Overboarded timber floors in older Newmarket terraces
Boarded floors on joists are a feature of Newmarket's older terraces. Where a renovation is keeping the boards rather than replacing the floor with screed, and the new finish is sheet vinyl or LVT, latex is the usual way to make them smooth enough.
The order matters. First, every board is checked. Loose ones are screwed down, split ones replaced, and any spring in the floor is cured by fixing to the joists. Then flooring grade plywood is laid over the boards and screwed at close centres, with its joints staggered. Only then does latex go down, filling the ply joints and screw heads so nothing shows through the finish. Spreading latex straight onto bare boards fails, because the boards shrink and move and crack the layer along every gap.
The ventilation under a suspended floor must be kept clear. Airbricks on the outside wall feed the void, and blocking them causes damp and rot in the joists.
Homes built between 1919 and 1944 add 7% to Newmarket's stock. In any house of that age or older, a renovation can leave a timber floor in one room and a solid one in the next. Latex can bring both to a matching smooth surface once each base is prepared and primed.
Primers are matched to the base: one for plywood, one for porous concrete, another for dense tiles. A calcium sulphate screed always has its laitance sanded off and is primed before latex goes on.
Latex under safety flooring and rubber in Newmarket
The horse shapes much of Newmarket's commercial property, from the training yards to the two equine hospitals. Not every room in such buildings is hosed down. Where a dry room or office is getting safety flooring, sheet vinyl or rubber, latex over a sound concrete base gives that finish the smoothness it needs.
Wash bays and tack rooms that are hosed down are a different job. They need falls to a drain and a cement screed, which is explained under traditional screed laid to falls.
Latex also has limits in homes. It is not a damp barrier, so an old solid floor with no membrane needs the damp dealt with first, which usually means digging out. It cannot steady a floor that bounces, and it cannot correct one that falls noticeably from one side to the other: a few millimetres simply follows the slope. For larger corrections, see levelling compound and flatness classes.
Only 3% of homes here are flats in converted buildings, but where an older house has been split, the upper floors are usually timber and follow the same overboard and latex route.
How we price latex screed in Newmarket
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 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.
Latex 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 latex screed, part of our screeding services.
