Latham Australia – Leading Innovation in Flooring

The Latham Australia story begins in the 1950’s when the business was founded by William Latham. The company manufactured material handling conveyors from their factories in Sydney’s Pitt Street and, later, Annandale.

From Conveyors to Flooring 

When David Latham joined the business, he travelled widely looking for opportunities to take the organisation in a new direction. After visiting trade shows in the United States and Italy in the early 1960’s, Latham entered the flooring industry and started importing grinding and cutting machines for terrazzo, marble, granite, and stone. 

Latham Sales Manager, Adam Latham – a member of the third generation of the Latham family to run the business, recalls, “The machines were huge conveyor polishing systems, some up to 30 metres in length. We supplied the machines and held spare parts and consumables such as blades.” 

“Just around the corner from our factory in Annandale were the Melocco Brothers. At the time they were Australia’s largest terrazzo, stone, and marble flooring company. They needed a lot of machinery, and my father had a really good relationship with them. We got all their orders for equipment and everything they needed.” 

“We did this for the next 25 years until the flooring contractors started sourcing equipment directly from the manufacturers. Throughout this time though, my father David (mechanical engineer by profession), had a taste for the flooring industry and doing a whole more.” 

“Terrazzo is a great product and is used by artisan installers to create attractive and long-lasting floors, especially in public areas and buildings. It was going into all the new hospitals that were being built as it was easy to clean and maintain. Melocco Brothers were doing all the large jobs in Sydney, and in the late 60’s they won a huge job for the new Prince of Wales Hospital. There had been some problems with tiles cracking on an earlier job and they were desperate for a solution.” 

Innovative Solutions for Terrazzo Flooring 

“David Latham had travelled widely and seen the same problem in the United States and realised that it was caused by thermal expansion and contraction. It was then that he devised our brass and neoprene dividing strips to accommodate this movement, in time evolving into Lathams world renowned Neoprene-X-Pansion strips. He went to the Melocco Brothers and suggested dividing the floor into bays separated by these strips.” 

“It worked a treat, and we ended up supplying over 30kms of dividing strips in the Prince of Wales Hospital job, and it has now become an industry-standard practice for tiling large expanses of floor.”  

Modern-day Latham Australia 

“We’ve come a long way since then. Latham X-Pansion Strips are available in aluminium, zinc, steel and brass with two different profile widths. Neoprene sections are available in 6mm or 12mm sections, three different colours and twenty-two standard depths from 4mm to 125mm, to suit the exact depth of tile to be used.” 

“With 1,056 different Latham X-Pansion Control Strip configurations that can be specified, and all manufactured at our Gladesville factory, I don’t think there is any other supplier of flooring products that can match Latham Australia for variety, quality, and project certainty.”  

To find out more about Latham products, please visit www.latham-australia.com. To talk to a Latham product expert, call 1300 LATHAM (528 426) or email sales@latham-australia.com.