Home - Rooms - Floors
Seamless microcement floors.
Two to three millimetres of hand-trowelled mineral surface over the floor you already have - no thresholds, no grout, warm underfoot and at its very best over underfloor heating.
Why a microcement floor
One surface, the whole way through.
The thing people fall for is the continuity: kitchen into dining into hall without a single threshold strip, the same surface climbing a step or wrapping a plinth, light moving across it in one unbroken plane. The thing they keep it for is the practicality - it is thin enough to go over an existing screed or tile without raising floor levels or re-hanging doors, it cleans with a mop and it responds to underfloor heating faster than any tile or timber because there is almost nothing between the heat and your feet.
It is a hand-made surface and it looks like one. Soft clouding, the trace of the trowel, a depth that a printed porcelain can't fake. If you want a perfectly uniform machine finish, we'll tell you so and point you at tiles. If you want a floor that looks like a material, this is it.
Over what you already have
- Screed. The ideal base - sound, level, moisture-tested before we start. New screeds must finish their drying shrinkage first; we test rather than take anyone's word for it.
- Existing tile. Usually yes and it saves days of demolition. The tile is keyed, primed and bridged so joints never telegraph through - what that preparation involves.
- Underfloor heating. Commissioned and cycled before we start, off during application and curing, brought back up gently after. We provide the schedule.
- Wet areas. Bathroom floors become part of a sealed system with falls formed in the base coats and a textured, slip-resistant seal - see bathrooms.
The crack question, answered properly
Microcement doesn't crack of its own accord - it telegraphs. A 2-3 mm coating bonded to a substrate will reproduce any movement the substrate makes, so the real question is never "will microcement crack?" but "will your floor move?" - and that is answered at survey. Live cracks are isolated or repaired, movement joints are honoured as neat shadow lines rather than buried and new screeds are moisture-tested before coating. Done that way hairline cracking is rare and because the finish is hand-applied, a repair is a blended local visit, not a rip-out. The full story - costs, curing times and when we'd talk you out of it - is in our honest guide to microcement floors.
What it costs and how long it takes
What a floor costs is driven far more by what's under it than by the finish you choose - substrate repair and levelling is the biggest variable on any quote. A typical floor runs four to six working days including curing; socks after 24 hours, furniture after three or four days, full wear after a week and we put the dates in writing so the rest of your programme can plan around them.
For architects & specifiers
Specifying a microcement floor.
Substrate acceptance criteria, moisture limits, mesh and build-up thicknesses, movement-joint detailing, UFH commissioning sequence, seal grades by traffic class and the maintenance schedule - in the technical hub, with Clause-level wording for your specification on request - we are the installing contractor, so it reflects how the work is actually done.
Questions we get asked.
Can microcement go over underfloor heating?
Yes and it conducts better than most floor coverings because there is so little of it. What matters is commissioning: the heating must be run through a full commissioning cycle and brought back down before application, so the screed has already done its thermal movement. Skipping that cycle to save programme time is the most common cause of a crack appearing in the first cold month.
Can it be laid over an existing tiled floor?
Usually. Every tile is checked by hand for hollowness, joints are filled and reinforced and the surface is primed and meshed. Sound, well-bonded tile is a good substrate. Drummy or lifting tile is not and no amount of preparation on top will fix it.
How much height does a microcement floor add?
Around three millimetres including base coats. In practice that means doors usually do not need trimming, thresholds do not need rebuilding and level access at external doors is preserved.
What about movement joints?
They have to carry through to the surface. At 3 mm the finish cannot bridge a moving joint, so any structural or expansion joint in the substrate is detailed through the microcement. On large spans we set the joints out with the architect so they land somewhere deliberate rather than somewhere awkward.
How do you maintain a microcement floor?
A damp mop and a pH-neutral cleaner. No acidic cleaners, no wax polishes and felt pads under anything dragged. Domestic floors are sealed with a two-component polyurethane rated to the traffic; commercial floors go onto a planned re-sealing cycle rather than being left until they look tired.
Keep exploring
What sets the price
Why the per-metre rate misleads and the six things that actually decide a floor quotation.
Read the article→Bathrooms & wet rooms
Where the floor becomes the shower tray - sealed and seamless.
Explore→The honest guide
Costs, cracks, curing and when we'd talk you out of it - in full.
Read the guide→Thinking about a floor?
Tell us the room and what's under it now - we'll tell you honestly what it needs and what it costs.