Breathable heritage screed
Lime Screed for Period & Breathable Buildings
Vapour-open, breathable, sympathetic to period walls. Lime screed is the right choice when a modern impermeable slab would trap moisture in your building fabric.
Ask about a limecrete floor
Name, phone, email — we'll reply the same working day with a fixed price.
Or call our landline on 01392 237700
If you own a cob cottage, a Victorian terrace with lime-mortared walls, or a listed longhouse, the last thing those walls want is a modern concrete slab locked against them. Trapped moisture rises up the wall, damages plaster, and can rot embedded timber in months.
Lime screed — and its cousin limecrete for the deeper build-up — solves that. The floor breathes with the walls. Moisture that used to make its way up the stones now evaporates harmlessly out through the floor surface.
This is a specialist install, not a mainstream product. We only recommend it where the building genuinely calls for it — otherwise you're paying a heritage premium for no gain.
When lime screed is genuinely the right answer
- Listed buildings where Historic England or your conservation officer has a view
- Cob, stone or lime-mortared walls with rising damp history
- Whole-floor renovations where impermeable membranes would trap moisture
- Retrofit UFH into a period build that must stay breathable
- Wooden-floor replacements where the original build-up was ash and lime
A limecrete + lime-screed build-up
- 1
Excavation
Existing slab or ash floor removed down to sub-base.
- 2
Foamed glass sub-base
150–200mm of recycled foamed-glass aggregate — breathable insulation.
- 3
Geotextile separation
Non-woven geotextile over the aggregate.
- 4
Limecrete slab
NHL-3.5 lime binder + hemp or wood-fibre aggregate poured 75–100mm.
- 5
Lime screed topping
Finer lime screed poured 30–50mm over the limecrete for a smooth wear surface.
- 6
Long cure
Lime cures much slower than cement — weeks, not days. Programme accordingly.
Lime screed is roughly twice the cost of a Cemfloor pour and takes 4–8 weeks to fully carbonate. In a period building it's worth every penny — in a modern build it's just an expensive novelty.
— Exeter Liquid Screeders
Frequently asked
Ask about a limecrete floor
Tell us about the building and the build-up. We'll be honest about whether lime is the right call or whether a modern breathable membrane would do.