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Keeping original features that you don’t actually like?

ChasingtheWelshdream
Posts: 912 Forumite


Just looking for opinions really, we’ve sort of made up our minds. We think. Possibly….
We have an Edwardian house. I love period homes and have reinstated/repaired missing features where possible. Including many hours uncovering the original kitchen/scullery quarry tiled floor 4 years ago.
However, I’ve never really liked it. It’s dark, dingy, attracts dirt, cold. Many of them are damaged and it’s never looked great despite my best efforts with sealing and buffing. I’m now hating it.
Notwithstanding the technicalities of the floor being breathable and the possibility of laying limecrete, would it be complete sacrilege to replace with something we prefer?
We are about to knock through into the adjoining room to create a semi open plan kitchen/dining/snug and it would look so much better to lay new flooring throughout.
Everytime I think we’ll just go for it, I then feel guilty about ripping out a 110 year old floor, which is precisely what I moan about previous residents doing.
Then again, it is 2021 and should we live in a museum just because it has always been there?
Just looking for others’ thoughts really. Kids are isolating so I have a fair few hours on my hands to ponder upon things…
We have an Edwardian house. I love period homes and have reinstated/repaired missing features where possible. Including many hours uncovering the original kitchen/scullery quarry tiled floor 4 years ago.
However, I’ve never really liked it. It’s dark, dingy, attracts dirt, cold. Many of them are damaged and it’s never looked great despite my best efforts with sealing and buffing. I’m now hating it.
Notwithstanding the technicalities of the floor being breathable and the possibility of laying limecrete, would it be complete sacrilege to replace with something we prefer?
We are about to knock through into the adjoining room to create a semi open plan kitchen/dining/snug and it would look so much better to lay new flooring throughout.
Everytime I think we’ll just go for it, I then feel guilty about ripping out a 110 year old floor, which is precisely what I moan about previous residents doing.
Then again, it is 2021 and should we live in a museum just because it has always been there?
Just looking for others’ thoughts really. Kids are isolating so I have a fair few hours on my hands to ponder upon things…
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Comments
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Original features are great If they are attractive or can be made attractive. If not - replace it with something that is.
3 -
I like brick floors. I've done one in our porch and one in the back of the kitchen. My wife said they are easy to keep clean.
They don't crack easily, are breathable, hard wearing and easy to lay.1 -
DH and I love original features and like yourself, in our previous houses (none newer than Victorian) have spent ridiculous amounts of time either restoring those we had or else putting period appropriate ones back in 🙄
I've lost track of the number of fireplaces we've sourced at reclamation yards/fleamarkets/ebay over the years, lol!
When we had our big old (Victorian) family home we were fortunate to actually find that one of our favourite local antique dealers who specialised in salvage, was selling the encaustic tiles from the nearby Hampshire church where my parents married (the church had recently been converted to several townhouses). We snapped up every sackful and I painstakingly laid them in our humongous hallway 😄
Here in Wales, in our considerably smaller 400 year old property that was a mill in a past life, we too have lots of quarry tiles (red and black) and our first thought - like yours - was to keep them.
Whilst they're not original to our building - which was converted to residential in Victorian times - they were one of the few remaining period features left. Ours are in two rooms - both of which we have since knocked through into the adjoining rooms that don't have matching flooring. We also changed the purpose of both spaces, so the former kitchen is now a snug/living room, whilst the second reception is now incorporated into the new kitchen 😉
Even without the fact that we've ended up with rooms whose floors look a mishmash, I'm really not keen on the quarries as I also find them rather dingy and prone to picking up dirt easily. Ours are also quite damaged in places.
Our style is what I call *curated maximalist eclectic* 😁 - evolved over the years from a previous strict adherence to art nouveau and following period style to the letter, lol! - and therefore, despite the age/location of the building, our very rural home doesn't have a cottage-y vibe at all.
Moreover, because of the way the old mill has been messed with over the years (it's not listed, although our front boundary wall is 😎), we've come to the conclusion that losing the *feature* of the quarries isn't going to make a huge amount of difference.
Therefore, we plan to replace the tiles in both spaces with something that better suits the way we live (the snug floor has to come up anyway, but that's another story!) and look nicer too. Hopefully what we choose will also suit the property better than some of our predecessors choices 🙁
So, imho, if you're going to be knocking through and end up with a floor of two halves, I'd not hesitate to take the opportunity to put in a floor you'll love.... perhaps the quarries could be repurposed elsewhere? If ours come up ok - and from what we've investigated so far, they seem to be bedded on earth - we plan to reuse them in an outbuilding.....Mortgage-free for fourteen years!
Over £40,000 mis-sold PPI reclaimed4 -
Ensure it is removed carefully and decent bits sent to architectural salvage rather than hardcore?If it were a much scarcer (and probably older) feature I would come down strongly on the side of keeping it. 17th century flagstone floor, for instance. But this doesn't seem a huge loss.But a banker, engaged at enormous expense,Had the whole of their cash in his care.
Lewis Carroll4 -
Thank you all. I am usually very much in the keep it camp. I’ve refused to consider insulating our walls as it would mean losing the beautiful cornicing, even though it would be much cosier.
Fireplaces are going back in (for show only), door furniture is gradually being sourced to complement the one original we had left.But these are just not getting the love. I tried, I really did. I thought I would cherish them, but….nope.They also adjoin a utility that has been slapped with concrete so we have a real mish mash, and I get so much floor envy when I look at homes magazines/Pinterest.
I would absolutely salvage them, never smash. I don’t feel such shame now!
Oh, and shwmae Phoebe!2 -
I wonder if they are hard wearing enough for outside use? Thinks…..the concrete path needs replacing….0
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Can you not leave in situ and cover with a floor covering of your choice,someone in the future will thank you for it. One of the most satisfying job's I ever done was remove a past its best parquet flooring in a vestibule only for the original and in good order Victorian tiles to be revealed.that was a lovely surprise.3
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Not really as the tiles are likely laid on earth/ash/something crumbly. We would need to excavate and lay a limecrete base. Simply covering up will probably cause damp.The previous owners had put a screed over, then lino. It was soaking when we pulled it up. Needs a bit of research.
In that note though, I have been careful to keep the original tiled hearths in situ and undamaged, covered with ‘floating’ hearths. They were in poor repair and too expensive to match, but a new owner can uncover and do as they wish.1 -
No, not sacrilege at all. I don't think I have ever heard anyone admire quarry tiles. They were a cheap flooring when laid, and are usually laid without a damp proof membrane so are cold and damp.
I had them throughout my Victorian terraced house and had them dug out and lots of insulation put under a new concrete slab. The house and the floors were warm and dry after that, and I could have a wide choice of attractive coverings fitted.The comments I post are my personal opinion. While I try to check everything is correct before posting, I can and do make mistakes, so always try to check official information sources before relying on my posts.3 -
I'd consider covering something over
to save the feature, but if it isn't
really good enough to be shown, I wouldn't
lose sleep over not showing it. I
think flooring is one of those things that really affects how warm a
room feels and also how clean it is.It would be sacrilege to cover an undamaged minton floor, but I've lived in an old house with cold, cold flags in the kitchen and it was no fun at all!Everything that is supposed to be in heaven is already here on earth.
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