Latex over old floors in Whitstable refits
Ask a flooring fitter what goes under sheet vinyl on an old floor and the answer is often latex. The name refers to the liquid half of the pack: a cement based powder is mixed with latex rather than water, giving a smoothing layer that bonds well and has a little give. It is trowelled or poured to a few millimetres, enough to bury board joints, grout lines and small hollows.
Floors in older houses have often been altered more than once. A kitchen might have quarry tiles under one run of cupboards, a concrete patch where a chimney breast came out and old vinyl glue everywhere else. Where those tiles are firmly fixed and the patches sound, each surface gets a primer suited to it and the latex then ties them into one even base.
Upper floors and converted buildings bring timber into the picture. Flats in converted houses and other converted buildings make up 3% of Whitstable homes, and wherever the base is boarded, latex is never spread on the bare boards, which shift. The floor is stiffened, overboarded with flooring grade plywood screwed down at close centres, and the latex goes on the ply.
Finishes that rely on it include sheet vinyl, LVT, lino, rubber and slip-resistant safety flooring, along with carpet where ridges underneath would wear through. A thin floor reproduces whatever is beneath it, so the latex surface is effectively the finish you will look at for years.
Damp checks and shop floors around Horsebridge
Moisture is the first question in Whitstable. The older houses in the centre stand on low-lying former marshland, and a solid floor without a sound membrane can hold enough damp to push latex and vinyl off within months. A hygrometer reading shows whether the slab is dry enough. Where the reading is high, no thin compound will hold, and the lasting fix is to break the floor out and relay it over a proper membrane.
Two other conditions rule latex out. A timber floor that bounces will crack the layer along every board, so it has to be fixed and overboarded first. And a floor that is seriously out of level needs more than a few millimetres; the deeper compounds on our Whitstable floor levelling page, or a new screed, are the options there.
The Horsebridge development of 2005 brought shops and homes to the town, and a shop refit there or elsewhere in Whitstable may call for safety flooring or commercial vinyl. Those finishes want a smooth, sound base just as much as a kitchen does. Old adhesive left by a previous tenant can sometimes stay if it is thin, firm and suits the primer; where it is thick or crumbling, it comes off first by grinding the old glue away.
Any calcium sulphate screed has its laitance sanded off and is primed before latex is laid on it.
How we price latex screed in Whitstable
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 Whitstable
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 Whitstable
As the crow flies, our yard in Slough is about 73.1 miles from Whitstable, which lies to the east. Postcodes here include CT5, and Herne Bay (4.5 miles), Canterbury (5.9 miles), Faversham (6.5 miles) and Sittingbourne (12.6 miles) are close by.
More on latex screed, part of our screeding services.
