Quarry tiles.

[marco]

We want to tile our cuisine with 6" quarry tiles which i had envisaged buying in the UK and shipping bit by bit in the trusty but ageing Volvo estate.

With nearly 50m2 to cover this would take a fair few trips, because of the weight.

It's just occured to the brains of the family that we might be able to buy non glazed clay tiles in France.

She's had a look at a few Brico websites without luck.

Does anyone have these or have they seen them for sale ?

I thought they were essentially an English thing.

If I can get them in Brittany it would be a great deal easier and would save the tired old Volvo from even more abuse.

[cooperlola]

Hmm.  Well it has always seemed to me that Terre Cuite tiles are abundant in France.  Wouldn't that work?

When we were in the UK and trying to find a good match for the 150 year old quarry tiles in our kitchen, the closest we could get were terracota (?) ones imported from Spain.

[tonyv]

This is of no use to anyone, but hey-ho!

When I had my underfloor heating installed, the 100 m² of terrecuite floor was dug up; most of them in excellent condition. I tried to hawk them around, but could not find anyone interested, so eventually they went to land-fill.

Don't suppose I could dig 'em up!

[cooperlola]

[quote user="tonyv"]Don't suppose I could dig 'em up!
[/quote]I thought that was what your avatar was doing!

 

What a shame,  We have a guy in the village who has a business selling old building materials - seems to charge a fortune for these things.  But of course, you don't need to know that now, do you?  (There's always one, isn't there?[:$])

[just john]

The biggest problem I found was delivery, they weigh so much, I wish I'd known about your though TV,

I bought new tiles from the original 200 year old factory still making them from the original clay quarry, a wide range of sizes, patterns and colours available direct, and as used by Listed monuments. The place is on the D19 in Charente (half way between Juillaguet and Montignac le coq) not cheap but cheaper than the similar mass produced Italian/Spanish stuff in the specialist tile emporia.

I grouted with a 3-1 mix of fine graded gold sand (shot blast sand) and lime (Chaux St Astier). The grout looked a bit of mess during grouting but all wiped off with a wet sponge as normal afterwards, and now looks great with a pastel gold colour. Final treatment is a 50/50% mix of Linseed oil and Turps, (lots, it just keeps soaking it up for about 4/5 coats). Odd marks were removed with some of the sand rubbed over the mark to clean off.

 

[cooperlola]

[quote user="just john "]the similar mass produced Italian/Spanish stuff in the specialist tile emporia.

[/quote]The thing I loved about ours was the number of little flaws in them even including paw prints, wyb - I assume from the producer's passing pets or neighbourhood strays.  They may have been mass produced but didn't seem so.[:)]

[just john]

Absolutely Coops, the only reason for my description was that buying direct from the local producer was a bit cheaper. Having watched the whole process, I would guess the paw belonged to the Factory mog, since the tiles are formed and cut, then stacked before being loaded into the kiln and fired all under one roof, with all the paws, flaws colour variations etc

[idun]

With me cooking so much I find glazed tiles can be hard enough to clean in a kitchen, so how on earth do you keep unglazed tiles clean? I agree they look lovely, but it is that 'cleaning' element and me rather liking an easy life with regards to housework, that has always put me off.[:D]

[DorothyJ]

We laid old terre cuite in our kitchen  (around 1000) about five years ago. When we took up the concrete floor it had been originally laid with terre cuite but they couldn't be saved so some of the tiles came from the floor above the sous a cochon and some we bought locally. We live  4 kms from Les Rairies where the tiles were originally made and the chap at Yvon Cailleau  gave really good advice on both laying them and aftercare. I cleaned them thoroughly first, then I used a polish from this company which seals the tile but is not shiny (just a slight sheen) and is non-slip. I try to do a thorough clean and apply more polish once a year but  wash over regularly with savon noir, especially in front of the sink and cooker. 'Regularly' may be a bit of  an exaggeration but I do my best! It does get a lot of traffic as we all traipse through with shoes and wellies, especially when it is dry but it is very forgiving!  I think the tiles are beautiful,they  look as if they had always been there and in winter around the Villager they are really warm to walk on (no central heating).