I actively restore original Victorian tiled pathways in North and West London in the warmer Summer months. Occasionally I restore Victorian style pathways in Hertfordshire where there are quite a few of these particularly in St Albans and I also go to Bedfordshire on occasion.
Whats involved in restoring a Victorian tiled pathway?
As you can see the restoration process is pretty transformative and the deep cleaning really allows the sealing / colour enhancing to blend old and new tiles well.
Sub base strengthening:
Allot of the time the sub base will need work. I take up all the loose and crumbly stuff and strengthen, replace and blend in everything until its nice and solid I have tried and tested materials and techniques that I believe are the best. Many customers say they have been told by restorers that it all needs to come up and relayed! I dont believe I have ever seen one that required complete lifting up. With my process of strengthening the sub base I can get it all solid without taking everything up. This saves allot of cost and I have never had a call back from a customer with tiles coming loose yet going back many years so it must be good:) And if I ever did I would go fix it free!!
Tiling repairs:
Tile repairs I find can be quite fiddly and time consuming. Tiles are best made up on site from bigger reproduction 15 cm squares in the appropriate colours. When trying to order correct sizes it never works properly as the old and new tiles are never the same. This usually leaves a nasty grout line around the new tiles when all the original ones dont have a grout line.
Loose original tiles on the pathway that need to be reused require preparation as well. The sides and backs need to be ground down or they are not smooth enough to tile properly with and will result in a bumpy uneven finish. On the whole the chiselling and tiling needs allot of patience to be done properly.
Deep cleaning:
Deep cleaning the original Victorian tiles has to be done very well as the old and new tiles dont blend well if the original tiles are dirty and stained. Deep cleaning takes allot of experience and quite specialist knowledge to do properly. I have seen a number of jobs where customers had a tile restorer do the tiling part , but the tiles still look dirty because their restorer didnt know how to clean them properly.
Deep sealing:
Another very important aspect of blending the old and new tiles together is a colour enhancer and sealer. Only after thoroughly cleaned and dry the next morning, I will saturate the tiles with a very durable, quality colour enhancing penetrating tile sand stone sealer. This is pretty much all the protection the exterior Victorian tiles can have after restoration so we have to do it properly. Thats thoroughly dry base and tiles with no rain predicted and use plenty of a very good product on them. Customers should pay attention to this stage to be able to top up the sealer on their tiles going forward.
In this job you can clearly see the effects of the colour enhancing tile sealer. You may be able to see the new tiles going across the middle section and how after colour enhancing they blend much better. On the left the tiles are actually in a thoroughly clean state but look very flat due to their age.
I undertake these Victorian pathway restorations all over North and West London including some parts of Bedfordshire and South Buckinghamshire. I am actually based in Hertfordshire work allot in , Ealing, Muswell Hill, Crouch End, Barnet, Hampstead Heath, Highgate, Islington, Chiswick, Acton, ST Johns Wood, Notting Hill. Please drop me an email for more info [email protected]
