Heritage Tiling Design & Restoration Co is now in its 27th year having opened for trading in 1982.
We have worked all over the planet from New Zealand to the U.S.A & Canada most countries in Europe and of course all over our own beautiful country Inc the Emerald Isle.
Where ever the Victorians went they installed stunning floors of geometric tiles inlaid with decorated encaustic tiles. Victorian tiling reached a pinnacle that will never be realised again, Victorian mosaic tiling was also laid in millions of square yards throughout the empire e.g. the Smithsonian in the States has vast areas tiled in both mosaic & geometric tiles with encaustic panels.
Our aim is to restore as many geometric tiled floors and encaustic & geometric tiled floors as possible. Alternatively if the tiles are too badly damaged it is possible to reproduce most Victorian tile patterns with modern equivalents or have the tiles manufactured.
Our clients often say that it is impossible to tell where our restored section and the original tiles begin, Heritage Tiling has regularly taken on complicated restoration contracts that have been deemed too awkward to save and have brought the floor back to being a superb focal point.
Our team derives great satisfaction in saving floors and providing clients with floors that they will treasure.
Our core business is restoration tiling with an emphasis on Victorian tiling schemes e.g. Victorian geometric tiling or encaustic tiling and of course mosaic tiling.
However we are also involved in Mural art both private & public works have been installed, Please contact us to discuss your needs.
When contacting this company, please mention you found them through www.projectbook.co.uk.| Address: | P.O. Box 18
Seaforth
Seaforth Vale
Liverpool
London
L21 0JX | | View Map: | Click here to view a map of this location. | | Tel: | 0151 920 7349 | | Mobile: | 07946 478901 | | Website: | http://www.heritagetiling.com | | E-mail: | info AT heritagetiling.com | | Established: | 1982 | | Employees: | 2 | | Job Value: | £600 - £2,000,000 | | Proficiency: | Pre 1919, Grade II, Grade II*, Grade I, Churches, Scheduled Monuments | | Register Listings: | Ceramic Conservators
Floor Tile Restorer's
Mosaics
Stone Flooring
Terracotta
Wall & Floor Tiles Conservators | | VAT Registered? | No | | Brochure Available? | Yes | | Viewed: | 17155 time(s) |
| |
| Title: | Belfast Harbour Commissioners Grade1 Listed |  |
| Year: | 2000 |
| Client: | BFH. |
Belfast Harbour Office 1850 extended in 1895.Restoration of mosaic floor – upper level marble mosaic, lower level unglazed ceramic mosaic, linking stone stairs.The mosaics on both levels had tented or to use local term “boosted” the sections of tesserae had lifted from the screed below.Another Co in the past had attempted to restore these fine floor but had gone for trying to lift and put down the individual pieces this had proved to be too slow and a costly operation.We chose a different method which involved injecting adhesive under pressure and large areas can be done quickly.This contract was carried out with a team of 4 in two weeks and covered over 800 sq metres of loose mosaic with patches still intact. The stone stairs were covered in a yellow thick carpet adhesive this was removed with scrapers and nitromors.The main floors were cleaned with a low rpm scrubbing machine by Numatic; the marble mosaic was cleaned with a neutral Ph cleaner the lower unglazed with a slightly alkaline cleaner. After drying out for a few days the floors and stairs were sealed.See website for more info and a reference.
| Title: | Tedsmore Hall Grade 2 listed |  |
| Year: | 2002 |
| Client: | TH |
A large project stretching over almost 9 months. long corridors of late Victorian geometric floorsapprox 1,000 sq yards. Plus other smaller floors comprising of encaustic & geometric tiles in a study and ante spaces. Also a large terracotta hallway.
| Title: | Haigh Hall Dairy Grade 2 listed |  |
| Year: | 2003 |
| Client: | HH |
Haigh Hall Dairy floor late Victorian Encaustic & Geometric tiled floor. This floor collapsed into the cellar below, thousands of tiles had to be retrieved and the sides & backs cleaned of mortar before they could be re-laid, The joists had rotted through so they were replaced with concrete beams with a block floor; this was screeded over with a glass fibre semi-dry screed, When cured correctly this was then given a coat of self leveller,The original tiles were then re-laid after which the floor was thoroughly cleaned and then sealed.
| Title: | Edinburgh Victorian Mansion Grade B listed |  |
| Year: | 2006 |
| Client: | G.Neilson |
Late Victorian Mansion with an encaustic & geometric floor, the building had been owned previously by a Scottish bank group, the floor was indiscriminately cut through in places to set ducting & pipes for IT and heating.The concrete infill first had to be removed and then the runs filled up with a fibre based screed to a level slightly below the original tile base to allow for an adhesive bed to set a mixture of re-claimed tiles and new tiles from Craven Dunnill. Some original screed had to ground down using a Fein rasp, any broken or damaged tiles were cut free using an exakt saw. After replacing all the missing tiles the floor was cleaned and a few days later sealed.
| Title: | Victorian Hotel Grade 2 listed |  |
| Year: | 2006 |
| Client: | VH |
Victorian Hotel circa 1880, the floor was butchered over a period of time when many owners did not appreciate this beautiful floor the main floor was cut through to provide piping for a bar.I took the tiles back to firm sections, the infill was removed and then the large damaged section was re-filled until the bed was slightly below the original tile bed to allow for a coat of adhesive ( BAL –flex was used throughout) the original screed was ground down with a Fein tool and various rasp heads. Damaged tiles were cut out using an exakt saw.Tiles were cut to size from 6x6 tiles provided by Craven Dunnill and re-claimed tiles. Tiles were cut using a Rubi TS40 and a Rubi wet cut some of the tiles are unusual curved tiles these would have been struck from a mould originally but the few needed I cut using the wet cut and rasps from 6x6 buff tiles. Took approx one & half hours to cut each tile.After all the tiles were cut & laid the floor was cleaned with a Numatic 200 rpm machine and a few days later sealed.
| Title: | Bowden House Grade 2 Listed |  |
| Year: | 2007 |
| Client: | BH |
Bowden House.Twin late Victorian linked Mansion encaustic & geometric tiled floors. Twin entrance halls had suffered damages over the years with rotted joists and amateur repairs.The tiles were Minton & Hollins made before the acrimonious split between the two men, they were made on a 6.5 inch x 6.5 inch format later tiles by Minton were on a standard 6x6.Because of this size using new tiles would be a problem plus 6.5 inches tiles although made by a few firms are much rarer that the standard 6x6. We received permission to lift a corridor and use those tiles to restore the two damaged hallways.The lifted corridor tiles were then replaced with a new floor cut from 6x6 tiles supplied by Craven Dunnill.Large areas of original tiles had been damaged or become loose these were lifted and as is usual on all our contracts the sides & edges of the tiles are cleaned of mortar, an invisible job which clients never take into account when asking about time taken to carry out works.Any missing or damaged areas of screed are removed and filled in with a fibre based screed semi-dry. Then a coating of self leveller.Exakt saws are used in tandem (they get very hot ) to cut out damaged or out of sequence tiles the thin diamond blades of these saws being perfect for this precision work.The screed beneath lifted tiles needs to be ground down to accept a bed of flexible adhesive so to do this we use a combination of scoring with the Exakt saw and then cutting out with an arbortech power chisel and then grinding with a Fein Supercut either with a rasp or one of the diamond blade attachments.Once the levels have been achieved tiles are fixed into place and grouted when cured with a flex based grout. We use a Numatic low rpm cleaner and light alkaline cleaning fluids to bring the tiles back to as near original colours.A couple of days later we seal the tiles
| Title: | Murray Glasgow Grade B Listed |  |
| Year: | 2008 |
| Client: | Murray Glasgow |
Murray Contract.This restoration contract is a geometric & encaustic tiled floor circa 1880, over the years a number of amateur repairs were perpetrated upon this beautiful floor.The main section of the floor had suffered from a major upheaval during building works to convert the basement /cellar into bedrooms etc.A main support joist had been acrowed (Acrow = mechanical support system) out of position so much so the joist had actually twisted out of true. This had caused the lime based screed to crack & buckle which led to the overlying geometric & encaustic floor tiles to lose cohesion with the screed bed into which they had originally been beaten (fixing method). It took more than 3 weeks to complete the contract the lifted tiles were taken back to our workshop to clean the backs & sides of hundreds of lifted tiles.We used Exakt saws to cut out the areas of tiles that we needed to remove so that new screed could be put down. Over 5 tons of fibre screed semi dry was put into place. Then a self leveller was laid over that to get the floor as flat as possible.Fein Supercuts were used to grind down any of the remaining original screed so that a bed of flexible adhesive could be applied to beat the tiles into when they were replaced.The floor looks stunning now and this client had been on our books for over 9 years they had been doing other building works!
| Title: | AE contract |  |
| Year: | 2009 |
| Client: | AE. |
AE. ContractLate Victorian Encaustic & Geometric Tiled Floor.The above floor consisted of a small porch at an angle to the main floor, the porch floor was in good to fair condition some damage had occurred through movement = porch had shifted on it’s foundation’s causing a large amount of movement internally through both the floor area and could be seen in shift externally in the brick-work also the stone & brick steps to the property had come adrift of the main building.Due to this movement a fair amount of the tiled floor had been removed from the foot of the stairs extending a distance through the main field tiles seen as rectangle in the following pictures.Another section of flooring square in shape had been removed and infilled this is at the threshold of what will be the kitchen and in front of what is now a downstairs toilet.Both of the sections missing had been filled with concrete to a depth of over 80mm, the rest of the tiled floor was heavily soiled and was covered also in paint splashes /carpet adhesive and various other marks & stains so much so that some of the colours were hard to verify without some cleaning to confirm colours to match with either new or reclaimed tiles.Floor restoration always starts with preparation, which in this case meant removing all the broken loose tiles prior to sorting out those that could be kept, these tiles would then have the edges & backcleaned of any adhered mortar, a dirty time consuming job and one of the many “invisible “jobs that need to be done to produce an end result that looks as if it is a well looked after floor rather than a floor most people would consign to a skip!After all the loose sections have been tidied up (this has to be done otherwise loose tiles which are re-useable can be broken) the next job was too remove the concreted sections, removal was carried out with heavy duty Makita mini- kango type drills.As with all these restoration contracts two essential tools are always used that is an Exakt saw these are used as they have fine diamond blades 1mm in width perfect for getting in-between the tight joints common in Victorian tiled floors.The next tool is the Fein Super cut this has various blades & rasps that absolutely crucial to getting the screeds cut down to depths so tiles can be fixed into place. I also use an Arbortech power chisel actually a wood cutting chisel but brilliant for getting hard to remove screed out without using too much power and knocking more tiles out of place.Other sections removed Inc all the field tiles in the porch, these were cleaned up as described above to be used in the main floor.A section of border between the porch floor and main floor = doorway section had suffered heave from the dropped porch section All of those tiles were taken up so that a new screed could be laid to flatten out the large hump.Also the border tiles taken up were used to replace the missing section in front of the downstairs toilet door.The threshold tiles in front of the kitchen door had been removed so the dining room threshold tiles (which were loose) were removed to allow the threshold tiles to be reset replacing missing blue/white/black encaustic tiles (patterned tile) with blank black tiles, this preserves the look both aesthetically & in symmetry .The field tiles in the porch were replaced by new floor tiles cut into a traditional pattern and complement the main floor by connecting through a similar shaped main tile.A new connecting threshold pattern was cut & laid between the two floors mirroring the main field tile design with a subtle colour way difference.Once all the tiles had been cut and the new screeds had dried it was a matter of beating the new tiles & reclaimed tiles into position given the enormous amount of damage there had only been a small amount of creep over the years so very few tiles had to be custom cut to fit back into position but there were a few that had to be cut to size.As usual in an old floor there are lots of mistakes by the original fixers this is quite common given they would only have either natural light of which there is precious little or they would have been using oil or gas lamps so it’s not surprising that tiles are out of sequence upside down or the wrong colour!Rescreeding the missing sections took well over half a ton of material, the original floors were laid over a lime based screed which in turn was tamped down over foundry slag and hard core amongst which they had thrown the debris of a building site of that era, = horse manure/broken clay pipes / dottle from same/ wood shavings/ nails & bits of lead/ and general rubbish.I enjoyed the challenge of bringing this floor back from a dirty broken remnant to a vibrant beautiful addition to the character of the house.Steve Sinnott @ Heritage Tiling February 2010.
| Title: | Dunblane New Geometric |  |
| Year: | 2009 |
| Client: | J. ferguson |
New Geometric floor, Grasmere pattern.This project was recommended by Historic Scotland the building was previously owned & ran by the Post Office, it was an awkward contract because of the building design which was early 18 century the walls on one side were curved outwards and had other minor undulations and the far wall curved inwards so getting the border and setting the correct size variable took some time.Also the foyer had large slates fixed on a deep mortar bed these had to be removed and then the floor levelled to meet the ply floor that had been screwed down at 6 inch centres on the main floor.Setting out took approx 4 hours. The client was very pleased with the finished floor.
| Title: | Collingham Yorks |  |
| Year: | 2009 |
| Client: | Prof Scott & Dr Preece |
Collingham York’s,Late Victorian Mansion encaustic & geometric tiled floor.The floor had been covered in a layer of asphalt = this often occurs in these old buildings but I have no rational explanation for this to be done.Most of the tiles were undamaged apart from being affected by staining from the asphalt, there were a few broken and some attempts had been made in the past to carry out repairs but these had been put down out of sequence.The whole floor apart from the large border had to be lifted; the buff tiles had to be skipped as they had become heavily stained. New tiles from Craven Dunnill were cut to size to replace those, the rest cleaned up so well it would be difficult to tell them from new tiles.We ground the screed down with Fein super cuts and as it was larger areas also used small diamond grinding heads fitted with vacuum attachments.Exakt saws were used to separate the border tiles from the field tiles and to get up in one piece the encaustic tiles as these patterned tiles are hellishly expensive to have made.The lifted tiles were taken back to the workshop and the buff tiles counted so new replacement could be made the new tiles were cut on a Rubi wet cut and a Rubi TS40 +. The rest of the original tiles had their sides & backs cleaned of any mortar as prep to re-fixing.The tiles were then taken back after above prep work and re-fixed, after re-laying the tiles were cleaned with a low rpm scrubbing machine from Numatic and sealed a few days later.A new tiled floor with a unique pattern was laid in an outer porch using Olde English tiles.
| Title: | Kirton Town Hall Grade 1 listed |  |
| Year: | 2010 |
| Client: | KTH |
Kirton Town Hall this contract consisted of restoring the late Victorian geometric floor and adding an extension to this floor using the same colourway but not the same pattern apart from some similar tiles so that the two floors complemented each other.The new floor was cut from 6x6 Craven Dunnill tiles approx 1,800 cuts were needed to make the new floor.The restoration of the original floor was enabled using a Fein Super cut to grind down the original screed to allow a tile to be bedded in. Exakt saws were used to cut the concrete infill out and any damaged tiles these Exakt saws are perfect for this purpose as the blades are so thin they can cut between the tight joints and then the damaged tiles can be chiselled out without the percussion affecting the adjacent tiles as the Exakt saw cuts into the bed of the screed thus isolating the damaged tile from it’s neighbours.An Abortech power chisel with a narrow head chisel is also a new addition to our arsenal; this tool has proved it’s usefulness over & over getting hard screed out of small areas without causing tiles either side to lift. A massive problem in the past we used to be carefully chiselling one tile out and approx 10 or more would just pop free from the screed bed!!The New tiles were cut with A Rubi wet cut and a Rubi TS 40+ as I’ve said before the end result of my Co’s work mat look very traditional but how we get to that finish is anything but traditional.It was a very hard contract but highly satisfying.
| Title: | St Helens New Geometric. |  |
| Year: | 2010 |
| Client: | ML |
St Helens Grasmere C pattern new geometric floor.This contract also had an original late Victorian black & White porch floor and Original glazed wall tiles, the B&W floor was damaged and had loose tiles also covered in paint etc. The Wall tiles were in good condition just filthy and covered in paint & plaster.The porch floor tiles were replaced and fixed into place and the walls & floor cleaned & sealed. This was a just over 16 sq metres in size and took 9 hours to set out, the borders on one long side and one short side are fixed first to form a perfect right angle this then defines the setting for the rest of the tiles to be set on a 45 degree .Setting this type of floor takes a long time and needs to be done precisely and that means getting the variable tile (the tile between the wall and the border edge) right otherwise the border set can be thrown out. Also the field tiles need to fit exactly between the border runs if this proves to be awkward it is possible to put another strip onto the border to even up the sizes of cuts or finish.Laying a new geometric is slow work and although quite a few tile co’s attempt to lay this type of tiled floor I have seen numerous mistakes posted on co websites and even included within catalogues these are not recognised as mistakes!! I have laid thousands of square yards of these floors over the years. Strangely not one Co that sells geometric tiles has a program for training or helping tilers to use their product.Consequently many floors are sold and then some time later returned and a less ambitious pattern is put down.Perhaps one day the tile co’s will realise that they need to interact with the main end user = Tilers.
