Latex over slabs, boards and tiles in Lewes
Latex screed earns its name from the liquid. Instead of water, a latex additive is mixed into the cement based powder, and the cured layer comes out tougher, slightly flexible and strongly bonded. Those qualities let it sit over bases that ordinary compound might not tolerate, while staying only a few millimetres thick.
South Malling shows the straightforward case, with kitchen refits there typically sitting on a concrete slab that may be worn, patched or marked with old adhesive. The slab is cleaned, loose patches cut out and filled, a primer suited to concrete applied and the latex spread over it. Sound old adhesive that is hard and thin may stay; anything soft comes off first through our floor preparation work.
Timber floors need more thought. Terraced houses make up 35% of Lewes homes, and older houses in the town can still have boarded floors. Latex is never laid straight onto bare boards, because they move as the seasons change and would crack it. The boards are fixed down, overlaid with flooring grade plywood screwed at close centres, and the latex then fills the plywood joints and screw heads so a thin finish lies flat.
Old quarry or ceramic tiles that are stuck fast make another good base. Rather than breaking them out, which can disturb what lies beneath, we degrease them, prime with a tile primer and skim over. A tile that sounds hollow when tapped is lifted first.
This is a thin layer job. For general compound pours and flatness classes, our page on levelling Lewes floors covers the wider subject.
Damp, heritage floors and limits in Lewes
Latex covers small faults; it does not cure large ones.
Damp rules it out. Older terraces from the Victorian and Edwardian years often have no membrane at all under the kitchen and back addition, which rest straight on earth. A skim of latex over a floor like that will not stop moisture rising, and the new vinyl or LVT will lift. The floor needs taking out and rebuilding with a membrane, insulation and hand-laid sand and cement.
Movement rules it out too. Boards that spring underfoot are fixed, packed or replaced before any plywood goes down, otherwise cracks open along the board lines.
Heritage floors need agreement first. Old flagstones can sometimes take a skim if they are sound, dry and firmly bedded, but a cement based layer bonded hard to historic stone is not easily undone, so in a listed or conservation area home it is discussed with the owner before anything is priced.
Newer floors have a rule of their own. Where the base is a calcium sulphate screed, its laitance is sanded off and a compatible primer goes on before any latex is laid. For the same service about 5.7 miles away, see latex screed in Newhaven.
How we price latex screed in Lewes
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 Lewes
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 Lewes
As the crow flies, our yard in Slough is about 53.7 miles from Lewes, which lies to the south-south-east. Postcodes here include BN7, and Peacehaven (5.4 miles), Newhaven (5.7 miles), Brighton and Hove (7.6 miles) and Uckfield (7.6 miles) are close by.
More on latex screed, part of our screeding services.
