Advice needed to finish floor laid with reclaimed terracotta floor tiles - TilersForums.com

[Eccles]

My sitting room floor is laid with reclaimed Norfolk Pamment tiles (hand made terracotta) - they are in all manner of states of repair, some smooth, some pitted, some with traces of old tile paint, some clean, some smooth, some rough.

It is a very rustic look for a very old, small cottage

I wanted to seal the tiles to help preserve them, and to help keep the clean.

I have so far applied two coats of boiled linseed oil - this being the advice given by the specialists who still make these tiles

The problem is, due to the wide variety of tiles, an uneven finish (so far) - some have sucked up all the oil and look like they need another coat - others have (even after several days) got sticky patches where the oil did not soak in evenly

Any suggestions for ensuring a fairly even (but above all, functional and protective) finish? I understand that treating them with beeswax is a good idea, but clearly the linseed layer needs evening and finishing first

 

[Flintstone]

You need to give them an even coat with no excess on the surface after 10 mins. I would give them another coat and remove all left over after 10 mins. Allow to cure over night then apply a dedicated wax such as LTP antique wax. Any pics ?

 

[Time's Ran Out]

To seal them 1st time round it should be a 50/50 mix of boiled linseed oil and white spirit! At your stage now with sticky oil on the surface you’ll need to break that down with neat white spirit. Then try again with nearly neat on dry tiles to even out the tone.
Take off any lying on surface after 10 mins. Always do a test area 1st.
To polish we use Johnson’s Traffic Wax and a small polishing machine usually a couple of days after seal coat has dried.
Jobs a good un!

 

[Dumbo]

As above traffic wax one of the easiest to apply and to polish up .

 

[Flintstone]

John's the expert here, he taught me all I know about terracotta, soak up his good advice! I used a stiff brush to buff up the wax last time, depends on the size of the floor really as it is a bit of effort