Seamless mineral floors are the single thing we are asked about most - and the subject with the most half-truths attached to it. This is everything we tell clients at survey stage: what a proper floor build-up involves, what it costs and why, where cracks really come from, how it behaves over underfloor heating and the handful of situations where we will tell you a microcement floor is the wrong choice.
What a microcement floor actually is
A microcement floor is not a poured product and it is not paint. It is a hand-trowelled cement coating system, built up in thin structural and decorative layers - primer, base coats carrying a fibre mesh, two or more fine finish coats, then a multi-layer seal - bonded to the substrate beneath. Total thickness is typically 2-3 mm. That thinness is the point: it goes over what you already have, without raising floor levels, ripping out screeds or re-hanging doors.
Every visible characteristic - the clouding, the trowel movement, the depth - comes from hands, not from a tin. Two applicators will produce two recognisably different floors from the same materials. It is why we insist on sample panels made by the same hands that will make your floor.
What it costs and where the money goes
We don't publish a rate per square metre, because the rate is an output, not an input: a single small room carries the same set-up, travel and curing visits as a large one, so very small areas cost proportionally more and where a project lands is driven far less by the finish you choose than by what we find under it:
- Substrate condition. A sound, level screed needs priming and mesh. A cracked, dusty or uneven one needs repair, grinding or a levelling compound first - this is the biggest variable on any quotation.
- Layout. Stairs, plinths, wet-room falls and level changes are all done by hand and priced by the hour they take, not the metre they cover.
- Sealing specification. A guest WC and a commercial kitchen do not get the same seal. Higher-traffic seals cost more and are worth every penny where they belong.
We go through this in detail in what actually sets the price of a microcement floor. Be cautious of any quote that looks dramatically cheaper than the others. The material cost of microcement is modest; what you are buying is preparation and applied skill and that is exactly what cheap quotes leave out.
The crack question, answered properly
Microcement does not crack of its own accord - it telegraphs. A 2-3 mm coating bonded to a substrate will faithfully reproduce any movement that substrate makes. So the honest question is never "will microcement crack?" but "will your floor move?" - and that is a question about the building, answered at survey:
- Live cracks in a screed (ones that are still moving seasonally) are isolated with a de-coupling detail or repaired structurally before we coat anything.
- Movement joints in large floors are honoured, not buried. A joint that exists for a reason keeps existing; we detail it as a neat shadow line rather than pretending the building stopped moving.
- New screeds must finish their drying shrinkage before coating - we moisture-test rather than take a builder's word for it. Coating a screed too early is the single most common cause of failure in this trade.
Done this way, hairline cracking is rare - and because the finish is hand-applied, a repair is a blended local visit, not a rip-out.
Underfloor heating - genuinely the best pairing
Microcement over underfloor heating is not merely possible; it is the best floor covering for it. At 2-3 mm with no air gaps, insulating backings or grout lines, it puts almost nothing between the heat and your feet - response times are noticeably quicker than tile and dramatically quicker than timber. The rules: the heating must be commissioned and cycled before we start, it stays off during application and curing and it is brought back up in gentle steps afterwards. We provide the schedule; it is not complicated, it just has to be followed.
Wet rooms and bathrooms
In wet areas the floor becomes part of a sealed system - waterproofing comes from the membrane and sealed build-up working together, pressure-tested before the finish goes down. No grout lines means nowhere for water to sit and nothing for mould to colonise; falls to the drain are formed smoothly in the base coats rather than with cut tiles. Slip resistance is a specification choice: wet-area floors are sealed to a textured grade, not the glassier finish a living room might take.
How long it takes
A typical floor runs four to six working days: preparation and priming, base coats with mesh, finish coats, then sealing - each stage with its own curing time, which is why the programme cannot be compressed by adding people. Light foot traffic in socks is usually fine 24 hours after the final seal; furniture after three to four days; rugs and full wear after a week. We put the dates in writing so the rest of your programme can plan around them.
Living with one
Day to day: warm water, a pH-neutral cleaner, a soft mop. Felt pads under furniture and keep bleach and "power" cleaners in the cupboard. The seal is the working layer and is sacrificial by design - a family kitchen floor typically wants re-sealing every three to five years, which is a day's visit, not a renovation. Our full care routine is in the care guide.
When we'd talk you out of it
Honesty being the house style: a microcement floor is the wrong answer when a substrate is genuinely unstable and the budget will not stretch to putting that right first; when a client wants a perfectly uniform, machine-made surface (choose porcelain - clouding and trowel movement are features here, not defects); and in a handful of heavy-industrial settings where a thick resin system is simply the correct tool. We would rather lose a floor than install one we will be apologising for.
The short version
Thin, seamless, hand-made and only ever as good as the preparation underneath it. Get the substrate right, respect the curing, seal it for the life it will lead - and a microcement floor is one of the most beautiful, practical surfaces a house can have.