Postscript to those tiles

All it took to get them looking better was a further coat of linseed oil, and then a wipe down with turps to remove the stickier bits - where the tile is already fully saturated, extra oil just sits on the surface.

So not a bad result at all:



I have yet to remove the waterproof tape from the top of the floor drain, but I wanted to be sure the grout was fully dry first.

And as our plumber is coming tomorrow to put in branches on the hot and cold pipes, top right in the picture, we'll be able to install a washing machine quite soon. Plumbers usually mean water all over the place - the cold pipe is, after all, the mains supply for the whole house - so we'll probably get to try out the drain too.