Awkward bases in older Market Harborough kitchens and bathrooms
The name confuses people, so it helps to be clear. Latex screed is not a screed in the usual sense. It is a cement based powder mixed with a latex liquid in place of water, and the latex gives the cured layer a little flexibility and a strong grip on bases that ordinary compound struggles with. It goes down thin, usually a few millimetres, and its job is to smooth rather than to build up height.
That suits refits more than new builds. In the older houses close to Market Harborough's centre, stripping out a kitchen or bathroom often reveals a patchwork underneath: a run of old quarry tiles by the back door, a section of concrete where a wall once stood, and suspended timber boards in the next room. Sheet vinyl, lino and LVT will show every one of those changes within weeks.
Each base gets its own treatment before any latex is mixed. Quarry or ceramic tiles must be firmly bonded, with hollow or cracked ones lifted and the glaze cleaned and keyed. Concrete is cleaned back to a sound surface. Timber is never latexed bare: floorboards move with the seasons and would crack the layer, so they are first overboarded with flooring grade plywood, screwed down at close centres. Old adhesive can sometimes stay if it is thin, hard and well stuck, but soft or patchy glue comes off.
A primer chosen for that base follows, and then the latex is spread. The finish is smooth enough for safety flooring in a family bathroom or rubber sheet in a utility room. For floors needing more than a skim, our floor levelling page for Market Harborough explains flatness classes and thicker compounds.
When latex is the wrong fix in Market Harborough
Latex hides small faults in a surface. It cannot cure faults in the structure beneath, and laying it over the wrong floor wastes the money spent on the flooring as well.
Springy boards are the first warning sign. If a floor bounces when you walk across it, the joists or boards need attention before anything goes on top, because a thin cement based layer cannot stop timber flexing. Damp is the second. In older properties close to the centre, a solid floor may have been laid with little or no damp protection, and latex laid over a damp slab loses its bond and can lift the vinyl with it. We test before quoting and say so if the slab needs a membrane or rebuilding.
The third is a floor badly out of level. A kitchen floor that falls away noticeably towards one wall is beyond what a few millimetres of latex can correct, so the sensible order is a new screed or a deeper levelling product first. Where the old floor is cracked or breaking up, screed repairs come before any smoothing layer.
Calcium sulphate screeds have their own rule. The laitance must be sanded off and the floor primed with a compatible primer, every time, or the latex will not hold. The anhydrite screed page for Market Harborough explains why that skin forms.
How we price latex screed in Market Harborough
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 Market Harborough
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 Market Harborough
Market Harborough is about 66.6 miles north of our Slough base as the crow flies, with postcodes including LE16. The nearest towns to it are Desborough (5 miles), Corby (9.4 miles), Kettering (9.9 miles) and Lutterworth (11.8 miles).
More on latex screed, part of our screeding services.