Has anyone had Victorian type hallway tiles done?

[reastie]

a) would you recommend them from a practical point of view?

b) just how expensive are they to get done? Have been looking online and it looks like I might be able to buy them for around £75 pm2 but am at how much installation might be and need to try to talk DH into it . My thinking is if we get this done we will never have to have it redone in our lifetime so it might be an investment (we aren't planning on ever moving).

We have a small hall FWIW - a bit less than 1m wide by around 2.5 m long.

Oh, and for clarity I mean floor tiles!

am interested in the responses.

We had our Minton files cleaned and restored in our old house. A company in Nottinghamshire. Cost around 700 quid but our hall was huge (1.5 mitre wide by 8 long!)

We didn't need any new tiles as such but they were in need of a good clean. when he started cleaning them, a few came away and broke so he basically did a good jigsaw job and fitted them all back for no extra cost.

Best thing we did to the house - it was always a conversational point (being the hall) and they always looked clean even when dirty, because of the pattern.

I can dig the name of the company out if you need it. He'd stopped doing private jobs and was doing huge mansion type places (at 7k a job plus) and was selling the cleaning materials and tools to do it yourself too.

fad we're SE England so not near you. Was the £700 including fitting it then?

Interested in responses too. Thinking of doing it too. Biggish hall though.

Currently pale oak which runs through most of downstairs except dining room which is dark oak and two other rooms which have pale carpet. Worried it will look a bit hotch-potch.

It sounds like you want to put faux-Victorian ones in rather that get some restored. I really wouldn't: it seldom works to add mock-antique features. What type of house do you have? Is it period?

les we have a victorian house with lots of period features. I'm thinking of adding new but traditional tiles IYKWIM so they look as authentic as new ones can get. IMO even though they aren't original they still look really nice.

Yes, that could definitely work then. I would love a hall floor like that too, but I don't think my house ever had anything but floorboards- there's some evidence of lovely tiling in the porch/vestibule bit, but some heathen had covered them up with horrid fifties ones .

Someone I used to know did the floor of their lean-to with the tiles from a cathedral , which they claimed to have rescued from a skip. I was sceptical, but god, it looked gorgeous. I wonder if reclamation yards do them? A local tiler might give you a price which is better than a specialist, but I suppose you've got to be very very careful to get someone you trust.

Ohh that's genius - off to nose online for local reclamation yards and if they have anything, can't think of any local cathedrals which have been knocked down recently though

Yeah, I must admit that I found it hard to believe . I reckon they must have nicked it. Along with all the lead flashing from the roof

We had black and white geometric encaustic tiles from Fired Earth fitted about 7 years ago. They are great and very practical- so easy to clean. And we have had lots of compliments- people assume they are original. They did cost over 2 grand including fitting though and he hall in our Victorian terrace is not very long and is really quite narrow.

fay do the white tiles look mucky quickly with dirt from outside? £2k is alot of money for us though

They don't actually- they're not a bright white, they're off white and encaustic tiles are matt rather than shiny. It's very forgiving of muck actually! I thin the tiles themselves cost about £700 the rest of the cost was the fitting- it's not a job a big standard tiler could I don't think. We used the Fired Earth fitter who came from Nottingham (we are N Yorks) and he was a trained stone mason mainly working in ecclesiastical settings when not doing H's Fired Earth jobs.

I am pleased we did it, and it is so practical for a hall, but it is expensive.

Our house is Edwardian and has black and white tiles in the porch. We looked at fired earth tikes when we were initially renovating but DH balked at the cost. He seems keen now though.

I'm just not sure I can put up with the mess and hassle of having it actually done. We seem to have still stuff going on 18 months on. Latest is having all the so called white gloss redone courtesy of Dulux as it went yellow.

cider I know the feeling - we're soon going to have a supportin/fire place internal wall taken out and supported to turn our kitchen into a kitchen diner. I'm dreading the upheaval! We're hoping to get the hall done around the same time to just get it all over with as quickly as possible.

I have to admit I hadn't considered getting fired earth to do the whole job and needing someone more skilled than regular tilers. ALot to think about.

WE have original tiles, but they are mainly brown encaustic. TBH I hated them - dark and cold, so they are currently covered by carpet which has made the whole space feel much brighter and warmer.

But we had the same tiles on our front path which was badly sunken and we did have that redone. I had 3 quotes and in the end it cost £3k, that included removal of old path, a new (deep) concrete foundation and all the tiles and fitting. I was at the price, but it did take a whole week just to fit the tiles (about 1m x 4m)