Calcium sulphate grades for Newmarket apartments and plots
Purpose-built flats are 21% of the town's housing, and their floors and calcium sulphate get on well. Because the material barely shrinks as it cures, it covers big bays with hardly any joints, and it finishes flat and dense on top of the acoustic layer. Homes built from 2000 to 2014, 12% of the stock, point to the other usual setting: new build plots.
The grade code is worth understanding. The screed standard spells it out: CA-C25-F5 is calcium sulphate with 25 N/mm2 of compressive and 5 N/mm2 of flexural strength. Drawings usually show one of three: CA-C20-F4 where a house floor sees light traffic, CA-C25-F5 across the bulk of homes, apartments and offices, and CA-C30-F6 where use is heavier.
Alpha hemihydrate products are a separate group, based on a different form of the binder. Specifiers pick them to save drying time or depth, and every one comes with a product sheet we lay it to.
Before pour day we mark out the bays and joints, thresholds between each flat and the corridor included. One limit is fixed: calcium sulphate must not go where the floor may get wet. A wet room, a wash bay or anywhere near a yard drain gets a cement based flowing screed instead, which pumps the same way. There is more on the material itself in what anhydrite screed is.
Laitance, primer and moisture limits on Newmarket floors
Calcium sulphate screed needs finishing work that cement screeds do not.
As it cures, a thin, powdery laitance rises to the top, too weak for any adhesive to grip. When the floor has dried we sand it off and clear the dust, then apply a calcium sulphate compatible primer picked to match the adhesive or compound going on next. Skip the sanding and the new finish has nothing sound to hold on to.
Moisture needs care. Plenty of flooring makers set calcium sulphate a lower figure than cement screed, so a hygrometer reading that passes on sand and cement may not pass here. The floor covering maker's limit is the one to meet. Underfloor heating can usually start force drying it at about 7 days, on a controlled schedule.
Our written notes on drying and laitance go to you at the end, so whoever lays the flooring can see what was done. If a finished floor needs a final skim before LVT, see levelling compound over anhydrite. For a plot in a neighbouring city, see anhydrite screed in Cambridge.
Anhydrite & Flow Screed prices in Newmarket
Liquid flowing screed (which includes anhydrite): £24 to £31 per m² supplied and laid (MyJobQuote, August 2026), so £960 to £1,240 for 40 m². MyJobQuote does not say whether these figures include VAT. See our floor screeding cost guide or screed calculator.
Who lays your anhydrite and flow screed in Newmarket
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.
Anhydrite & Flow Screed from Slough to Newmarket
Newmarket is about 66.6 miles north-east of our Slough base as the crow flies, with postcodes including CB8. The nearest towns to it are Soham (6.7 miles), Haverhill (11.2 miles), Ely (12.4 miles) and Cambridge (12.4 miles).
More on anhydrite screed, part of our screeding services.
