Victorian & Geometric Floor Tiling
Our Specialism
The floors most tilers turn down
Every floor is set out from scratch and cut to the room it goes in. Get it wrong at the front door and the error runs the whole length of the hall. It's slow work, and it's what Mickey has done for most of twenty-five years.
Thinking about a Victorian or geometric floor? Send a photo of the hallway, porch or path and rough measurements, and we can give you an idea of cost before anyone visits.
The words people use
What Victorian, geometric and encaustic mean
People use these three words as if they mean the same thing, including some of the people selling the tiles. They don't.
- Geometric
- Unglazed clay tiles cut into squares, triangles, hexagons and diamonds, laid to a pattern with a border round the edge. The colour runs right through the tile, so wear never shows a different colour underneath.
- Encaustic
- The patterned tiles set into a geometric floor. The motif is inlaid in coloured clay rather than printed on top, which is why originals are still sharp after a hundred years of boots.
- Tessellated
- The proper name for the whole approach: small shapes fitted together with no gaps. Most people asking for a Victorian hallway floor mean a tessellated geometric one.
Where these floors belong
Hallways, porches, front paths and door steps
The hallway is the heart of it. A Victorian or Edwardian hall is long and narrow, which is the shape that shows a geometric pattern best and the shape that punishes careless setting out. The same floor often carries on through the vestibule, out to the door step and down the path.
It suits bay-fronted terraces, semis and villas: houses with a proper hall and a path from the gate. Back-to-backs rarely work, even though they're the same era. The front door opens straight into the living room, so there's no hall and no path.
We work across Leeds and West Yorkshire — Horsforth, Guiseley, Otley, Headingley, Chapel Allerton, Roundhay and the villages around them — and out to Harrogate, Ilkley and York. For the right job we travel: Mickey has laid Original Style floors across the UK and into Europe.
How we lay them
Survey to final seal, and why each stage matters
Most quotes give you a price and a start date. This is what actually happens on site, so you can compare quotes on something more useful than cost.
- 01
Survey and substrate
We look at what the floor is sitting on before anything else. Old halls often have no damp-proof membrane, uneven screed, or a timber floor that moves. Lay a rigid floor over any of those without preparing it and you get cracked tiles and lifted borders a year later.
- 02
Setting out
What separates a good Victorian floor from a poor one. We set out from the centre line and work to the threshold and the skirting, so the pattern lands square at both ends and the border stays an even width. It's where the time goes, and you can't correct it once the adhesive is down.
- 03
Borders and corners
The border is what makes a floor look built rather than laid. Corners are mitred so the pattern turns cleanly, and the border is scribed to the wall where the house has gone out of square. Most old ones have.
- 04
Cutting and fitting
Around door frames, bay returns, radiator pipes and thresholds. Small tiles mean a lot of cuts and every one is on show, so they're cut to the line rather than filled with grout.
- 05
Grouting and sealing
Grout colour changes how the pattern reads: the same tiles with a dark grout look like a different floor. Unglazed clay is porous, so it's sealed once fully dry, and we'll show you how to look after it.
Send us a photo of the room and rough measurements and we can give you an idea of cost before anyone visits.
The tiles
Original Style, fitted across the UK and into Europe
We are experienced installers of Original Style tiles and work with their Victorian floor ranges regularly. Builders, contractors and designers have sought Mickey out for intricate Original Style work up and down the country and into Europe.
We'll help you pick a pattern and colourway that suits the age and light of the house rather than the one that photographs best. What looks striking in a showroom can overwhelm a narrow hall.
New floors, laid properly
We install new Victorian and geometric floors, including carrying one through from the hall into a porch, step or path so the whole entrance matches.
We don't restore or repair original floors. It's a different craft, and we'd rather point you to someone who does it than take it on badly.
The work
Borders, corners and thresholds
Look at where the pattern meets the border, and how it turns a corner.
Seen a floor you like the look of? Send it over with the room measurements and we will tell you what it would take.
Testimonials
What Clients Say About the Victorian Work
“Found Mickey after an Instagram trawl and was made up to learn he would travel to complete our hallway. Initially quoted for hallway and was so impressed with the work, it was only right to extend the work into the front and back porch. The quality speaks for itself. Great communication, kept informed and suggested style to compliment the main hallway so the space transitions seamlessly across the downstairs. We have a period Victorian house and Mickey has provided a finish fitting and sympathetic to its heritage. If the opportunity ever arises, I would wholly recommend you commission him to do work for you - you won't regret the finish!”
Who lays it
Mickey Horner
Second-generation tiler, twenty-five years in the trade, and specialising in Victorian floor tiling for most of that time. Mickey learned under his father and served an apprenticeship with Peter Jowitt before running his own work on new housing developments, sports centres and commercial fit-outs.
He now runs the company with a team of employees and subcontract tilers. On a Victorian floor you are getting the person whose reputation is attached to it — which is rather the point, on a job where the setting out cannot be fixed afterwards.
Contact Us
Get a quote for your floor
Send us a photo of the hallway, porch or path and rough measurements, and we can give you an idea of cost before anyone visits. For a firm price we will come and look at it.
- 6 Snaithwood Mews, Rawdon, Leeds, LS19 6SE
- 07985 424 696
- mickeytiler@aol.com