Victorian Tiled Hallway

Victorian Tiled Hallway Restoration Belsize Park

Communal Victorian Tiled Hallway Restored in Belsize Park NW3

Details below of the recent restoration of a small Victorian Tiled Hallway at a property in Belsize Park NW3. The hallway provided access to several flats and had previously been covered in carpet. The carpet has been secured to the tiles with gripper rod that had been glued to the tiles and there was a section of broken tiles in front of the staircase that had been removed leaving an obvious hole in the floor.

Victorian Tiled Hallway Before Restoration Belsize Park Victorian Tiled Hallway Before Restoration Belsize Park

I carried out a survey of the floor to determine the main issues and took numerous photographs and measurements so I could locate suitable replacements. I knew that locating replacements wouldn’t be difficult as there are a few companies that specialise in this sort of thing and I know several members of the Tile Doctor network who have built up quite a collection. Once I was armed with all the costs, I email over a quote to the managing agent which was accepted and a date scheduled for the work to start.

Repair and Cleaning of a Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor in Belsize Park

Work started by carefully removing the gripper rod and cleaning up the areas where I would need to fit replacement tiles. Tiles were then cut to fit the existing pattern and colours and dry fitted into place making small adjustments along the way until I was satisfied that I had replicated the pattern exactly. Only then were the replacements fixed into place with fresh adhesive. This type of tile restoration work is quite meticulous and the whole of the first day was spent with repairs alone.

I returned on day two to deep clean the whole floor using a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Remove and Go. This product is designed for removing old sealers but is also good at softening adhesives and other contaminates so they can be scrubbed off. I follow the recommended process of spraying the solution onto the surface and then letting it sit for ten minutes so it has time to breakdown the contaminates before being worked in with a 200-grit diamond pad. Once done it was rinsed off with water and the resultant soiling extracted with a wet vacuum.

The next step was to neutralise the floor and counter any efflorescent salts that may have built up in the tiles whilst it was covered in carpet. Old floors like these don’t have the benefit of a damp proof membrane and shouldn’t be covered as it can prevent moisture from rising through the tile and evaporating at the surface. With the carpet gone the floor can breathe again and this can lead to trapped efflorescence salts appearing. We guard against this by giving the floor an acid wash using Tile Doctor Acid Gel and then rinsing off with water and extracting as before.

Sealing a Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor

I left the floor to dry out overnight and returned on day three to apply the sealer which will protect it from dirt becoming ingrained in the tile and improve the appearance.

I used Tile Doctor X-Tra seal for this which is an oil-based sealer that’s full breathable and will allow for moisture to rise through the tiles un-impeded. The oil in the sealer has the added advantage of restoring the colours in the tiles and certainly in this case put the life back in the floor.

Victorian Tiled Hallway After Restoration Belsize Park Victorian Tiled Hallway After Restoration Belsize Park

Once done the original floor which must have been at least 100-years old was completely transformed and the tiled floor added a bit of class to the entrance to the property.

 

Professional Restoration of a Victorian Tiled Hallway in North London

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Victorian Tiled Hallway Before After Restoration Camden

Victorian Tiled Hallway Restored in Camden

This detailed Victorian tiled hallway at a property in Camden was overdue some much-needed repair and maintenance. The owners of the property appreciated that original period features like this add a lot of value to a property and asked me to visit the property to quote for renovating it. The property was in a terrace of similar properties most of which appeared to have retained their Victorian character.

Victorian Hallway Floor Tile Before Restoration Camden
I inspected the floor and found there were a couple of loose, cracked, worn and broken tiles that needed to be replaced. In addition, the floor tiles needed a deep clean and then seal to bring back the wow factor. I was confident we could renovate the floor but at that point unsure if we would be able to find exact match replacements for the damaged tiles. Fortunately, Victorian tiles are still in demand and I knew of several companies I could check with so I was confident they could be found.

Victorian Hallway Floor Tile Before Restoration Camden
We discussed how long the work would take and assuming I could source the replacements agreed a price for the full restoration of the floor. After doing some research I managed to find suitable replacements with a company called Original Style and the work was scheduled for the following month.

Cleaning/Repairing a Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor

Firstly, we prepared all areas with protective tapes to threshold edges and skirting.
This was followed by spaying the tiles with a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Remove & Go which is product designed to remove old sealers and coatings. After about ten minutes the tiles were scrubbed with black scrubbing pads and scrubbing brushes. Fresh water was used to rinse the floor and the slurry was extracted using a wet vacuum.

The floor was inspected and then a second clean carried out, this time using Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which is a Tile and Grout cleaning agent. The same process of application was used and after rinsing and extracting the dirt the tiles were given a steam clean. This ensured all the dirt was lifted out of the pores of the tile and the floor was now as clean as it possible could be.

The next step was the remove the loose and cracked tiles using the reclaimed tiles we had sourced earlier. Some cuts were necessary to get the replacements to match the originals but overall the plan worked. A quick drying adhesive was used to secure the tiles so we could apply the grout shortly after. The whole floor was then re-grouted and cleaned off to ensure a good match. The floor was left to dry off overnight, and you could already see it was now looking considerably improved.

Sealing a Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor

Returning the next morning we checked the floor was dry using a moisture meter, this is important as to apply a sealer to damp tiles will lead to a patchy experience. All was well so we were ready to apply the sealer.

To start a single base coat of Tile Doctor Colour Grow sealer was applied to the floor and left to dry. This sealer is an impregnator that protects from within by occupying the pores in the clay tile improving colour in the process. This sealer does leave a matt finish however and the client wanted a subtle shine so one dry it was followed by four coats of Tile Doctor Seal & Go. The combination of the two sealers works really well to add long lasting protection to the tiles and provide the desired finish to the floor.

Victorian Hallway Floor Tile After Restoration Camden
The floor was much improved, and the client was delighted. The detailed pattern and colours were now much more prominent, and the hallway looked much more inviting for both the owner and their guests. For the aftercare of Victorian tiles, I recommended the use of Tile Doctor Neutral Cleaner which is pH neutral and won’t prematurely erode the life of the sealer.

 

Professional Restoration of a Victorian Tiled Hallway in North London

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Damaged Victorian Tiled Hallway Floor Before and After Restoration Winchmore Hill London

Restoring a Damaged Victorian Tiled Hallway in Winchmore Hill

A customer in Winchmore Hill which is part of the London borough of Enfield was having major refurbishment works done to their home which included an upgrade to the central heating system. As part of the work a new radiator had been installed in the hallway however the utility company when putting in the new heating system had chased out two deep pipe channels in the central part of their beautiful Victorian tiled hallway floor.

Victorian Hallway Before Restoration Winchmore Hill Cropped Victorian Hallway Before Restoration Winchmore Hill

This was a real shame as the majority of the floor was in good condition; the owner of course wanted the floor restored so our brief was to do exactly that and carry out repairs to the pipe channels and to all the door thresholds that were either existing or new so they all matched in.

Restoring a Victorian Tiled Hallway

Our first task was to clean the tile and grout and strip off old sealers and waxes which we did by applying a dilution of Tile Doctor Remove & Go combined with equal part of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean. This was scrubbed into the floor with a black scrubbing pad fitted to a rotary machine and then rinsed off with water and extracted with a wet vacuum.

Victorian Hallway During Restoration Winchmore Hill
After deep cleaning we then carried out the tile repairs and replacements to pipe channels, missing and mislaid tiles to thresholds. Some or the tiles were replaced with matching reclaimed tiles and others were new sourced from Original Style who have a large range. Altogether we replaced circa 500 pieces of tile in order to repair the damage caused by the heating engineers and achieve a consistent pattern throughout the hallway.

Sealing Victorian Tiles

The cleaning and re-tiling work was carried out over three days and we returned on the fourth day to seal the floor with an initial two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is an impregnating sealer that enhances colour.

We then protected the floor for a further week with cardboard cut to size, this allowed other trades to finish their work without messing up the floor. A week later we returned to lift the cardboard to apply the finishing seal using Tile Doctor Seal & Go which adds the final protection. Five coats were applied to reach the right level of protection and desired satin finish restoring the natural appearance and lustre of the tiles.

Victorian Hallway After Restoration Winchmore Hill Cropped Victorian Hallway After Restoration Winchmore Hill

The whole job allowing for the drying times of adhesive, grout and sealing took five days in total. It was worth it though as restored Victorian hallway really gives the property the Wow factor as you enter.

Victorian Hallway After Restoration Winchmore Hill
 

Victorian Tiled Hallway Restoration in North London

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Victorian Tiled Hallway Before and After Cleaning Palmers Green

Victorian Tiled Hallway Rebuilt After Heating Installation in Palmers Green

The owners of this property in Palmers Green, North London had uncovered an original Victorian hallway floor during renovation work. However, the priority was to have a new central heating system installed so they had to make a decision to allow the heating engineer to rip up part of the floor in order to lay new pipes.

With the floor now missing a large section most customers would agree to have the hole back-filled with concrete and then have lino installed on top, however keen to have the floor restored as an original feature they reached out to Tile Doctor who have a lot of experience in this field.

Our brief was to infill the excavated section and reinstate the floor with new original style Victorian tiles to match the existing ones.

Victorian Tiled Hallway Before Cleaning Palmers Green

Deep Cleaning a Victorian Tiled Hallway

The existing floor had been covered in Carpet which had been secured using carpet gripper fixed to the floor using adhesive, there were also old paint splashes from decorating that would need to be removed. Our first job therefore was to remove the glue and paint by applying a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Remove & Go which is a coatings remover especially designed for use on tile and stone. The product was applied, left to dwell for about twenty minutes and then scrubbed into the floor, this softened the paint and glue which could then be carefully scrapped off tile tiles.

The next step was to give the floor a deep clean with a strong solution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean to strip off what remained of old sealers and extract any ground-in dirt from the pores of the tile. Naturally this work had to be done in two sections due to the missing tiled section and then once complete each part of the floor was given a good rinse and the slurry extracted using a wet vacuum.

The floor was then inspected and a second clean was carried out to remove any stubborn staining or residue followed by a steam clean.

Rebuilding a Victorian Tiled Hallway

Following the two stages of cleaning we checked the existing floor pattern and prepared the hallway by levelling the floor in preparation for inlaying the new tiles which were chosen to offer the best possible match. We were able to source reclaimed tiles that would match up to the pattern and during this phase of the restoration work we carried out any loose tile and grout repairs and re-grouted the newly laid tiles.

Sealing Victorian Hallway Tiles

With the original tiles clean and the hallway rebuilt we left the floor to dry off fully overnight.

On our return we first checked the tiled were dry and that the grout in the new section was clear of any grout smears from the tiling work. Happy with the condition of the hallway we first applied a coat of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which is an impregnating sealer that will protect the tiles from within by occupying the pores within the tile, it also enhanced the colours in the clay tile.

Once the first coat of sealer was dry it was followed by five coats of Tile Doctor Seal & Go which adds further layers of protection and adds a nice subtle satin finish that works really well on Victorian tiles.

Victorian Tiled Hallway After Cleaning Palmers Green
The work went very well, and the sealer consolidated the new and old tiled sections to form a seamless floor.

Victorian Tiled Hallway Restored in North London

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