Cleaning old tiles

weeze210

Memory_Girl wrote: »

Do the tiles "sound" ceramic when you tap them with something hard?

If they don't, well I think they look like proper linoleum - my Gran had something similar. Linoleum (the made with wood dust and boiled linseed oil - not the modern vinyl stuff) was hugely popular in the 1950s (sorry I missed that bit on your original post).

Asked a mate and he suggested that the "whitening" may be that you have melted the wax polish that was once applied - the heat of the steamer melting the wax and it resets "clean and white" as it cools.

As for restoration - he says that you should be able to buy a "wax stripper" and wax restorer if you are going for the authentic 1950's thing from people who stock stuff like "marmoleum"

He also says "Lucky you" because the floors are practically undestructable and apparently antiseptic too - they were use in hospitals to keep a germ free environment.

Then again - just guessing from your photograph

MG

Thanks for that, hubby has had a closer look and we think you have hit the nail on the head! on closer inspection it does look very much like what you described.

Weeze x