slate flooring

joseph brand

Just got keys to house and about to lay slate flooring with help from my Papa.

Anyone any tips, from experience.

Seems rather tricky.

Thanks for any help.

Kev

Spocker

Hi kev,

Just put slate down in my own place a couple of weeks ago - TBH I didn't feel confident enough to do it myself. Go a pro in and cost €240 to lay a 9' by 6' section (about 6 sq yards).

Granted it didn't seem difficult to him but there would be two things putting me off doing it myself:

You need a proper cutting bench - anything else is a waste of time

Unless all of the tiles are the same thickness (they won't be :rolleyes: ) you have to lay them all out first to get the "arrangement" right - this is to make sure there are no steps

Make sure you apply at least one coat of sealer to the slate as well before it goes down - this will stop the adhesive and grout from staining

HTH, If I think of anything else I'll post it.

S.

Sleipnir

Yeah my mate is a tiler (he did it for me) and he says it's the worst stuff to work with.
You have to cut it with an angle grinder and the uneven surface means you have to grade it so you're not tripping up every few feet. Sealer is very important too but you don't need to put it on before you lay the tiles, just once before it's grouted and at least twice afterwards.

pdunno

I was planning on laying slate myself but after talking to a good few people who knew a bit about it decided to get a professional to do the job for me, un-uniform thickness is the real tricky bit. also when cut the slate tends to break off so it can be a bit of a nightmare by all accounts.

Spocker

Of course don't let any of us put you off - it does look great when it's finished

The Rooster

Dr. Spock wrote:

Of course don't let any of us put you off - it does look great when it's finished

Only if its done right!
My folks got slate tiles and got a "professional" in to lay them. Unfortunately he was out of his depth and didnt admit it, so made a bags of it - unless you like the "bumpy look"! Needless to say he didnt get paid, but the folks were left with a floor that didnt look great. They lived with it for 2 or 3 years, but then got it replaced (and taking up those tiles was some job, but thats another story...)

prospect

I put chinese slate down in our kitchen.
It worked out well, but did reuire alot of planning and prep work, to make sure there wouldn't be any sharp differences in adjacent slate heights.

Things to note:
:rolleyes: You need an angle grinder to cut them.
:eek: Clean excess grout off the slate surface immediatly, otherwise you'll have a b*stard of a job acid washing the stuff off before sealing them.
You'll need to scribe your plints, and/or skirting boards if you run the slate under them.
There is different finishes of sealer available, matt, gloss and satin. We have gloss, and it took 3 coats to get the finish we liked.

All-in-all, they are alot more difficult to work with, finish and get right. But in the end I really think they are worth the extra effort. Plus, they hide the dirt very well

joseph brand

thanks a lot for the tips.

I know it's a little bit out of our depth, but we like a challenge. Just finished laying Stratoloc laminates in Sitting room, dining area and hallway. now for the hard task of laying 'Slate'.


Just wondering what DR. Spock meant by proper cutting bench?

I have an angle grinder available to me. I hope it does the job.

I heard the slate has to be 'cleaned' beforehand??

Spocker

joseph brand wrote:

Just wondering what DR. Spock meant by proper cutting bench?

Sorry joe, should have said. I meant a tile cutter, the bench type with the water tray; but I'm not sure what type of cutting wheel you'd need. I'm only speaking from the position of having looked over the shoulder of the guy who came to do ours. It's what he used and it made short work of the actual cutting bits - very dusty though (he didn't beleive in the water tray bit)

An angle grinder will of course do the trick, just note sure how you'll get those perfectly straight edges

Good luck with all this BTW, let us know how you get on - post a photo!

joseph brand

@Dr. Spock; Not sure how to post photo, but I will try, as I have some photos on my PC.

The job is not finished and my Dad went ahead without listening to the tips, and we had to use acid to take the grout off the tiles, but they look grand now.

Still waiting to put sealer and polish on floor to see those '..true colours shining through. .'.

Almost looks like some traces of copper and gold in the tiles. Could there be precious metals in slate??

Thanks again for all the help,

Kev

Spocker

Good man Kev, thanks for letting us know all went (almost) OK. For putting up the photo, when you are posting/replying there is a section underneath called "Manage Attachments" and you can add them there - the files can't be bigger than 100Kb though!