I'm tiling a slate floor for the first time and after looking at the tiles (ungraded, 'multi' slate) I am wondering - what do you do with the 'flaky' bits? Do you knock off the larger bits or will the sealer take care of it?
Also, my 'multi' slate does noy appear to be as, urm... 'multi' (ie lots of different burnt colours) as the shop demo board. Will the colours be highlighted after sealing or have I just got a duff batch? (the shop basically said 'natural product' when I asked them about it)
Steve.

Knock off the rough bits that are delaminating. Multicolour is generally only multicolour on one side the other is grey. You will need to lay your tiles best side up in your opinion.

Not a duff batch its how it is (the retailer is covered by the word natural) Happens more often when bought in boxes.

tiler

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Seal with something like lithofin slate seal...this will enhance the colours in the slate..

Thanks for the advice!



Steve

how do i cut flooring slate pleaseto leave a nice smooth edge

a cheap wickes wet cutter will see you through the job,try to get a 600 watt one if you can.

shop displays have the pick of the bunch!

seen a lot of slate floors come apart when cut with a wet cutter and the slate not given time to dry out a bit

Originally Posted by medlar

seen a lot of slate floors come apart when cut with a wet cutter and the slate not given time to dry out a bit

Only time I see that is with really crap cheap slate that is why it is extremely important to tap your tiles when grading them if you get a hollow sound the tile will probably fail once laid these are better kept for areas where no foot traffic will be on them.

The denser the slate ie Brazillian calibrated the less chance of tiles spliting.



Gary

most of the crap stuff is chinese coloured, the greys greens and blacks from s africa, brazil and china (black) are generally pretty good imo


tiler

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all done thanks for you r time

Originally Posted by Highlander

Only time I see that is with really crap cheap slate that is why it is extremely important to tap your tiles when grading them if you get a hollow sound the tile will probably fail once laid these are better kept for areas where no foot traffic will be on them.

The denser the slate ie Brazillian calibrated the less chance of tiles spliting.



Gary

Hi steve, I just done a slate job last week what a ball breaker the sizes are always different if its uncalibrated slateso be careful to sort out the different thickness of slate first so you have the correct level to work from, I agree with dave admin about lithofin slate seal it is the mutts nutts and gives a great rich effect to the tiles

Originally Posted by garhum

Hi steve, I just done a slate job last week what a ball breaker the sizes are always different if its uncalibrated slateso be careful to sort out the different thickness of slate first so you have the correct level to work from, I agree with dave admin about lithofin slate seal it is the mutts nutts and gives a great rich effect to the tiles

agree with ya mate,100%