Victorian tiled front path

[rockette]

I have a short tiled path up to my front door. It is laid with red, black and yellow brick Victorian tiles in a traditional geometric pattern. It is around 3 feet wide by 20 feet long. My immediate neighbour has a matching path. The paths are showing their age now.

Recently 2 nearby houses had their similar front paths replaced with modern Victorian style tiles (from Germany apparently). The tiler seemed to do a good job so my neighbour and I asked him to quote for ours. He quoted £1700 for lifting the old tiles and laying new ones but EXCLUDING cost of the new tiles or disposing of the old ones..........he said this was the same price he had charged the other neighbours.

Thinking there must be a mistake I had a stiff brandy and popped up the road to ask them. They confirmed this price which they said was similar to other quotes they had obtained. (I think they must have more money than sense). They said the whole job took under 2 days which they reckoned meant the tiler had earned over £100 over hour. This certainly puts plumbing in the shade. Maybe we should all retrain as tilers.

I live in west London. It is a nice area but not Kensington or Chelsea. My neighbours are clearly mad (he has working in Iraq so maybe they get danger money).

Well my next door neighbour and I can't afford anything like that for our paths. Has anyone had their Victorian style front path replaced lately with similar tiles and if so how much did it cost?

Rockette
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[Mudster]

Sounds excessive, a good tiler will command netween £200 - £300 a day in central London, I'd suggest He didn't want the job, quoted an excessive amount and it was accepted.

There is one manufacturer of these tiles in the UK, www.originalstyle.com

Technically these people don't manufacture, they are actually manufacturered by a company called Winklemans (sounds German) and sold under licence with sole distribution rights for the UK, this means the price is fixed, you can probably buy them on mainland Europe for 75% less.

This is a specialst job to do right though, I take my hat off to the guy for getting a quote accepted at that amount!

 

[rockette]

Interestingly I was up in Ironbridge a few months ago, and a specialist company has taken over part of the old Jackfield tile works there and is making original encaustic Victorian style tiles - like you see in halls etc. They are pretty dear but are the real deal. I don't know how well they would last outside.

If I get some more prices, I am looking for quotes at present, I will update here.

Rockette

 

[Mudster]

I think they refer to them as Jackfield Tile Museum from memory?

They've been operating htere for a few years now, you'll get no change from £80 sq/m for the plain white, and the lovely art deco style individual decorative tiles are around £35 each.

They are somewhat more than run of the mill tiles though.