Timber floors in Clarendon Park and older Leicester terraces
A Victorian house in Clarendon Park, or anywhere else in Leicester's pre-1919 housing, often has a suspended timber ground floor. A full renovation may replace it with an insulated slab, which our sand and cement screed page covers. Plenty of refits keep the boards, though, and then the question is how to get a flat base for sheet vinyl or LVT on top.
Latex is part of the answer, but never the first step. Bare boards move with the seasons, and any compound spread directly on them cracks along the joints. So the boards are fixed down hard, any loose or rotten ones are replaced, and the whole room is covered with flooring grade plywood screwed at close centres. Our overboarding and floor preparation work covers that layer. The latex then goes over the ply, filling screw heads and board joints so nothing shows through the finish.
Upstairs floors raise the same issue. Converted flats account for 4% of Leicester's homes. A kitchen or bathroom in a converted house is often on a timber floor too. Overboarding and latex give a smooth, firm base there without adding much height, which helps where a door threshold or a stair nosing sets the finished level.
What makes latex suitable is the mix itself: a cement based powder blended with a latex liquid in place of water, spread thin and bonded to a primed base. Once cured, it takes sheet vinyl, LVT, lino, rubber, safety flooring or carpet.
Leicester tiled floors, old adhesive and latex limits
Not every awkward base is timber. A Leicester kitchen refit often lifts lino or carpet to find quarry tiles or ceramic tiles beneath. If those are still firmly bonded, they can stay: we sound them out, replace or fill any loose ones, degrease the surface and prime it, then spread the latex.
Old adhesive is a judgement call. A thin, hard film that is well stuck can sometimes be primed and covered, but soft, thick or patchy residue has to go first, often with grinding to strip old glue.
There are clear cases where latex is the wrong product. It will not stop damp coming up through an old solid floor laid without a membrane. It will not calm boards that spring underfoot. And it cannot correct a floor that is badly out of level. Those floors need repair, overboarding or a new screed first. For deeper correction and the SR1 flatness that thin finishes need, see our page on self levelling compound for new flooring.
Calcium sulphate screeds need their laitance sanded off and must always be primed before latex goes on them. We cover the same work in Hinckley latex screed and other nearby towns.
How we price latex screed in Leicester
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 Leicester
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 Leicester
On the map, Leicester sits north-north-west of Slough, about 78.9 miles from our base in a straight line (postcodes including LE1, LE2, LE3 and LE7), next to Earl Shilton (8.7 miles), Hinckley (12 miles), Lutterworth (12.7 miles) and Market Harborough (13.9 miles).
More on latex screed, part of our screeding services.