Latex screed under new floors in St Ives semis
Semi-detached houses make up 32% of homes in St Ives. When one of them gets a new kitchen or bathroom, lifting the old covering rarely reveals a clean, porous slab. More often there are tiles from an earlier refit, a patch of concrete where a wall was taken out, or an upstairs floor of boards that a previous owner covered in plywood.
Those are the bases latex is made for. The latex liquid replaces the water in the mix, so the set layer grips smooth or slightly moving surfaces better than a plain compound and has a little flex in it. It goes down thin, normally a few millimetres, to fill grout lines, board joints and small hollows.
Each base is prepared differently. Tiles must be firmly stuck, cleaned and primed; any that rock are lifted. Plywood must be flooring grade and screwed down tight, and it is the plywood, never bare boards, that takes the latex. Old adhesive can stay only if it is thin, hard and well bonded. Concrete is cleaned of dust and primed, and a calcium sulphate screed always has its laitance sanded away before its own compatible primer.
Only 3% of the town's homes date from 1919 to 1944, and inter-war or older houses can have floors of mixed materials, which makes the base check even more important. Where cleaning back is a job in itself, it falls under preparing the floor first.
The result is a base that sheet vinyl, LVT, lino, rubber or safety flooring can be stuck to without board lines or grout showing through.
Damp riverside floors and bad levels in St Ives
Latex can only be as good as what is under it. Three problems need fixing before it is worth laying.
Damp comes first in this town. Close to the Great Ouse, some ground floors in the town's lower lying areas may need to cope with damp. Latex does not cure damp, and a smoothing coat on a wet slab will lose its bond under the new floor. If a moisture check shows a problem, the floor needs a membrane, laid with our insulation and membrane work, or relaying in a cement screed laid by hand.
Movement is next. Springy boards or plywood that bounces underfoot will crack a thin latex coat. The timber is fixed and, where needed, overboarded again first.
Level is last. Latex fills small hollows, not a floor that runs downhill across a room. If yours does, the real choice is between compound laid deeper and a new screed, which the St Ives floor levelling page explains.
Beyond St Ives, the same service runs as latex screed in St Neots.
How we price latex screed in St Ives
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 St Ives
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 St Ives
On the map, St Ives sits north-north-east of Slough, about 59.9 miles from our base in a straight line (postcodes including PE27), next to Huntingdon (4.7 miles), Chatteris (10.6 miles), St Neots (10.6 miles) and Cambridge (11.6 miles).
More on latex screed, part of our screeding services.