Looking to get our kitchen floor laid with black slate. I'd like a texture, but not something rough - if we can't walk on it barefoot I don't think my wife will be too impressed! Anyway, I've noticed in tile merchants there's a massive variation: some are rougher than others. Staff in Tile Giant basically told me that it's just how slate is and I should sand the edges down once it's in but that sounds like sales-talk to me! Should I believe him?
Also I notice most places I've been seem to charge £15 - £20 per square meter, but one tiler who's looked at the job recommended CTD who seem to want £50!!! What's the difference? They're all calibrated - I just can't believe there's so much variation. Is there some huge range in quality?

hi basically I have laid all grades of slate all sizes biggest being 1200x 900 it all depends on how good the fixer is iv laid topps tiles B&Q some from India of eBay if its laid a bit lippy you can go around with a sharp chisel and just nock them of but you should not need to if its laid properly you should be able to walk on any slate floor bear foot with no problem just get some one who knows what there doing and the cheap 1 will be fine Deno

why not have a look at slate effect tiles they tend to be less rugged,as a bove when layed and grouted they can be chiseled down for smoothness,the price you pay usually depends on the quality,most slate tends to come in different thicknesses and will never be really even,that is the look of it and why people want it,so they don't have the typical uniformed smooth tiling but the more rustic look

try marble-mosaics.com from £11.99-16.99 depending what slate you buy they have a delivery charge normaly about £50 as for tile giant i dont think they would give bad advice its not in their interest

hi try brazillian slate ,sales for around £25 - £35 per meter comes mostly calibrated , gets a very smooth finish and looks great , sizes from 900-900 , 600-900 ,600-600 and 600-1200 , hope this helps you

Hi there,

If you look on my profile there are some pics of Hellihole Lane job where I used the uncalibrated slate from Topps - awful stuff to fix due to the varying thickness's and tile sizes, but both myself and the customer were thrilled with the final result I've since specified it on at least another 6 jobs which are now completed to great satisfaction all round

The bonus with this product is that it's relatively smooth for slate, albeit it does have the colour variation which makes natural slate look so good

Hi there,

If you look on my profile there are some pics of Hellihole Lane job where I used the uncalibrated slate from Topps - awful stuff to fix due to the varying thickness's and tile sizes, but both myself and the customer were thrilled with the final result I've since specified it on at least another 6 jobs which are now completed to great satisfaction all round



The bonus with this product is that it's relatively smooth for slate, albeit it does have the colour variation which makes natural slate look so good

Hi..

You will find that Natural split Slate will be cheaper than Calibrated Slate....

Calibrated will tend to be more even surface then Natural split.... as it is machined to Calibration thickness... and Natural split is simply that.. Split and you get varying degrees of tolerances to thickness.

I did a job a few months back in chinese slate, bad for calibration, but looked the muts nuts when finished. I had forgotten about it, I will add it to my albums. Colours were amazing.

hi guest as stated as above i think you should forget about the uncalibrated stuff and choose either calibrated slate which will be dearer or choose as david suggests slate effect porcelain mate if your wanting a nice smooth finish

Thank you all for your advice - wish I'd found this place earlier!
Sounds like calibrated is good, but £50 per sq meter may be a bit OTT. Good news for me! Turns out I'm away now for a week anyway which will slow the job down, but I feel a bit more confident about the whole thing.
Thanks again!
James