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S

schakal

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Hi All , I have recently moved into this Edwardian house and have been restoring everything i can slowly. There are some beautiful octagon tiles in the hallway but they are damaged in places over the years.
Some tiles are cracked ,some has worn out in the middle (like a dish) ,ones near the door are lifted up (water got under from the door?) and some have movement in them when you walk over.
The tiles are laid on some rubble and ash as far as i can see .
I have since managed to buy some identical reclaimed tiles and would love to restore this floor to its former glory. I have googled a while but cant seem to find much detail on specific methods for the restoration.
Is there a guide out there ?
More importantly is this something i can tackle as a fairly good diyer or should i be looking for some professional help ?

here are some photos , thanks for answers in advance.


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OP
S

schakal

Do you know if the floor has a damp proof membrane in it?


No it does not have. Under the ash and rubble there is soil and lots of clay.
But i am pretty sure there is no damp coming from underneath.
 

Dan

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Ideally you need a new sub-floor. Could do with getting all that up and putting in a screed with a DPM really, then tile to that.

You said the tiles have lifted and cracked, it's probably more to do with the rubbish substrate than the tiles which are super solid in tile-terms.

If that's not possible, I did read on here the other day about somebody doing a kinda floating floor that can still breath etc but it's out of my league so I'll let them reply.
 

Lithofin BOB

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Once there stuck down and solid ,as dan advice will come, cleaning and ( poss) sealing them is the easy bit and we can advise.
 
OP
S

schakal

Thanks for the replies

I have actually screeded and insulated the complete ground floor except the hallway because i found out there is no was i am going to remove these tiles without breaking a good 80/90% otherwise i totally agree in fitting dpm,insulation and screed on top.
The tiles are laid down almost butted up against eachother using cement hence the joint is stronger than the tiles and removing a tile means breaking it :(

I was hoping there would be a way of laying individual tiles after removing damaged ones . i have a small dremel tile cutting attachement which i have been using for cutting the cement between the tiles and removing damaged tiles.

My problem is mainly with re-laying the new ones.
 

Dan

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While the tiles are nice, you can get quarry octagon and dot all day long at every tile shop. They'd look exactly the same if you bought new ones today. Probably still made on the same machinery as when those were made too.

I'd just rip them up, fix the floor properly, and then re-tile it using what you can of those, but new if needs be.

You want the floor to be problem-free. And while keeping the originality is cool, they just didn't have the techie stuff back then that we have now and we don't still do it that way because we've found better ways. Basically :D

If you'd have been saving a floor akin to these then I'd be saying something different:
Reclaimed Victorian grometrics - http://www.tilersforums.com/media/reclaimed-victorian-grometrics.14915/

These were purchased from another floor that sadly lost them, but then @timeless john installed them to a new lucky floor elsewhere. Worth their weight in gold. Maybe near to gold. Maybe.

But octagon and dots aren't really worth going through the agro of saving IMO.
Just get some new the same: Google - https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=octagon+and+dot+quarry&*
 
OP
K

Kevbos

The more you take out the weaker it will get .the floor has lived it's life span .you can patch in but it will never look great .if you can afford to you can buy replicas and replace .doubt damp a problem as they been there over 50 years I'd imagine .try getting them up and you won't get enough to fill same space .
 
OP
S

schakal

I appreciate all the advise from all .
it looks like the best thing to do is to take all tiles up and perhaps even go for a nicer pattern , may be something cheaper (ceramic ) and requires less maintenance.

Now will this mean ,digging the old tile base and installing a dpm and concrete on top or could i skip the digging part and perhaps use a self leveller to get a flat subfloor and tile on to that ?
Is self levelling compound waterproof ?
 

Bond

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Like others have said above, you need to remove all, lay concrete slab on damp proof membrane, and perhaps consider installing insulation board below that.
 
OP
S

schakal

Balls
It will be lots of digging and a knackard back all over again then. oh well all part of the fun.
Thanks again.
 

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