Tarting up Victorian tiles

[GMM]

The management wants to sort out the hallway this summer. Quite a big job (re-plaster, paint, blah blah) and part of it will be the floor. The biggest part of the space is tiled with original Victorian clay (/Minton) tiles. These could use a bloody good clean and re-grout but a few have chips it the surface like someone has dropped a hammer on them. Unlike modern tiles, removing one and replacing is not really an option as they are very thick and bedded in a strong mortar, so I'm wondering whether there's any way to fill the dings with something.

The approach that comes to mind is epoxy (ie araldite), dyed with something suitable. Most of the damage is on dark grey or black tiles, so won't be terribly visible. I can see that epoxy pigments of various kinds are available and not very expensive (especially compared with sourcing replacement tiles, which are unbelievably expensive, if you can even find them), although it does seem a pity to buy 500g to dye maybe

20ml of araldite.

Has anyone tried anything like this and found any good tips?

Cheers

[Martin Brown]

Aradite is a nuisance since you have a 1:1 mix of resin and hardener.

Rather than araldite I'd be inclined to try a filled polyester or acrylic resin to get the opacity and the colour right. You will have to practice mixing the colours meticulously until you get it right.

Ideally you want to mix a coloured batch of resin and match it when cured using a system where the catalyst is a trace. Then you have some repair medium you can use on the actual job. I have done this on other damaged ceramics with reasonable success. Not sure if it would tand up to the heavy wear on a floor though...

[stuart noble]

You can buy 100gms of pigment powder here

If you need advice, there's not a lot they don't know about colours!

[spuorgelgoog]

kitchen worktop repair/joint material may be a source of small quantity material.

Owain