Latex over recent floors at Ebbsfleet Garden City
Much of Swanscombe's recent growth belongs to Ebbsfleet Garden City, with neighbourhoods at Castle Hill, Ingress Park, Springhead and Eastern Quarry. Homes there are young, and the screed under their carpet or laminate can be sound and close to level yet still too rough for a thin finish, with trowel marks, fine cracks, slight ridges at bay joints or patches of filler.
A thin finish follows every one of those. Latex screed is made for exactly this: a compound mixed with latex liquid rather than water, so it grips well and copes with small movement, spread a few millimetres thick to leave a smooth face.
The base decides the preparation. A cement screed is cleaned, any loose patches repaired and a primer for porous surfaces applied. A calcium sulphate screed is different: its laitance must be removed, usually by sanding, and a primer made for that material goes on before any latex. If you do not know which you have, we identify it before we price.
Where damage goes beyond the surface, local screed repairs come first and the latex coat follows. A floor that is sound but genuinely out of level needs more depth than latex gives, which the Swanscombe floor levelling page covers.
With 59% of Swanscombe homes in council tax bands A to C, many of these are modest homes where a smooth base and a thin covering is the sensible way to refresh a room without lifting the whole floor.
Older Swanscombe houses: boards, tiles and damp
The town's older housing, from the years when cement making ran the local economy, brings a different set of bases. Kitchens and bathrooms in those houses can hide quarry tiles, old ceramic tiles or timber boards under several layers of covering.
Firmly bonded tiles can take latex once loose ones are lifted, the surface is degreased and a primer for dense surfaces is applied. Timber must be overboarded with flooring grade plywood, screwed at close centres; latex on bare boards cracks along the joints. In the 3% of homes that are flats in converted buildings, the floor is often timber of this kind.
Latex has firm limits in older houses. It does not cure damp, and laid over a damp solid floor it can blister or lose its grip. It does not stiffen springy boards, which need joinery first. It cannot fix a floor that slopes or dips badly. Where an old floor fails on any of those, the route is a rebuild with a membrane and hand-laid sand and cement.
Every floor is checked for damp and movement before we price it, so you know which route applies. The same latex work is available in Gravesend.
How we price latex screed in Swanscombe
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 Swanscombe
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 Swanscombe
As the crow flies, our yard in Slough is about 40.5 miles from Swanscombe, which lies to the east. Postcodes here include DA9, and Dartford (1.6 miles), Grays (2.6 miles), Northfleet (2.8 miles) and Tilbury (3.5 miles) are close by.
More on latex screed, part of our screeding services.