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Where Artistry Begins
Microcement is a thin cement based coating, only a few millimetres thick, trowelled over floors, walls and worktops to give a seamless surface with no grout lines and no joints. It goes over existing tile, screed or board rather than replacing it. We are asked for it constantly, usually for bathrooms and open plan floors. What we supply is the lime built equivalent — the same seamless look, a different material — and we will explain the difference plainly.
Microcement is cement, fine aggregate, polymer and pigment, mixed to a paste and trowelled in thin layers over a primed and reinforced base. Because it is applied rather than laid, it has no joints: a floor runs into a skirting, up a wall and around a shower tray as one surface. It is sealed on top, and the sealer is what makes it waterproof and washable, not the cement itself. That is the point worth understanding. A microcement surface is only as good as its primer, its mesh and its sealer, and a failure is almost always in one of those three rather than the material in the middle.
We do not sell a tub labelled microcement, and we would rather say so than relabel something. What we supply is lime based and does the same two jobs. Beton stucco is our concrete look wall finish: flat, grey, mineral, trowelled in thin coats and sealed, and it reads on a wall the way people want microcement to read. Pastellone is the seamless one for floors and walls, a lime and marble finish in the Venetian tradition that predates cement by centuries and still goes down joint free. For a wet room, tadelakt is the older answer, and it has its own page.
The reason people want it is the absence of joints. A bathroom floor that turns up the wall and into the shower with no grout is easier to clean and reads much calmer than tile. An open plan ground floor without thresholds between kitchen, hall and living room looks larger than it is. Worktops and stair treads are the same argument. All of that is real, and it is why we lay seamless finishes all the time. Just be clear that you are buying a surface that depends on what is underneath it: a floor that moves, a screed that is still wet, or a tile that is drummy will telegraph through.
Preparation is most of this job. Tiles need to be sound, degreased and keyed, or taken up. Timber floors need to be stiffened and boarded, because a springy floor will crack a rigid surface however good the material is. Screed needs to be dry all the way through, not dry on top. Movement joints in the structure have to be carried through the finish rather than covered over, and corners, junctions and anywhere two materials meet get reinforced. Then the primer goes down, and the primer has to match what it is gripping. Get all of that right and the finish itself is the straightforward part.
Seamless finishes are not flat colour. Trowelled by hand in thin passes, they carry a cloudy movement that is the whole reason to choose them over vinyl or resin; if you want dead uniform grey, buy a sheet product. We tint to your colour, and greys, greiges, warm stones and off blacks are what most people land on. The sealer or wax then sets the sheen — matt, satin or gloss — and it also sets how the surface behaves. A matt finish looks best and shows water marks more readily on a floor. We will talk you through that choice rather than default to one.
A cement based microcement is rigid and sealed with a plastic film. It is hard wearing while the film is intact, and when the film wears or scratches the surface underneath is exposed and the repair is a visible patch. A lime based finish behaves differently: it is a little softer, it is mineral all the way through, and it can be reworked and re waxed in place rather than being cut out. It also stays breathable, which matters on a solid or old wall where trapping moisture behind a sealed film causes trouble. Neither is universally better. We pick by the building, not by the fashion.
Do not lay a seamless finish over a floor that still moves. Springy joists, loose tiles, a green screed or a structural crack will all come through, and no material bridges them. Avoid it on a wall you are about to hang heavy fixings into, and avoid it as a cheap alternative to tiling — the preparation is where the money goes, and skipping it is how these floors fail.
Pastellone 16kg
Seamless lime and marble finish for floors and walls, laid without joints or thresholds.£58.00
Beton Stucco 16kg
Concrete look wall finish in thin trowelled coats, for the microcement look above floor level.£52.00
Primer 4 (5lt)
Bonding primer for tile, screed and board, because the base decides everything here.£34.00
Pastellone Matt Wax
Matt wax to seal a pastellone floor and set how the surface behaves.£24.00
Sealer
Sealer for walls and worktops where the finish has to take daily wiping.£25.00Every tub is machine-tinted to your colour before it ships. Not sure of the colour? The colour library holds forty-eight house tints and we match any NCS or RAL reference.
This is the one we would ask you to leave to us. A seamless floor is unforgiving: there is no grout line to hide a join, no board edge to stop at, and the whole room has to be laid wet in one go. Walls are kinder than floors, and a confident decorator can learn beton stucco on a board. If you want to lay it properly, the Academy teaches it. For a bathroom or a floor, call 07592 929191.
Learn it, or have it done
Our Academy in Birmingham teaches these finishes at the bench, beginner through advanced. Or our own applicators install across the UK from the same materials.
See the workUsually yes, and that is half its appeal. The tiles have to be firmly stuck, degreased and keyed, and any drummy ones lifted and made good first. Grout lines are filled and the surface reinforced before the finish goes on, otherwise they shadow through later. If the tiles are loose or the floor moves, take them up instead.
The sealer is what makes it waterproof, not the coating. In a shower that means the tanking behind it still has to be done properly, exactly as it would under tile. A seamless surface with no grout is much easier to keep clean, but it is not a substitute for waterproofing the structure. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling.
It cracks when what is underneath it moves. On a rigid, dry, properly primed base with joints carried through, it stays sound. On a springy timber floor, a green screed or over a structural crack that has been covered rather than dealt with, it will follow. That is why we spend longer on the preparation than on the finish.
We sell the lime based equivalents rather than a cement system, and we say so up front. Pastellone gives you a seamless floor, beton stucco gives you the concrete look on walls, and tadelakt is the traditional answer for a wet room. All are machine tinted to your colour and shipped tracked across the UK.
Seamless work is decided at the substrate, so the useful next step is a conversation about your floor rather than a colour chart. Send a photo or call 07592 929191, and order a sample board to see the surface dry.
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