Does anyone have any experience of cleaning up Victorian floors tiles?

We’re doing a bit of work and uncovered this-

Which I think will be quite nice once cleaned up. It seems to be one of the only original features left too.

Thanks

Generally laid onto an earth base – so sometimes you get salt ‘blooming’ on top of the tile. This doesn’t clean off in my experience. We got ours renovated by a local specialist who replaced the broken tiles, gently cleaned and then sealed it. They were very good and it still looks good 10 years later.

Original Flooring Co

When you say an earth base do you mean directly on the earth?

The rooms either side are suspended timber floors, with a decent drop to the earth. I’m unsure as to what is below the tiled section.

I did mine, very similar to yours. Think I used a strong alkaline based cleaner with a green scourer pad fitted onto a sander. Then mopped with wax a lot. Looks good now.

http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/tiles/tiles.htm

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3g14i-dfAI[/video]

No reason why the floor isn’t on a wood subfloor, mine are. You can still get hold of some matching tiles made new, Fired Earth used to do a range of plain colours in the same material and thickness, and
https://www.originalstyle.com/en/victorian-floor-tiles/patterns/ are the go-to guys for putting a new one in. I have a crate of old ones in my cellar rescued from neighbour’s houses who have taken them out, and my neighbour has enough for a couple of floors, all cleaned and sorted, sitting in his cellar, but he’s a serial skip diver.

Gadzooks that pattern is veritably eroginous, attach thine disgrace to a van der Graff generator post haste or know the wrath of thine maker, devil spawn ye.

HG make an abundance of different cleaning products for every conceivable occasion. If they don’t have anything I’d be surprised.

Not as nice as your tiles, but I cleaned up paint splattered quarry tiles in my hall with old style nitromors, the good stuff before it went all “Eco”. Then used HG impregnator sealer. Been good for 14 years.

Those tiles look amazing, good find 🙂

Thanks for the advice, STW never fails. 🙂

I’m happy with the find, after punching the floor through the carpet I was expecting concrete, happily I was wrong.

When you say an earth base do you mean directly on the earth?

Yes.

The rooms either side are suspended timber floors, with a decent drop

So are ours.

Not sure if it’s just the similar houses locally to us then…?

We have similar tiles in our hall. Some are in need of replacement. Must get around to sorting them out one of the days.

It’s nice to have period features in a home; makes you think of the people and events of past times. Nice to think you’re living in a bit of history, rather than some soulless new build.