Oh no Nae, how awful - that's one of the reasons I'm not keen to sell this house - I'd hate to see all our hard work hacked around!!!
We have quarry tiles in the kitchen, but they're modern ones. Impossible to keep clean

These
will be being ripped up when we (eventually) do the kitchen as they have created a seal on the floor. Being impervious they do not let the house breathe and evaporate its damp, hence it all goes up the walls - which isn't good. As it's a basement floor literally built on the ground (no foundations), it needs to be breathable. The worst thing we could do (and a mistake many people make) is to put a damp course in as it will just push the damp elsewhere rather than letting it dissipate naturally.
Anyway - structural survey lesson over
