Latex over old tiles and boards in Horsham homes
A Horsham kitchen or bathroom refit often begins with lifting old vinyl and finding something unexpected beneath: ceramic tiles from an earlier refit, quarry tiles in a utility room, or boards lined with plywood years ago. Each can take latex, provided it is sound.
The product comes in two parts. One is a fine cementitious powder; the other is a latex emulsion that takes the place of mixing water. Together they cure into a thin, slightly flexible coat that holds onto tiles and plywood better than a compound mixed with water alone.
Over tiles, adhesion is the test. Every tile has to be stuck fast; hollow ones are cut out and the holes filled. Glazed faces are cleaned and given a primer meant for closed surfaces, so the latex has something to key into.
Over timber, boards are never latexed directly. They are covered with flooring grade plywood, screwed at close centres, so the latex sits on a stable sheet rather than on boards that shift through the year. Converted flats, 2% of homes in Horsham, can have timber floors between storeys, so the same overboarding step applies there.
Over concrete, latex fills trowel marks, shallow hollows and hairline cracks, and some hard, well bonded old adhesive can stay. Soft or patchy residue comes off first, often by diamond grinding the slab.
The same choices apply in Oakhill, New Town, The Common or Southwater Street: the base decides the method.
Low build-ups and limits of latex in Horsham
Around the Causeway, Horsham's oldest quarter, raising a floor by even a couple of centimetres can mean planing doors and losing old thresholds. A layer a few millimetres thick avoids most of that. It still relies on the base, and in an old building the base has to be inspected before any product is chosen; conservation requirements may apply as well.
Latex is not a repair. It will not hold down springy boards, which need refixing or replacing before they are overboarded. It will not cure damp rising through a slab; that needs a membrane or a repair, set out on our concrete floor repair page. And it is not designed to rescue a floor that runs well out of level, where a new screed, often hand-laid sand and cement, goes in first.
The primer depends on the base. Absorbent concrete and cement screed take one type, tiles and other closed surfaces another. A calcium sulphate screed must be sanded clear of laitance and then sealed with a compatible primer, every time.
Homes built between 1919 and 1944 make up 7% of Horsham. In a house of that period it is common to find several generations of flooring stacked up, and each layer is checked before latex is suggested. Crawley, about seven miles off, has its own page on latex screed in Crawley.
How we price latex screed in Horsham
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 Horsham
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 Horsham
On the map, Horsham sits south-south-east of Slough, about 35.3 miles from our base in a straight line (postcodes including RH12 and RH13), next to Crawley (7.1 miles), Horley (10.4 miles), Haywards Heath (10.9 miles) and Burgess Hill (11.2 miles).
More on latex screed, part of our screeding services.