Cleaning up old flagged floor

[pineapple]

My cottage circa 1750 has stone flags throughout. They are direct to the ground - ie no screed underneath. However they are completely dry. I'm having a new kitchen and would like to make a feature of the floor - ie clean it up and put some sort of seal on it. Or at least bring out the colour.
I think the flags are Yorkshire stone - though I am in a limestone area so not sure.
What is the best way of cleaning them?
Also I've heard that if you seal direct to ground flags with a proprietary sealant, it can cause damp, but that you can put a coat of wax polish on them. Is this true? Ideas and suggestions gratefully received!
Cheers

 

[TheForge]

There’s a whole host of products out there to clean natural stone but I just used warm water and a scrubbing brush on ours, followed by Ecover Floor Soap diluted with warm water as per the instructions and finished with neat Ecover Floor Soap well rubbed in and polished with a rag and they came up lovely with a soft satin sheen and dark grey colour.

You’ll need to wash it two or three times keeping on replacing the water to get all the grime off.

The Ecover Floor Soap is basically linseed oil with a bit of mild detergent and lemon. It smells for a couple of weeks but then the odour goes!

 

[Easrow]

We use 'savon noir liquide' diluted in warm water. It's good for lots of uses. It's an olive oil soap.

 

[pineapple]

Those tips really useful thanks though it will be a while before I get to that point. Remind me not to have another kitchen fitted in a hurry! If I buy another house, it will have to have a kitchen fit for purpose. :roll: