Exciting find!

[dalivar]

Woop, woop! This is my first experience of discovering hidden history in the house! Last night after half a beer, hubby says 'shall we see what's under that floor?'. It's in the old part of the house but is covered with asphalt and modern laminate flooring. Anyway, it turns out after nearly two hours work that there is a near perfect quarry tile floor beneath! They are regular sized and 8 or 9" square in a mix of red and black. Could these could be original? I will try to put some pics up later to share. They are not as damp as I had expected (although there were some small plant roots) and they leave a salty feeling residue on your hands.
I'm going to try to clean them later - any suggestions? I'm planning on weak soap and water and a stiff brush!

 

[JoceAndChris]

What a wonderful discovery! That sounds much nicer than a laminate floor. Yes, soap and water sound very sensible. I brush mine now and then with a stiff dry scrubbing brush to get the efflorescence off, but they're a lot worse than yoursby the sound of it.

Pics will of course be needed!

 

[plasticpigeon]

Congratulations!! In my house the quarries were covered with oilcloth and lino! The tiles were soaking wet underneath, but after about 3 months they have dried out. I think that so long as drainage and ground levels are ok they will stay dry to the touch even though there will always be a small amount of evaporation from the surface. They are a pain to clean, but so far a good scrub has improved things but so has just walking over them as that seems to polish the surface a bit. I'm sure there are products maybe from lithofin that will clean the tiles, but make sure they do not seal the tile's surface, any surface treatment should still allow evaporation!!!! All the best.

 

[dalivar]

Here they are - I hope...

 

[Feltwell]

Looks good!

I'd start off with nothing more than a scrub with a small amount of detergent if necessary, and see how they settle down. Our quarries have a "rigorous" care regime which consists of walking on them a lot, a vacuum over them reasnobly regularly and the occasional mop with a bit of flash in the bucket - that's it, and I think they look great. As far as I know they've never been "treated" with anything.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Careful with flash, it is a bit abrasive.

 

[worms]

Careful with flash, it is a bit abrasive.

That's not what Molly Weir said!
Showing my age here, I think!

 

[Moo]

That floor of yours brings back memories! We gave ours the PlasticPigeon treatment (and still do) and they're fine. They were intended for kitchens and the like, and will take anything you care to chuck at them.
You'll only hit snags if you're aiming for an (inauthentic) high gloss finish.

Lucky you!

 

[dalivar]

I just can't believe someone would want to cover it, I love it. Plus, the dog doesn't skid around on it like the laminate! It's scrubbed up well and we wouldn't want shiny tiles anyway so no problems there. There are some missing around the edge of the room so I hope we can find some to replace these.

 

[Feltwell]

Are there any loose tiles that you can get the maker's name from the back of?

If you're in Flintshire, it's a fair chance that your tiles came from one of the producers around Ruabon, same as my house. One of these is below:-

http://www.ruabonsales.co.uk/company-history.htm

Try Roofing & Salvage in Oswestry - not the cheapest yard but they do seem to get quite a lot of Ruabon products in. Forget looking at new Dennis Ruabon tiles, they are completely different to the Victorian ones.

http://www.roofingandsalvagedepot.co.uk/quarry.html

Otherwise, is there anywhere else in the house or outbuildings that tiles can be taken from if you're struggling? Quarries were a very utilitarian product so would have been used in the lowest status rooms. The same type of quarry tiles that are in our kitchen are also in our cellar, I've swopped a couple of badly damaged kitchen ones for good cellar ones. Nearly all my cellar tiles are broken anyway. If you're really struggling to get a good match then maybe take some from under your kitchen units - if this is indeed your kitchen we're talking about here.

 

[dalivar]

Thanks Feltwell, yes I'm in Flintshire and its nice to have starting point, none of them are loose so I can't check easily. I hadn't thought too much about their origin or where to start looking for more. This room would have been the reception room in front of the kitchen I presume, the house was only 2 up 2 down. It has been extended in the last 30 years. The kitchen has also got these tiles (i'm fairly sure anyway) so we may be able to take some from under the units as you say. The only thing is that the kitchen floor is under concrete and two layers of newer tiles so I've no idea if they will clean up as well. I think the next job will be to open up the fire in this room before we venture into the kitchen so we may have to live with gaps for a while.

 

[Moo]

This room would have been the reception room in front of the kitchen I presume, the house was only 2 up 2 down.

So it would have been the kitchen, and the front room would have been the parlour.

It has been extended in the last 30 years.

I rest my case.....