A seamless cement-based coating, applied a few millimetres thick over an existing substrate and protected by a sealer. With no joints or grout lines it surfaces floors, stairs and walls with an even, tactile finish, ideal in refurbishments because it adds almost no height. Being so thin it «copies» the substrate, so its success lies in the preparation: a sound base, a primer and an anti-crack mesh.
Technical section of the system, from inside (left) to outside (right).
A seamless cement-based coating, applied a few millimetres thick over an existing substrate and protected by a sealer. With no joints or grout lines it surfaces floors, stairs and walls with an even, tactile finish, ideal in refurbishments because it adds almost no height. Being so thin it «copies» the substrate, so its success lies in the preparation: a sound base, a primer and an anti-crack mesh.
Microcement is a seamless cement-based coating, applied a few millimetres thick over an existing substrate and protected by a sealer. With no joints or visible grout lines, it surfaces floors (and walls) with an even, tactile finish: it is the «seamless» finish of contemporary architecture.
Its quality is the minimal thickness — two or three millimetres — that lets you refinish without demolition and without raising levels: ideal in refurbishments, even over old tiles. Continuous and jointless, it is easy to clean and lends itself to floors, stairs, worktops and walls in the same material.
Being so thin, microcement has no life of its own: it «copies» the substrate. If the screed cracks or moves, the crack telegraphs to the surface. So success lies entirely in the preparation: a sound, stable base, a bonding primer and an embedded reinforcing mesh that arrests the micro-cracks before they show.
It is applied in several thin coats, trowel-smoothed, which give the texture; then it is sealed with waxes or resins that protect it from water, stains and wear. Being cementitious it is porous: the sealer is essential and must be renewed over time, especially in wet, high-traffic areas. Care in the laying and the protection makes the difference between a floor that lasts and one that stains.
Microcement is only two or three millimetres of cementitious coating, and that thinness is both its gift and its rule. The gift: it refinishes a floor without demolition and without raising levels, even over old tiles, seamless and continuous. The rule: at that thickness it has no structural life of its own — it faithfully «copies» whatever is underneath. A crack or a movement in the screed will travel straight up and reappear on the surface. So the work that decides the result is not the finish coat but the preparation: a sound, stable, dry substrate, a bonding primer, and above all a reinforcing mesh embedded in the base coat that bridges and arrests the micro-cracks before they can telegraph through. Then it is sealed, because cementitious and porous, it needs the sealer to keep water and stains out.
The whole system is only a few millimetres: a bonding primer on the prepared screed, a base coat with an embedded mesh that controls cracking, two thin trowelled coats of microcement that give colour and texture, and a protective sealer on top. Each layer has a job; skip the mesh or the primer and the finish fails.
Seamless does not mean jointless underneath: where the substrate has a structural or movement joint, the coating must not bridge it rigidly, or it will crack along the line. A joint profile (or an elastic sealant) is carried up through the microcement so the two fields can move independently.
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