Victorian Floor Tiling in Bromley & Croydon

Victorian geometric floors are the most setting-out-heavy work in tiling. The pattern is built from small squares, triangles and hexagons in a handful of colours, and there is nowhere to hide an error. Once a border is a few millimetres out at one end of a hallway, it is visibly out by the time it reaches the door.

Hallways, porches and paths

Most of this work is in period terraces and semis: the front path, the porch, and the hallway running back to the stairs. These are the floors people notice from the street, and a well-restored one lifts the whole front of a house.

Why the setting out takes as long as the laying

Hallways in Victorian houses are rarely square, and the walls are rarely parallel. The pattern has to be centred on something that reads as central to the eye, which is not always the geometric centre of the room. The border needs to run parallel to the wall that people actually see as they come through the door, with the discrepancy absorbed where it will be least noticeable.

That means setting the whole floor out dry, from the border inward, before anything is fixed. On a hallway of any length that is most of a day's work before a single tile is bedded. It is also the difference between a floor that looks original and one that looks approximate.

New geometric tiles are widely available in the traditional patterns and colours, and they work well alongside surviving original sections where only part of a floor needs replacing.

Getting a quote

I work across Bromley, Croydon, Orpington, Bexley, Swanley and Sevenoaks, and there are a lot of period properties across South London and north Kent that suit this kind of floor. Quotes are free, and I am happy to advise on pattern and colour to suit the age and style of the house.