Awkward bases under Redditch kitchen and bathroom refits
In the trade, latex screed means a cement based powder mixed with a latex liquid rather than water. The latex makes the compound tougher and a little more flexible than a plain levelling product, and it grips surfaces that a standard mix would struggle with. It goes down thin, typically a few millimetres, so it adds almost nothing to the floor height at a kitchen or bathroom door.
Homes from that post-war period are only part of the picture: 47% of Redditch homes date from 1973 to 1999, the new town decades. Strip the units out of a kitchen built in either period and you may find quarter tiles, the remains of old adhesive and a patched concrete slab, all in one room. Upstairs, a bathroom usually sits on timber boards.
Each of those bases is treated differently. Bare floorboards are never latexed as they are, because they move; they are first overboarded with flooring grade plywood, screwed down at close centres, and the latex goes over the ply. Old quarry or ceramic tiles can stay if every one is firmly bonded, once they are cleaned and primed. Sound old adhesive can sometimes be covered too, though loose or soft residue has to be ground off first, which our concrete floor grinding in Redditch page covers.
If the slab is a calcium sulphate screed rather than concrete, its laitance comes off and it is primed every time, no exceptions. The finishes that most need this preparation are the thin, unforgiving ones: sheet vinyl, LVT, safety flooring in a cloakroom, lino and rubber, all of which print every bump below.
When latex is the wrong answer in Redditch
Latex hides small faults on a sound floor. It does not repair one, and part of pricing the job is saying so.
A timber floor that bounces underfoot will crack a thin compound however good the mix, so loose joists or boards are fixed and the floor overboarded before anything is poured. Damp is the other common stopper. A ground floor with no membrane, which can be the case in older houses, will push moisture up through the latex and lift the vinyl on top. We take a damp reading first, and if it is high the floor needs a membrane or rebuilding, not a coating.
Then there is a floor that is badly out of level, where one corner of a room sits well below the rest. Spreading latex thick enough to fill that is asking for cracking. A proper floor levelling compound or a new screed is the better route there, and where the concrete itself has broken up, repairs to the old screed come before any topping.
We cover the whole town for this work, including Callow Hill, Hunt End, Dagtail End, St Georges and Riverside, and postcodes here include B97 and B98. The same latex service is also offered in Evesham.
How we price latex screed in Redditch
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 Redditch
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 Redditch
Redditch is about 77.1 miles north-west of our Slough base as the crow flies, with postcodes including B97 and B98. The nearest towns to it are Solihull (10.1 miles), Stratford-upon-Avon (12.7 miles), Evesham (14.8 miles) and Warwick (15 miles).
More on latex screed, part of our screeding services.
