Just uncovered some old floor tiles in my hallway - help!

[JessesGirl]

My house is mid-terrace, built in about 1900 from what I can make out. The hallway is very long and narrow and extremely dark. A couple of nights ago I decided that I was fed up with my depressing dark hallway with its dark blue carpet tiles (put down by HA and I have always despised them) so I had a look underneath and found the most beautiful original tiles!

Only problem is that the tiles are in two parts, hopefully the pictures are clear enough (will add them in a separate post). The part with the gorgeous Victorian (?) tiles looks in quite good condition and probably just needs some elbow grease to clean them up. The other part however is not so good. There is black paint everywhere that has been there for God knows how long!

So, can anyone help me out? How do I get these tiles looking their best and how do I stop the hallway looking so odd with two completely different tile patterns?

Pootles absolutely terrified, especially when I was down there and didn't realise the cat had followed me - shit me right up!!

Thanks everyone - I practically skipped down the stairs this morning to look at my beautiful floors! Off to do some more Googling

Wonky if you look at the first picture the stairs are on the right hand side but I think they used to be on the left and over a bit (which is now next door) and the door that you can see with the cat flap is my back door but that used to be the front door. It's a really strange house that hasn't seen much love over the past few decades

Ooh that's lovely Polter and thank you for the link! I'll have a look into that.

Very, very envious too OP. I adore original period features.

The patterned floor is simply gorgeous

Polter, your floor is fabulous!

Both sets of tiles look old, and given your suspicions re the moving of the staircase, all speak to the history of the house, so while they might seem incongruous together, I think you should restore and celebrate them both together.

Oooo lucky you!

I'm very of you all.

I think the two tiled areas complement each other to a certain extent colour wise, and what mismatchyness there is is something I would not try to hide.

Lovely tiles. I wouldn't worry about the 2 different styles, they differentiate between the 'posh' and 'practical' parts of the house.

PolterGhoul I'd be interested to know how the Grimex does. I have some original kitchen floor tiles (kind of like quarry tiles but a subway tile size and shape) that are resisting my best efforts to remove the filth.

Lovely - will you post update pics when clean?!

We moved yesterday and I feel a bit like crying now as I sit in my bigger, more practical modern house after leaving our beautiful, smaller, louder, money grabbing period flat!

HG products are what you want because you'll need to get the dirt out of them, then clean them, seal and then put whatever on top.

We had the same and were advised to

1. Use paint stripper (nitromors or similar) to get the worst of the dirt off (our tiles were VERY grimy)
2. Use methylated spirits to take off the paint stripper
3. Then use the HG products to treat uk.hg.eu/products/third-level/category/46120/parent/46101/terra_cotta/_mexican_tiles It'd probably be a good idea to call them (there's a number on the contact page) to find out what are the best products for your tiles.

Ours look really lovely now. Good luck!

Thank you Celeria :) on closer inspection in the daylight the encaustic ones don't look too bad, except for the bloody permanent marker that whoever laid the carpet tiles thought would be a brilliant idea! The quarry tiles are very grimy though.

In daylight

They may not match exactly, but how often does it seem someone no one even tried to match colors and so they clash horribly? They do look alright together, i wouldnt worry about the difference. Just be glad they are all there!

Wow,those tiles are beautiful,you are so lucky!

We cleaned up our minton tiles with some stuff from tile doctor and got a £30 wet vac from wickes to get the stuff off properly. Looks great. Good luck.

Ps our quarry tiles were a nightmare and never looked God no matter how much we cleaned them

Good!

mrsmandm I have been looking at the tile doctor stuff! was it relatively easy to use?

Such lovely floors.
I'm not up on cleaning methods but if it were me I'd be doing a lot of cleaning with hot soapy water just as a starter and get some specialist advice, our local hardware shop have some fantastic experts.

I'd go slowly as those are floors worth spending time and effort on.

What's going to happen about the cellar JG?

enWooo the cellar needs clearing out before I can do anything with it, it is full of junk! I have a dehumidifier down there right now to dry it out then I will eventually damp-proof and make it into a proper useable room. I'm so excited to have found a whole extra room in my house that I knew nothing about!