Victorian Floor Replacement

[MatthewC]

Well, I have finally taken the plunge: the 6" square, 1" thick red and black (Staffordshire Blue) quarries in my hall have been lifted and I am laying a limecrete floor. This will be followed by re-fitting as many as possible of the existing tiles supplemented by similar ones bought at local reclamation yards. We have also removed the horrible concrete skirting which will be replaced by some pretty profile in pine to match what I fitted in the lounge.

The house is Grade II listed and the floor is (I reckon) the original from 1861. Anyone who hasn't seen my blog can find lots of details about the renovation of my house in 2010-11 (and since) at http://houseintheenchantedforest.blogspot.com/ where I will post pictures etc when it's done.

The limecrete floor will be done (see Mike Wye's website) with Recycled Foamed Glass (RFG) as opposed to the Light Expanded Clay Aggregate (LECA) which I used for the kitchen floor. The RFG has several benefits (compared to LECA), one of which is that the depth of the floor is less and hence there is less to dig out! I have already been caught out by the volume of the removed floor - it seems to have expanded massively (like, doubled) in volume and so is filling more bags that I expected! It was very well compacted.

Here's an old chestnut: what are people's views on how to finish the new floor? Options are (a) Nothing, or (b) Brush on some liquid which improves the look and still allows the floor to breathe; if (b), what exactly? Sealing the floor as though it was a modern solid floor is NOT an option.

 

[88v8]

Brave man.
Yes, it's amazing how things expand.
A bit like one's holiday packing when one packs to go home... how did all this fit in that case :shock:

Finish... I vote nothing. But it depends how porous the tiles are and whether they stay clean.
You could start with... nothing.... and if it dirties, scrub it clean and revisit the issue.

Mind you, I presume you'll bed and point in lime.... the floor will breath through the joints not the tiles... so if you don't mind a bit of fiddlefaddle you could paint the tiles with... anything.... but not the pointing, and then no harm done.

Ivor

 

[MatthewC]

Well, don't things change? I knew this job would not be easy, despite my best laid plans!

An unexpected problem: in one corner of the hall we uncovered the mains water supply (which I knew was there but had ignored for the last 10 years). Below the tile level it was badly corroded and so it has to be done NOW, not later, so I have a plumber coming on Friday to fit a plastic pipe out to the mains supply outside the house. More expense but it's worth it (as I keep telling myself).

Yesterday I took 'er indoors to a reclamation yard as I needed to buy some more reclaimed tiles - the re-useability of the lifted ones is just over 50% (eveworse than I had gloomily expected). This visit was a mistake - first I was gently told off by the owner for sorting out suitable good condition tiles (!), so I didn't buy any at all.

Then, second, once she had seen for herself the difficulty of finding acceptable old quarries, she decided that we should buy some proper stone flooring instead. Aaargh!

So I now have available a large number of mostly one inch, good clean reclaimed quarries (a variety of red, red/orange, proper Staffordshire blue and other blue/black), plus a lot of good ones waiting to have their grouting etc removed, plus a lot more of rejected ones (suitable for outside use only). At least I don't have to do any more grouting removal. This does also mean that a small part of the hall (which I was leaving "as is" because the tiles are not too bad) will now be done as well in order to match.

Onwards and upwards...

 

[a twig]

From my point of view that’s a result!

You can flog all the quarries and fitting a new floor will be much easier - every cloud!

 

[MatthewC]

Today the plumber came and spent over three hours removing the corroded steel pipe on the rising main and fitting a new plastic pipe.

I have posted some photos of this horror on my blog at http://houseintheenchantedforest.blogspot.com/. No further comment is required.

 

[88v8]

Oooh yes, some light scaling on that pipe.

Quarries.... so those lots I flagged on eBay were no good....?
I think it's a shame to lose that original feature.

Originality, the death of a thousand cuts.

Ivor

 

[MatthewC]

Those "unused Victorian tiles" you flagged on eBay were NOT Victorian. The p******k who was selling them still does not accept that something stamped "Made in Spain" and only 9mm thick could hardly be Victorian... completely wasted journey.

 

[88v8]

Those "unused Victorian tiles" you flagged on eBay were NOT Victorian. The p******k who was selling them still does not accept that something stamped "Made in Spain" and only 9mm thick could hardly be Victorian... completely wasted journey.

O lawks :shock: Sorry.

Still, at least you went to look. I might have bought them and Shiplied them here and been a trifle peeved.

Could you perhaps use your quarries around the perimeter and new towards the centre... a nod to the past... just a thought.
Like this in our sitting room on our new limecrete floor in 2011



The quarries are old, the stone was new ... or rather than should be 'stone' as they were cast concrete with a stain and a 3M resin surface.... Each one moulded from a genuine Painswick stone, irregular sizes and a pig to lay out.
But together the stone and the quarries look 'right'.

And here... this was before I'd cleaned them up post-laying...



Bedded in cement but not under the joints, pointed in lime. The quarries took care of the awkward stone sizes without having to cut the stone, and more important the quarry joints provide plenty of perimeter breathability so that ten years on we have no damp.
Just a thought.

Ivor

 

[LadyArowana]

Today the plumber came and spent over three hours removing the corroded steel pipe on the rising main and fitting a new plastic pipe.

I have posted some photos of this horror on my blog at http://houseintheenchantedforest.blogspot.com/. No further comment is required.

Our gas pipe looked similar when they removed it. When we bought the house there was a very slight smell of gas in our basement lightwell near the meter. It was found to be seepage of really tiny amount and only noticeable because of the enclosed space. Of course they replaced the meter and then tested everything but found incoming pressure was very low due to a corroded pipe. They ended up digging up the pavement and road to do new plastic connection, luckily not on our dime as it was before meter. A few years later they did all the other houses in our street.

 

[MatthewC]

The NHL5 slab is laid, with the RFG underneath, so now I'm waiting a good two weeks before getting the builder to lay the limestone which we have ordered. It does look much like the stuff in Ivor's pictures but ours is real stone! Before then I need to address the missing plaster where the horrible 1:1 cement skirting board had been fitted - presumably before the existing plastering was done. There is a six inch bit of bare brick underneath a one inch overhang of plaster.

We already have some pine skirting board made to match the skirting in the lounge, which should improve the look of the hall when it is installed. I am quietly impressed with myself that I kept (and found after 10 years) a small sample of skirting which I could hand that over and say "a profile like that, please". I plan to paint the new skirting before installation, to save my back.

 

[Feltwell]

Our gas pipe looked similar when they removed it.

I found an old, corroded gas pipe when building my garage - which lead to an old valve box. Called out the gas board, bloke took one look and told me I'd need the "specialist engineering team". He turned up, I kid yee not gave the valve box a whack with a sledgehammer - at which point it parted company with the pipe - and then declared, "Nah, it's dead".

Not so much "specialist", more "expendable" I believe.

 

[Cubist]

Our gas pipe looked similar when they removed it.

I found an old, corroded gas pipe when building my garage - which lead to an old valve box. Called out the gas board, bloke took one look and told me I'd need the "specialist engineering team". He turned up, I kid yee not gave the valve box a whack with a sledgehammer - at which point it parted company with the pipe - and then declared, "Nah, it's dead".

Not so much "specialist", more "expendable" I believe.

For me this conjoured an image of a poorly trained bomb disposal expert.