Sealing quarry tiles

TheGreenFrog

We have a Victorian house.  One room has old quarry tiles over what I am pretty sure is a suspended wooden floor (it is above a cellar).  My wife wants to get the quarry tiles sealed for some reason, and am just wondering whether this is advisable.

goldfinches

My parents had quarry tiles in their kitchen diner in the late 70s which were initially oiled and they found that the big issue wasn't the porosity of the tiles but rather the height of the grout in between them.
Whenever they mopped or squeegee'd the floor inevitably they'd find that the tiles which didn't have grout exactly flush with their edges ended up with a very obvious dirty wet line where the tile had caught against the cleaning tool and scraped off the muck.
My mother eventually had the tilers back to first go round and fill in all the places where the dirt was collecting and she then had them seal the whole thing which made it wipe clean. That worked well but was an extreme annoyance before it was all sorted out and you can guess how popular she was with the workmen!
I think the fact that the floor was over a void which had good air bricks meant that the tiles could breathe so there was never any issue with trapped moisture.

Is your wife wanting them sealed because they're a pain to clean or because they never look clean?

You might find the Victorian Society publications useful. Shop - The Victorian Society 
The Victorian Society Book of The Victorian House : Wedd, Kit: Amazon.co.uk: Books