Victorian floor

[Westholme]

There are quarry tiles underneath the stairs as far as vertical wooden slats at the start of the fourth step and I don't know whether they extend all the way to the first step.

 

[Feltwell]

.

 

[Westholme]

I had a look at that marvellous website archive.org to see if there is an original Victorian pattern book online showing my tiles but they are too ordinary to be illustrated probably and the closest I found were a few Maw & Co. patterns, for example:

https://archive.org/details/patternsofmawcos00mawc

This and another Maw pattern book have "Directions for Laying The Pavements" and the Full Text version is mildly amusing:

If the foundation is not fufficiently folid, lay, as evenly as poffible, a bed of concrete, compofed of one part of finely riddled quick-lime, and three of gravel, and bring it to a perfectly level furface by a thin coat of cement, allowing about three-eighths of an inch more than the thicknefs of the tiles for the cement to be ufed in bedding them.

 

[Westholme]

Although they don't look it in the photos, my geometric hallway tiles were pretty filthy but they've come up lovely after a good scrub with soapy water. I've not quite finished yet because I thought it was high time I had a look to see what if anything is under the laminated floor in the dining room. Well, here are some photos that provide the answer.

Before:

 

[Westholme]

After:




I spent ages removing the glue that stuck the laminated floor to the quarry tiles. Some of it peeled off as a complete disc while other bits are more difficult. There is some efflorescence to treat after I let the floor dry out for a while.

Anyway, that's another result and the kitchen is still to do after the dining room! They would have been scullery and kitchen, respectively, when house was built. I know there are quarry tiles under the sink in the kitchen.

 

[Feltwell]

You've just got to wonder what goes through people's heads sometimes.

"Hmm. I have a nice original quarry tile floor in great condition, it's as tough as old boots, been there for 100+ years and it's nearly as good as the day it was laid. Don't fancy giving it a scrub though, so instead I'll head down to B&Q and buy the cheapest nastiest printed laminate flooring they have and shove that on top."

Still, at least they didn't attack it with an SDS drill to get tiles up first. I hope it carries on being in that condition as you get more of that laminate up!

 

[plasticpigeon]

The mind does boggle. Were the previous owners Brummies? Lovely floor by the way.

 

[Westholme]

All the tiles in the dining room have been exposed and I had the satisfaction yesterday of cutting up the laminate floor with my reciprocating saw. Some of the pieces were as wide as the room and not that easy to to handle. At least gluing them down hasn't ruined the quarry tiles but covering them for several decades had meant some of the tiles are encrusted with salts.

A previous owner laid concrete against every external wall of the house and at the back it was the same height as the inside floor level. I have removed tons and tons of this concrete and taken it to the local tip in the back of the car. Whilst digging it up I found lots of red edging tiles and probably about half of the original blue brick paviours broken up as hardcore. Some of the paviours were probably intact but it's very difficult to get them out in one piece.

Most of my time has been spent sorting out the mistakes made by previous owners and I have days and days of work ahead gently scraping and cleaning the quarry tiles. I bought some brick and patio cleaner from Jewson which is 10% hydrochloric acid. Any suggestions as to how diluted I should use it to remove efflorescence? I'll only use the acid if all else fails.

 

[Kearn]

All the tiles in the dining room have been exposed and I had the satisfaction yesterday of cutting up the laminate floor with my reciprocating saw. Some of the pieces were as wide as the room and not that easy to to handle. At least gluing them down hasn't ruined the quarry tiles but covering them for several decades had meant some of the tiles are encrusted with salts.

A previous owner laid concrete against every external wall of the house and at the back it was the same height as the inside floor level. I have removed tons and tons of this concrete and taken it to the local tip in the back of the car. Whilst digging it up I found lots of red edging tiles and probably about half of the original blue brick paviours broken up as hardcore. Some of the paviours were probably intact but it's very difficult to get them out in one piece.

Most of my time has been spent sorting out the mistakes made by previous owners and I have days and days of work ahead gently scraping and cleaning the quarry tiles. I bought some brick and patio cleaner from Jewson which is 10% hydrochloric acid. Any suggestions as to how diluted I should use it to remove efflorescence? I'll only use the acid if all else fails.

That's a really nice find!! One of the good surprises...

It is amazing what people do, I can't say it makes any sense to me. But I empathise - I dug up a couple of feet in places, of concrete, laid in what used to be the animal shelter attached to our cottage 400 years ago. The amount of original brick pavers that had been pulled up, broken and then used as ballast over the plastic sheeting in the 50s was criminal, they had sustained centuries of wear, some half their original thickness in places, only for some moron to destroy them :shock:

And the rest of the house had carpet everywhere, covering a mixture of 12inch original oak boards and very early Georgian pitch pine wide boards...

At least you have the full contingent in good shape, minus some cleaning! It will look great once done.

 

[Westholme]

I removed the laminate floor in the kitchen (originally the scullery) last week. It was thin and cheapo tongue-and-groove stuff with a rubbery underlay underneath so thankfully no glue and any efflorescence is powdery. A 5' x 3' corner of the kitchen is taken up by the original toilet with access from outside, with the two separated by half brick walls. Alongside this a 6' x 5' section of quarry tiles is missing and has been replaced by concrete, probably something to do with the water pipe under the floor as next door's water supply comes from my house via the kitchen.

I've been scrubbing the quarry tiles in the dining room (originally the kitchen) and I will need to use acid on some of them. What's interesting to me here is the skirting, about 7" tall, not wood and looks to be some sort of plaster. Would it be alabaster? I have alabaster corners 1½" wide on the chimney breasts and also I think on the two chamfered corners of the bay window in the front room.

 

[plasticpigeon]

Alabaster? Do you mean carved stone, or plaster of Paris?

 

[Pennyviz]

Hi

Similar situation, quarries under cement. Used SDS chisel to get the worst off, but not ideal as a few gauges, then ended up using the jewsons Brick and patio cleaner neat with scrubbing brush and wood chisel to dissolve off rest. I had a mixture of red, yellow and black quarries, and clearly the red were softer as they have suffered the worst. I don't think any restoration method would have been any better as it was pretty well stuck on the tiles, it has taken off the top 'bloom' off but hoping I can restore that with either linseed oil or a sealant.

Penny

 

[Westholme]

Alabaster? Do you mean carved stone, or plaster of Paris?

I don't mean carved stone. Wikipedia says that "the coarser varieties of gypsum alabaster are converted by calcination into plaster of Paris" so I think we are talking about the same thing, namely a plaster that sets as hard as stone. In my house it's grey and it's really hard.

 

[plasticpigeon]

Yes, I think all decorative plasterwork such as ceiling roses, cornices, corbels, enrichments etc are done in plaster of paris, so it is not surprsing that the corners are done in that too. Do the corners have some kind of beaded moulding? It could be that the skirting is run in cement if it is grey. Plaster of paris is usually pure white.

 

[Westholme]

I was told the corner strengthening is alabaster but it might be cement.

 

[MatthewC]

What's interesting to me here is the skirting, about 7" tall, not wood and looks to be some sort of plaster. Would it be alabaster? I have alabaster corners 1½" wide on the chimney breasts and also I think on the two chamfered corners of the bay window in the front room.

I've still got some skirting which looks like that, and it seems to be the hardest mix of cement I have ever encountered. It will come off when I do the floor in my hall.

In some cases (a good while ago) someone had also applied the same mix up the walls to combat dampness (addressing the symptom not the cause). Of course, all it did was to retain the water which just went up until it could come out at the top of the cement! That all went when the plastering was done, but it was a real pig to remove.

 

[Westholme]

What's interesting to me here is the skirting, about 7" tall, not wood and looks to be some sort of plaster. Would it be alabaster? I have alabaster corners 1½" wide on the chimney breasts and also I think on the two chamfered corners of the bay window in the front room.

I've still got some skirting which looks like that, and it seems to be the hardest mix of cement I have ever encountered. It will come off when I do the floor in my hall.

In some cases (a good while ago) someone had also applied the same mix up the walls to combat dampness (addressing the symptom not the cause). Of course, all it did was to retain the water which just went up until it could come out at the top of the cement! That all went when the plastering was done, but it was a real pig to remove.

The corners and skirting seem to be made of the same stuff and it's the right colour for cement. It's rock hard but not indestructible. I have a hairline crack in one of the chamfered and scalloped corners of the bay window, which doesn't worry me. A little bit of the skirting in the kitchen has had a bash and needs filling some time, after I've found out exactly what sort of cement to use. I'll have to remove some of the skirting if I take out most of the fireplace, otherwise the rest can stay.

 

[Westholme]

Hi

Similar situation, quarries under cement. Used SDS chisel to get the worst off, but not ideal as a few gauges, then ended up using the jewsons Brick and patio cleaner neat with scrubbing brush and wood chisel to dissolve off rest. I had a mixture of red, yellow and black quarries, and clearly the red were softer as they have suffered the worst. I don't think any restoration method would have been any better as it was pretty well stuck on the tiles, it has taken off the top 'bloom' off but hoping I can restore that with either linseed oil or a sealant.

Penny

I'll have to be careful with the acid as most of the affected tiles have only a thin layer of efflorescence remaining on just part of the tile. I daren't risk using it neat and I think I'll practise on some blue brick paviours with mortar on first to get a feel for it.

 

[Westholme]

While I summon up the courage to try brick acid on some of my recently uncovered quarry tiles, I've had a look at the toilet floor and on lifting new and old lino I found it was covered in a thin layer of cement, most of which I removed during a couple of days of toil without damage.



So, in the last month I have uncovered geometric tiles in the hallway, quarry tiles (7¾" x 7¾") in the dining room and kitchen and blue brick paviours (12" x 6") in the toilet. The above photo was taken from what will be a new lean-to extension and I know exactly what to use on its floor now!

After cleaning:

 

[Pennyviz]

While I summon up the courage to try brick acid on some of my recently uncovered quarry tiles, I've had a look at the toilet floor and on lifting new and old lino I found it was covered in a thin layer of cement, most of which I removed during a couple of days of toil without damage.

Outside WC before.jpg

So, in the last month I have uncovered geometric tiles in the hallway, quarry tiles (7½" x 7½") in the dining room and kitchen and blue brick paviours (12" x 6") in the toilet. The above photo was taken from what will be a new lean-to extension and I know exactly what to use on its floor now!

The after photo was too big to attach but nearly all the cement has gone now.

Hey I've got the blue/black bricks too - just turned them over.