Microcement in Bath

Microcement in Bath is a thin cement based coating trowelled over floors, walls and worktops so the surface has no grout lines and no joints. Zavoré installs microcement with our own applicators, and we are based in Birmingham, where our Academy is. It works well in the lower ground kitchens and small bathrooms the city is full of, but only when the floor underneath is ready for it. Start with a sample board and a conversation about your substrate.

Georgian basements, Victorian terraces and what is under the floor

Many Bath homes have a lower ground floor that was once the kitchen and servants area, often with stone flags or old screed. Opened up as a family kitchen, one continuous floor runs through without thresholds. Microcement can give that, and can be taken up the wall behind a worktop or into a cloakroom.

The Victorian terraces of Widcombe, Oldfield Park and Larkhall bring a different job. Bathrooms there are small and often added later. A seamless floor turning up the wall and into the shower is easier to clean and calmer than a grid of tile, and microcement is applied rather than laid, so it follows odd shapes.

The honest risk is movement. A seamless floor cannot hide a springy joist, a loose board or a structural crack, and no coating bridges them. Timber floors in older houses flex, so they may need overboarding and stiffening. Damp basements need the cause fixed before anything seamless is laid over them.

Where microcement works in Bath

Our microcement finishes suit these places.

• Open plan ground floors joining kitchen, hall and living space.
• Bathrooms and wet rooms, with a sealer doing the waterproofing, not the cement.
• Kitchen walls and worktops in flats and extensions.
• Stair walls and risers in modern conversions.
• Shops, restaurants and hotel bathrooms in the centre.

Underfloor heating suits a seamless floor, which is useful in a city of cold stone basements. We do not recommend it as a cheap alternative to tiling. The preparation is where the work goes.

How a microcement job in Bath runs

We survey before pricing, looking at the substrate, flatness, cracks, damp, movement, how the room is used, access and protection. Photos can answer small questions first. A floor surface is only as good as its primer, reinforcing mesh and sealer, so these are specified at the survey.

Bath is some way from our Birmingham base, so the work is planned in blocks of days. The team stays on the job and lays each coat in order, with the room protected between visits. Material is tinted to your approved sample before it ships, and dates are agreed once the sample and price are signed off. See the microcement installation page for more.

Materials and training

For people using their own decorator, the shop sells the lime built alternatives to microcement, pastellone and beton stucco, with tracked UK delivery. Trade accounts are on the trade page. Floors and bathrooms are work we would ask you to leave to us. Walls are kinder, and the microcement course runs at our training centres in Birmingham, London and Manchester.

More finishes in Bath

Wet rooms can also suit tadelakt in Bath. For dry rooms there is polished plaster in Bath, marmorino in Bath, clay plaster in Bath and limewash in Bath. Industrial looks are concrete effect plaster in Bath and liquid metal in Bath. See the full range under a decorative finishes specialist in Bath, and our page on Venetian plastering in Bath.

Questions about microcement in Bath

Can microcement go on a floor in a Georgian house?

Only if the floor is stiff and stable. Suspended timber floors that flex need strengthening first, because a seamless surface will crack over movement. We check at the survey.

Is microcement waterproof in a shower?

The sealer makes it waterproof, not the cement, and the base must be properly prepared and waterproofed. A failure is nearly always in the primer, mesh or sealer.

Does it work with underfloor heating?

Yes, a seamless surface suits it. The system must be commissioned and stable first, and the substrate suitable. We cover this when we survey.

Can you lay microcement over old tiles?

Sometimes, if they are sound, flat and well bonded. Loose or hollow tiles must come up. We can often judge from photos before a visit.

To talk it through, call 07592 929191 (Monday to Saturday, 9am to 6pm) or email sales@zavore.co.uk with photos, rough measurements and the postcode. The sample board is the place to start.