Victorian Encaustic Tiled Hallway Floor Restoration Lancaster

Victorian Encaustic Tiled Hallway Floor Renovation in Lancaster

Below is a great example of what we typically do to a restore an old Victorian tiled floor. This particular floor was installed in the hallway of at a house in Lancaster circa 1890 and now 135 years later it was still in place but the years had taken its toll with multiple damaged tiles needing replacement and some had been replaced with cement.

Victorian Tiled Hallway Before Restoration Lancaster

The floor was laid in an attractive geometric pattern with lovely detailed encaustic tiles with a rose at the centre of the pattern. These encaustic tiles will have been specially created with compressed cement and whilst we can usually source replacement Victorian tiles the encaustic tiles were custom made and very rare. The only way to find replacements for them would be by trawling reclamation yards or having them specially made at great expense. Fortunately, in this case most of the encaustics were still in good condition which is a testament to the Victorians.

Repairing a Damaged Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor

Before cleaning the floor needed a lot of work to remove the damaged tiles and areas were tiles had been substituted for concrete. This involved using a hammer and chisel to carefully remove the old tile and then clean up the debris. This is delicate work as too much force can lead to more tiles popping out and making the whole project bigger.

Victorian Tiled Hallway During Restoration Lancaster

When the floor was ready new tiles were cut to fit the existing pattern and set in place using a rapid set adhesive. It was also necessary to reset quite a lot of tiles that had become loose. The tiles were then grouted in using a coloured grout to match the rest of the floor. They didn’t use grout back in the Victorian period, it was just cement fortunately I was able to replicate this perfectly.

Cleaning a Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor

When the tiles were set and the whole floor was solid, we were able to move onto the cleaning. This started with the application of Tile Doctor Oxy-Gel worked in with a 200-Grit Milling pad fitted to a rotary buffer. I recommend gel cleaners for this work as they use less water and excessive use of water on an old floor that doesn’t have a damp proof course will take much longer to dry out. After being scrubbed in the gel released the dirt from the tiles which was then rinsed off and vacuumed away with a wet vacuum.

Next step was to give the floor an acid rinse using Tile Doctor Acid Gel scrubbed in with a deck brush. The acid gel further cleans the tiles, removes old grout smears, counters efflorescent salts and neutralises the floor after the use of Oxy-Gel which is alkaline. After another rinse and vacuum the process was repeated in the edges and corners using handheld diamond blocks.

Once the tiles were dry, I used a Burr Line pad fitted to a rotary buffer to further improve the appearance of the tiles. Often referred to as magic pads they are really good at finishing off the cleaning and is applied using only water.

Sealing a Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor

The floor was left to dry fully overnight and we called back then next day to seal the floor. Two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow sealer were used for this which did a great job. It doesn’t give a shiny finish but the formula contains a colour enhancer that really lifts the colours in the clay. This sealer is also fully breathable which is important when sealing a floor that has no damp proof course as it will allow any moisture from the foundation to rise through the tile.

Victorian Tiled Hallway After Restoration Lancaster

I think you will agree the floor was completely transformed by the work and the new sealer should keep it looking that way for some time to come. For aftercare cleaning I recommended the use of a Neutral PH cleaning product such as Tile Doctor Neutral Clean.

Victorian Tiled Hallway After Restoration Lancaster

Professional Restoration of a Victorian Encaustic Tiled Hallway Floor in Lancashire

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Victorian Tiled Lobby Floor Restoration Lytham St Annes

Victorian Tiled Lobby Floor Rebuild in Lytham St Annes

1 Comment / Lytham St Annes Tile Cleaning, Victorian Tile Cleaning, Work History / Russell Taylor

I visited this property in Lytham St Annes to survey a small Victorian tiled lobby which was in a sorry state. The client was keen to have it restored and wanted to know if it was possible. I discussed with them what we could do, and I gave them a quote for the work. Although it was only a small lobby, I could see the job could be quite involved and would be subject to the replacement tiles which I was confident we could source.

Victorian Tiled Lobby Before Rebuild Lytham St Annes

Repairing a Victorian Tiled Lobby Floor

This is one of those jobs you wish you hadn’t started as there were a lot more tiles to remove than anticipated and it mushroomed into replacing half the floor. Once the area was cleaned up, I applied a self-levelling compound to bring up the height of the base.

Victorian Tiled Lobby During Rebuild Lytham St Annes

Once the levelling compound had set, I was able relay the Victorian tiles using a combination of original tiles and replacements which had to be cut to shape. Cutting tiles to fit is quite intricate and time-consuming work especially when you consider new tiles are all metric in size and a 2mm difference becomes very telling after a foot or so! My solution was to use 150 mm tiles which are the biggest the stockist offers and then cut them down on my Rubi cutter using a template made from the original tiles. This the only way I could get it to look tight, it takes longer but it makes for a thorough job and a better finish.

I always use flexible floor adhesive when laying tiles, my preference is Keraquick Grey from Mapei. There are other brands off course but this one is quite easy to get hold of and as the term grouting is a relatively modern invention (in the past it was called pointing ) I find it looks right with this type of tile and similar to the screed cement the Victorians used in the past.

Deep Cleaning a Victorian Tiled Lobby Floor

After the tiling had been completed, I left the floor to cure and fully dry and returned at a later date to give the floor an overall clean. For this I ran a coarse 200-grit diamond floor pad across the floor lubricated with water and used handheld diamond blocks for the edges where the pad can’t reach. The slurry was rinsed off with water and extracted with a wet vacuum.

With old floors like this, which don’t have a damp-proof membrane installed under the floor, efflorescence is always a concern and can lead to white salts appearing on the surface of the tile as moisture rises through the floor. To counter this, I finished cleaning the floor by scrubbing it with Tile Doctor Acid Gel. This was then rinsed off with water and the soil extracted using a wet vacuum.

Sealing a Victorian Tiled Lobby Floor

The client was happy to seal the floor themselves (they wanted to save some money and it wasn’t a big area) so I supplied them with a bottle of Tile Doctor Colour Grow. I recommended this sealer as it will enhance the dark colours and being fully breathable it will cope with any moisture rising through the base. I recommended they apply two coats to start leaving time to allow the first coast to dry they could also then decide to leave it at that if they were happy with the finish.

Victorian Tiled Lobby After Rebuild Lytham St Annes

Professional Restoration of a Victorian Tiled Hallway in Lancashire

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Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor Before After Restoration Lancaster

Victorian Floor Tile Restoration Lancaster

1 Comment / Lancaster Tile Cleaning, Victorian Tile Cleaning, Work History / Russell Taylor

We often get asked to restore old Victorian tiled floors which are generally over 100 to 150 years old and as I’m sure you can imagine they experience a lot of wear over that length of time.

Victorian floor tiles before restoration Lancaster

We recently visited a property with such a floor in Lancaster after the client got in touch looking to have their hallway floor tiles restored. We arrived to inspect the floor and could see straight away that it was looking a little tired and in need of care and attention. Some tiles had become loose and had broken apart, especially around the doorways. Also, this floor had suffered from subsidence in the past and this had created a crack line near the top end of the hallway which pushed up several of the tiles. We went through what could be done to restore it, the client agreed a price and we arranged a time to come back.

Cleaning and Repairing a Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor

My first task was to take the loose tiles up, grind the concrete screed back so it was as level as we could make it and then we needed to refit the tiles. Once all loose tiles were fixed, we left them to dry and cure.

Victorian floor tiles during restoration Lancaster

We then came back to start the main clean of the floor, we used Tile Doctor Diamond Burnishing pads for this, which bite in deep to the clay face and remove ingrained dirt far better than conventional alkaline cleaners can. We used a series of different grades of these diamond pads to get the finish we required and then rinsed with clean water once were finished, removing the slurry created with a wet vacuum.

Any areas we couldn’t reach with our weighted buffing machines we had to get on our hands and knees and use small handheld Diamond Blocks, using a bit of clean water and elbow grease, this is especially good on intricate edges and around doors and corners.

The floor was given a quick rinse with water to remove any remaining clay resin and soil generated by the burnishing process. A wet vacuum is then used to extract the soil and remove as much moisture from the floor before being left to dry off fully overnight.

Sealing a Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor

Before we seal the Victorian Tiles, they looked very dull and washed out however this all changes once we apply the sealer. We checked the moisture levels in the floor which were fine. Our favourite sealer for this type of tile is called Tile Doctor Colour Grow, this is a fully breathable sealer which restores the colour lost in the cleaning process and allows for the floor to breathe, which is an absolutely necesity on an old floor without a Damp Proof Membrane where Efflorescence can be an problem.

Tile Doctor Colour Grow is an impregnating sealer that works by occupying the pores in the tile, so dirt cannot become ingrained there. It leaves a matt finish and enhances the colours in the tile bringing them to life, as you will see on the photos.

Victorian floor tiles after restoration Lancaster

For aftercare we always advise our customers to use Tile Doctor pH Neutral tile cleaner as it’s specially designed for cleaning sealed surfaces without damaging the sealer like cheap supermarket cleaners that contain anionic surfactants.

The client was very pleased with the restoration of her floor which is now in good physical condition and looks much brighter.

Professional Restoration of a Victorian Tiled Hallway in Lancashire

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Victorian Floor in Lancaster

Lancaster Tile Cleaning, Victorian Tile Cleaning, Work History / Russell Taylor

Victorian Floor Restoration in Lancaster

Details below of a Victorian Floor in the hallway of a house in Lancaster which the owner wanted restoring after it was discovered in poor condition under a carpet.

Removing the Carpet from the Victorian Floor

We removed the old carpet and applied a 50/50 mix of Remove and Go and Nanotech Ultra-clean which we left to soak for a couple of hours. We then cleaned the floor with a Steamer to remove all the dirt and muck and get any old sealer and waxes etc. to rise to the surface ready for a final rinse down.

Victorian floor in Lancaster showing tile covered by Carpet

Victorian Floor Exposed under carpet — Victorian floor in Lancaster showing tile covered by Carpet

A number of Victorian Tiles where either broken or missing so some tiling work was in order before work could continue.

Victorian floor Restoration in Lancaster after cleaning and then sealing

Victorian floor Restoration in Lancaster after Sealing — Victorian floor Restoration in Lancaster after cleaning and then sealing

Sealing the Victorian Floor

The floor was cleaned again for a final time and left to dry thoroughly before applying the sealer. For Victorian Floors we always recommend Seal and Go which is a water based sealer and gives a nice low sheen, provides definition and lifts the colours to the surface.