Herne Bay refits over mixed and awkward bases
Refits in Herne Bay's pre-1919 houses near the seafront can easily turn up a mixed floor. A kitchen or bathroom refit in one of them rarely starts from a clean, even floor. Pull up the old lino and you might find quarry tiles, a patchwork of concrete repairs or timber, occasionally all three in a single room. Thin sheet vinyl and LVT will show every one of those edges within weeks of being laid.
Latex copes with a mixed surface because it grips several materials and goes down at only a few millimetres. What it cannot do without is a base that stays still.
Timber is the strictest case. Latex never goes straight onto bare boards, which flex and shrink with the seasons and would crack the thin layer above them. The boards are screwed down tight, overboarded with flooring grade plywood fixed at close centres, and the latex is spread over the plywood.
Old quarry and ceramic tiles can stay put as long as each one is stuck fast. We tap the floor for hollow tiles, refix or replace them, degrease the glaze and prime before pouring.
Worn concrete, or concrete holding a thin film of sound old adhesive, normally takes latex once it is cleaned and primed with the right product. Thick, soft or flaking glue has to come off first, which is a job for our grinding service for Herne Bay floors.
Where part of the room sits on a calcium sulphate screed, its laitance is removed and the surface primed before latex goes anywhere near it.
When latex is the wrong answer in Herne Bay
Latex is a finishing layer. It turns a sound floor smooth, but it cannot turn an unsound floor sound, and three problems send a Herne Bay job down a different route.
Springy boards come first. If a floor bounces underfoot, latex laid over it will crack along the board lines. Loose boards are fixed and the floor is overboarded, and a carpenter deals with any weak joists, before anything thin goes down.
Damp is the second. An old solid floor whose damp protection has failed will push moisture up through any compound, lifting vinyl and marking carpet. We take a meter reading before quoting. Where the slab is wet, the lasting cure is to dig it out and rebuild it with a membrane, as described on our hand-laid screed page.
The third is a floor that is well out of level. Latex is laid thin and is meant for smoothing, so a room that falls away noticeably from one wall to another needs a deeper levelling product or a new screed. Our Herne Bay floor levelling page explains how that choice is made.
Finishes matter too. Safety flooring, rubber, lino and sheet vinyl are all thin and unforgiving, and their fitters expect a smooth, dry base. With many modern retirement complexes near the seafront, slip resistant bathroom floors are a finish worth planning for, and we leave the latex ready for the specialist who lays them.
How we price latex screed in Herne Bay
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 Herne Bay
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 Herne Bay
As the crow flies, our yard in Slough is about 77.3 miles from Herne Bay, which lies to the east. Postcodes here include CT6, and Whitstable (4.5 miles), Canterbury (6.7 miles), Faversham (10.9 miles) and Sittingbourne (17 miles) are close by.
More on latex screed, part of our screeding services.
