Awkward bases in Brentwood kitchen and bathroom refits
Strip out an old kitchen or bathroom and the floor underneath rarely matches what the new finish expects. One room reveals quarry tiles still stuck fast, another a patchwork of concrete and filler, a third a timber floor that a previous owner covered in hardboard. Thin sheet finishes copy every one of those flaws to the surface, so they need a skin that is smooth, hard and even.
Latex suits that job. The latex liquid gives the cured compound some flexibility and a strong grip, so it holds on to bases that a plain water mixed product might not. Good candidates are firmly bonded quarry or ceramic tiles once cleaned and primed, concrete that is uneven but sound, thin and well stuck residues of old adhesive, and timber that has first been overboarded with flooring grade plywood screwed down at close centres.
Bare floorboards are missing from that list for a reason. They move with the seasons and with every footstep, and a rigid layer only a few millimetres thick will crack along the joints. So in any older house where boards remain, the plywood goes down first and the latex follows on the ply.
Every base gets the primer intended for it. Glazed tiles and dense surfaces take a bonding primer, porous concrete a sealing one, and a calcium sulphate screed is always sanded free of laitance and primed, without exception. A latex layer is only as sound as what lies beneath it, so loose tiles are lifted and hollow patches cut out before any mixing starts.
For the wider choice between compound depths and flatness classes, see levelling Brentwood floors for new finishes.
Three faults latex cannot fix in Brentwood floors
Latex hides roughness. It does not cure a floor that is failing, and three faults are worth ruling out before you book.
Springy boards come first. If the floor bounces when you cross it, the joists or boards need a carpenter, and then overboarding, before any compound goes near them.
Damp is the second. A latex skin cannot hold back moisture rising through an old solid floor, and in a Victorian house without a working membrane it will blister and let go, taking the vinyl with it. That floor needs relaying instead, which our Brentwood sand and cement screed service describes.
The third is a floor well out of level. A few millimetres of latex smooths a surface; it is not meant to fill a deep hollow or lift one room to meet another. Where the straightedge shows a big drop, a new screed or a deeper levelling product comes first, with a thin skim afterwards only if the finish asks for it.
Converted flats, 3% of Brentwood's homes, deserve their own check. Flat conversions can bring acoustic requirements, and the floor may be timber, so we look at the whole build-up before choosing ply and latex, and the managing agent may want to approve the work. Terraced houses make up 17% of the town's homes, and a terraced kitchen or bathroom is a small area to skim once the base is right. Billericay is under five miles away, and latex screed in Billericay has its own page.
How we price latex screed in Brentwood
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 Brentwood
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 Brentwood
As the crow flies, our yard in Slough is about 41.4 miles from Brentwood, which lies to the east. Postcodes here include CM15, CM14 and CM13, and Billericay (4.8 miles), Havering (5.4 miles), Basildon (7.2 miles) and Stanford-le-Hope (9.1 miles) are close by.
More on latex screed, part of our screeding services.