We renovated our house last year, uncovering an original tiled floor in the hall (1931 house - red and black polished tiles). Unfortunately, the previous owners had run a gas pipe across the hall when they installed central heating. They cut right through the tiles and used concrete to patch the area up
We couldn't afford to replace the tiles with shiny victorian ones so we opted for hexagonal terracotta tiles instead (cream and red with black inserts). The floor looks great but there are two problems:-
We were advised against grouting the spaces between the tiles as the builder felt the grout would stain them (I wonder looking back whether he just didn't want to do it, but he said the man in the tile shop had told him this). The tiles are laid very close together but I think they would look much better if they were grouted
Also, the tiles are matt and they look better when they have been mopped because they are shiny.
Any advice on grouting or polishing these tiles? They are quite porous, so that's a problem for polish (I don't want them to take the polish up unevenly because the light from the front door hits the floor so it would look shocking).