Overboarded and tiled floors in older Maidenhead houses
Older houses tend to have floors that cannot be screeded over in the usual way. Upstairs they are timber. Elsewhere, an earlier owner may have laid quarry tiles in the kitchen or ceramic tiles in the bathroom, and lifting them would disturb everything beneath.
Latex is the thin layer that lets those floors stay. On timber, the boards are fixed down tight and covered with flooring grade plywood, screwed at close centres. The latex is laid on the primed plywood, not on the boards, because bare boards move enough to crack it. On tiles, the surface is cleaned of grease and polish, any loose tiles are taken up and the gaps filled, a primer for tiled surfaces goes on and the latex buries the grout lines.
Ground floors in a Victorian house near the centre or around Boyn Hill are a separate case. Where the original floor is damp or failing, latex is the wrong answer and an insulated build-up goes in instead; see sand and cement floors in Maidenhead. Where the floor is a sound later concrete slab that has simply worn uneven, latex can bring it true.
Sound old adhesive can sometimes be left and covered, but only when it is thin, hard and firmly stuck. Thick or soft residue is cut off by our concrete grinding team first.
The reason for all this is the finish. Sheet vinyl, LVT, lino, rubber and safety flooring are thin, and every board edge or grout line beneath them shows through within weeks of fitting.
Latex or something else for Maidenhead floors
Latex sits at the thin end of floor preparation, and it is easy to ask too much of it. Before pricing a Maidenhead floor, we look for three warning signs.
Spring. If boards flex as you walk across them, latex will crack however carefully it is laid. Loose boards are screwed down, damaged ones are replaced and the plywood goes on first.
Damp. Latex has no damp proofing value at all. Over a wet slab it simply passes the moisture up to the new covering, which then lifts or discolours. A ground floor with damp needs a membrane or a rebuilt floor, so we test before anything else.
Level. A few millimetres corrects a rough surface, but it will not take out a fall across a room or a hollow in the middle of it. Deeper faults need levelling compound in a thicker layer or a new screed, and floor levelling in Maidenhead covers how that is judged.
Primer is the last check. Plywood, tiles, concrete and calcium sulphate each have their own. Where the base is a calcium sulphate screed, its laitance must be sanded off and the surface primed before latex touches it. Cracked or loose patches are put right through screed repairs beforehand. We also lay latex screed in Windsor.
How we price latex screed in Maidenhead
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 Maidenhead
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 Maidenhead
As the crow flies, our yard in Slough is about 3.3 miles from Maidenhead, which lies to the west-south-west. Postcodes here include SL6, and Marlow (4.2 miles), Slough (5.6 miles), Windsor (5.6 miles) and Beaconsfield (6.9 miles) are close by.
More on latex screed, part of our screeding services.
