Refitting kitchens and bathrooms in older Didcot semis
Strip the covering out of a semi built between the wars or just after in Didcot and you seldom find a single material. A kitchen may have vinyl tiles on old screed with a strip of newer concrete where a wall came out. An upstairs bathroom may have timber boards, then hardboard, then two layers of sheet vinyl. Thin new finishes copy every edge and seam below them, which is why the base needs work first.
Latex screed is made for that kind of floor. The cement based powder is stirred into a latex emulsion rather than water, and the result bonds well to dense, smooth or mixed surfaces and copes with slightly more movement than a standard compound. It goes down thin, normally a few millimetres, so it barely changes the floor height at the door.
How each base is handled:
Timber. Boards are screwed down and covered with flooring grade plywood, fixed at close centres. The latex goes on the plywood, never on bare boards.
Ceramic and quarry tiles. These stay if they are well bonded. We check each one, replace any that rock, clean the glaze and prime with a product designed for non-porous surfaces.
Concrete and old cement screed. Dust and loose patches come off, holes are filled, and a primer for porous bases goes on.
Old adhesive. A hard, thin film can usually be primed and covered. Soft or thick glue is removed first.
The finishes this suits are the unforgiving ones: sheet vinyl, LVT, lino, rubber and safety flooring in a kitchen or cloakroom. Deeper compound pours and flatness tolerances are dealt with on our Didcot floor levelling page.
Damp checks and primers on Didcot ground floors
Before any primer goes down, we look for three problems that latex cannot fix.
The first is moisture. Older solid floors were often laid without an effective membrane, and a latex coat will not hold damp back. Moisture coming up through the slab can loosen the adhesive under vinyl or LVT. A reading is taken first; if it is high, the floor needs a membrane or a rebuild, and a hand-laid screed for a rebuilt floor may be part of that.
The second is movement. A springy upstairs floor or loose boards will crack a thin coat. They are fixed, packed or overboarded before we arrive.
The third is level. Latex smooths texture and small steps. Where an old floor falls sharply towards one wall, or a new extension slab sits proud of the old kitchen, the high side may need diamond grinding to take the lip off and a low area may need a deeper levelling layer.
Then comes priming, the step that decides whether the latex stays bonded. Each base has its own primer, and on a calcium sulphate screed the laitance is sanded away and the surface always primed before latex.
Our latex work covers Tadley and every other part of Didcot, and there is also a page for latex screed work in Thame.
How we price latex screed in Didcot
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 Didcot
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 Didcot
On the map, Didcot sits west of Slough, about 26.2 miles from our base in a straight line (postcodes including OX11), next to Abingdon-on-Thames (4.7 miles), Wantage (8 miles), Oxford (10.1 miles) and Thatcham (14.1 miles).
More on latex screed, part of our screeding services.
