Beautifully Detailed Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor Restored in Stourbridge West Midlands

A client from Stourbridge got in touch earlier this year regarding their Victorian tiled hallway floor. The floor was in poor condition with some missing tiles however, the client had kept the ones that had come loose which helps.

I went over to survey its condition and could see the were a lot of tiles missing so it would be necessary to source replacements as part of the restoration, fortunately they are still quite popular, so I was confident in getting a good match.

Having measured up and taken detailed notes of the tiles that would be needed I worked out a comprehensive quote which was accepted and a date scheduled.

Cleaning a Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor

The first job was to sort out the sub floor where the tiles were missing, old adhesive had to be raked out and cleared away taking care not to disturb the adjacent tiling and make the job bigger.

The originals were then secured back in place along with the replacements which needed cutting to size. When this was all done, I added grout where needed. There was a lot to do and care has to be taken to get this exactly right to fit in with the existing geometric pattern.

After a couple of days of repairs, I was then able to move onto cleaning the floor. The floor had previously been covered with another material and so there was evidence of cement screed (including large chunks in places) and adhesive on the tiles. To deal with this Tile Doctor Acid Gel was applied to soften it so it could be scraped off. Some of the areas were really bad and required careful use of an SDS drill fitted with a chisel to loosen.

With the cement and adhesive removed the next step was to get the tiles clean, I used a gel cleaner called Tile Doctor Oxy-Gel which was left to soak in and then worked into the tiles using a rotary machine fitted with a black scrubbing pad. The floor was then rinsed, soiling extracted and the whole thing repeated until I was satisfied.

Next the floor was treated to an acid was using more Tile Doctor Acid Gel, then rinsed and extracted as before. The floor was left to dry overnight with the aid of air movers and the next day checked for moisture with a damp meter. The readings were good which told me the floor was ready to be sealed.

Sealing a Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor

Two coats of sealer were applied and for this floor I used a 50:50 mixture of two breathable impregnating sealers. Tile Doctor X-Tra Seal is externally rated and so ideal for hallways however, being oil based its quite thick, so I like to mix it with Tile Doctor Colour Grow which has a colour enhancer in its formula that helps the colours to stand out.

Last step was to buff the floor with a white pad to remove any excess sealer and bring up its appearance. Once complete the floor was totally transformed, my client was very happy, and I left them a bottle of Tile Doctor pH Neutral Cleaner to help maintain the floor going forward.

Source: Victorian Floor Tile Restoration in Stourbridge West Midlands