On the tiles

I grew up in a large, old house with a kitchen floored in red quarry tiles which over the years had mellowed to a soft palette of pinks through to orange. Warm underfoot, particularly when standing near the Rayburn cooker, the tiles cheerfully dealt with regular flooding from a venerable washing machine, and the heavy traffic generated by a large family of humans and animals.

Anyone who buys an older house may find the flooring both an asset and a challenge. Due to modern conversions, many old floors have been taken up or covered over, so where quarry tiles, encaustic tiles or flagstones still exist, they are an important asset well worth preserving.

Quarry tiles became popular for sculleries, kitchens and bathrooms in Victorian and Edwardian houses. They have a pleasing unglazed finish and were produced in a range of natural colours, with red, yellow and black being the most popular. Encaustic tiles - the word means inlaid - were high quality tiles used in entrance halls, corridors, conservatories, patios and pathways. Often consisting of striking designs, clay was pressed into a mould that left an indented pattern, the indentations were filled flush with liquefied clay of different colours and fired.

What options do you have with a damaged interior or exterior tiled floor surface? Repairs can be done with reclaimed tiles. Original quarry tiles are available from the Victorian Salvage and Joinery Company at £35 a square yard. Rocca Tiles sells terracotta tiles reclaimed from old pathways and buildings. These cost £72 per square yard, and handmade terracotta tiles are at £38 per square yard.

Many tile companies sell unsealed, unglazed quarry tiles made from Staffordshire or Welsh clay: "The colour varies from dark to light across all the shades," says Darren Dixon of The Dublin Tile Centre. "Sometimes it works well and you get a good blend." Red and neutral coloured quarry tiles cost approximately £18 per square yard.

Antica Ceramica are sole agents for Italian architect Giani Gaiti who developed a method of ageing marble by tumbling large slabs together in an acid solution. This changes the smooth cold surface into something textured, diverse and worn, making it warmer to the touch and eye and fitting well in a period setting.

"Two of the best floors for a period style kitchen are Gaiti's hand finished travertine, a limestone-like stone, or hand finished marble," says Paddy McQuaid of Antica Ceramica. "They offer a very distressed finish, can be cut to any size, and come in a huge range of colours from white, greys, cream, pearl through pinks ochre rusts, reds to green and black." The cost is from £110£120 per square metre.

For halls or public areas a more refined finish is given with French limestone tiles with pillowed and chiselled edges in a Versailles design. Again, a full range of shades is available, the finish is warm and muted not high gloss, and the price is from £120 a square metre.

Gerard O'Brien, of Encaustica in Co Kilkenny, makes contemporary encaustic tiles reproducing medieval designs which are used as features and borders in hallways, porches and patios. He has made kitchen tiles for the country retreat of former President Mary Robinson, in Mayo.

He has developed techniques and processes to exactly match old tiles no longer in production and can copy designs and colours. His most popular tiles are traditional encaustics in red clay with buff inlay colourways. Four and half inch square tiles are £7.50 each and six by three inch border tiles are £7.25. Three inch square tiles are £4.50 each.

Dublin tiler Pat Drennan lays both modern and period flooring and may use a base of sand and cement for period tiles. "This means that the thicker tiles can be tapped down deeper into the bed," he says. Victorian style floors can also be recreated with modern quarry tiles laid in a regular grid pattern. Laying a floor using old quarry tiles on a sand or cement base will cost from £50 a square metre. Confirming the current popularity for tumbled, aged marble, Pat Drennan says laying a modern floor will cost from £30 a square metre.

When it comes to flagstones, worn flags are an intrinsic feature of an old stone floor, and unless dangerous, should be accepted as part of their character.

Artefaction is a company that works in stone, marble and slate, specialising in floor and marble restoration: "People typically come to us from an old house with a stone floor that needs some work," says Juanita Cullen. "We can clean and reseal which will prevent liquid penetration."

Restoring an entire floor with old stone is expensive. Replacing badly damaged or missing flags only with reclaimed stone is more cost-effective. Victorian Salvage & Joinery charge from £60 a square yard for period flags. Artefaction also suggests Portuguese limestone which cost £65 a square metre as a lower cost alternative to original flags.

Modern quarried flagstones are widely available. Artefaction supply modern Portland stone at £130 a square metre. Rocca Tiles supplies a range of modern quarried flagstones - Chinese rustic multicolour slate stones are £42 a square yard and limestone flags at £60 a square yard. Artefaction estimates the cost of laying a flagstone floor at about £50 to £60 per square metre.