Hall flooring in Edwardian house

[betterwhenthesunshines]

We have original tiles in the hallway but they are truly not very beautiful - a dull terracotta with a dark brown border and not in very good condition. After being here for a few years we decided to carpet the hall which has been much wamer and more welcoming but quite impractical with 2 DCs and a dog and after this winter I've had enough. So I'm now considering painting the floor tiles a single colour - and the floorboards in the adjoining living room which we are going to trial as a dining room.

If I do them a really really dark grey brown (almost black, but not quite) is it going to look stylish or awful??? The rest of the hall is being redecorated so the walls could be light to compensate.

sad

the paint will wear and chip, and the original tiles will be spoiled.

I imagine painting tiles on a busy route will be a nightmare to maintain.

Ask for advice from the tile doctor online. They did an amazing job on ours and they look wonderful now. I think painting over them will look a mess tbh.

Don't paint it!

DH does floors and is forever being called in to sort out hallways that have painted wood or painted floor tiles....it just won't last very long and look crap pretty quickly, particularly with a dog.

I'd either rip them up and choose some other nicer tiles from a reclamation yard as a second option, or as a first option, get a wooden floor laid in the hall and then run the same stain and lacquer through the hall and adjoining living room. You can get floor lacquers now (like a top coat for nail varnish) that are really strong for heavy traffic areas that take massive punishment. (DH uses Bona Mega or Junkers High Performance for halls)

NO STEP AWAY FROM THE PAINT!! Don't do it. Cover it up with another floor covering but I really wouldn't paint them.

OK - unanimous!
Piglet John: the original tiles already are spoiled - they are in terrible condition and are also deeply unattractive. Honestly it is not a beautiful pattern or colour. We have kept all fireplaces, the original anaglypta and dado so we haven't lost any original features but these are honestly not good! We have already had the front path relaid to match the original as it was in such poor condition and it cost £3k. We really can't afford to have the interior tiles replaced at the moment as the ceiling in our main reception room collapsed in November and we are having to re-instate that complete with original plaster moulding and panelling which is also going to be very expensive. Just looking for some alternatives. Reclaimed parquet would be my ideal, but unfortunately dont have £6k spare for that to be laid throughout either.....
....unless anyone can recommend a good wood supplier. No lacquer, hard wax oil only!

It sounds like you have done a beautiful job restoring the house.

Sometimes you can get parquet on gumtree/ebay etc- you might have to be patient but it does come up from time to time- watch what you are buying, though, be careful it isn't pine. No-one believes you can get pine parquet (because its madness) but you can.

DH nearly got throttled by an incensed scout master a couple of weeks ago when he had to point out that his scout hall was in fact pine parquet and not oak.

Hard wax oil would be a disaster in a hallway, particularly if you are laying reclaimed boards when you aren't sure they are all from the same batch of wood (you might just about get away with it if using a new hardwood floor but you'd still need to re-oil 2 to 3 times a year in such a high traffic area).

Thanks Armadale. A lot of the smarter houses here have pitch pine parquet (I think) which looks fantastic. But the pine from a hundred years ago was harder as it was more slow growing. We would need at least 60sqm so it would be hard finding enough matching on eBay. I used to trawl reclaim yards but a lot have gone out of business and the big ones like Lassco are very expensive. Part of my hesitation with wood flooring is that I wouldn't want it to look 'new' (hence wanted to avoid that smooth lacquered / polyeurethane varnish) I know you can get weathered, slightly distressed boards but again, all the ones I like are about £130 a sq metre. Which is why I'm stuck...!

What finish would you recommend?

Don't know what to suggest, I'll ask DH when he gets in, he's out pricing a job.

I'm better on what not to do than what to do, if that makes sense as I tend to hear all the stories when he gets in of his incredulity at some of the stuff he has to put right, including the job where they had 3 kittens locked in the kitchen but a cat flap into the garden and then opened the patio doors of the room they were lacquering.....

We are pretty near Lassco and it is enjoyed for its comedic pricing. If you are in London I can ask DH where might be better.

at kittens
Reminds me of the time our dog trod in red oil paint and decided to go for a wander through the house ( miraculously it came out with rug doctor!)

Thanks - yes I am in West London. There used to be reclaim yards in Park Royal and Willesden but they have closed down.

The main issue is that we are just testing new room uses! It's an L-shape with the kitchen in the central part. Currently the room at the front of the house has been the sitting room (with carpet) and the room at the back onto the garden has been dining area. But we would like to try to swap these round. (No need for carpet anymore as toddlers are approaching teenage years.) But we're not 100% sure we will like the new arrangement, hence not wanting to spend a fortune on new flooring yet. The paint idea was a temporary measure really. Although I do like painted floors, I suspect it will end up feeling a bit cold. I was planning to fill the cracks before I painted and I just thought a continuous colour through to the tiles in the hall might look OK.

like this a bit

Oh yes I like the picture, it is the sort of look I was trying to describe when I said run the same stain through the living room and hall.

If your idea is just to live with it for 6 months and see if the layouts work, then maybe painting them brown would work- although wouldn't look 'done' iyswim.

DH says a good start for you would be to go to Natural Wood Floor, just of Wandsworth Bridge Road. He says they are decent and knowledgeable and would give you a fair idea of your options.

Thanks very much - I know that place in Wandsworth - they've been around a long time too but it's always good to have a recommendation.

This company might be able to help
www.stonefloorcleaning.co.uk

Tile over them with dark grey. I am never precious about original features when I renovate.