one side to the other, as can turn up when an older bungalow is being remodelled, needs screed repairs or a new screed, with latex used only as the final skim.
Primers are matched to the base: one type for absorbent concrete, another for tiles and dense surfaces, and on any calcium sulphate screed the laitance is sanded away before priming. Homes across Gooseberry Green, Tye Common and Noak Hill are covered, as are refits a few miles away through latex screed in Wickford.
How we price latex screed in Billericay
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 Billericay
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 Billericay
On the map, Billericay sits east of Slough, about 46.2 miles from our base in a straight line (postcodes including CM12 and CM11), next to Basildon (4 miles), Wickford (4.5 miles), Brentwood (4.8 miles) and Stanford-le-Hope (7 miles).
More on latex screed, part of our screeding services.