On the slate!!!

[simpsonspro]

Hi all,

I'm quoting a job at the weekend and the customer wants SLATE on the floor, I have never fitted slate before, is it tougher? will my RUBI manual cutter get though it and is it generally harder to lay than other tiles, or am I just worrying over nothing?????

Please help
Chris

[batiling]

Manual cutter will never do it,you will have to use a wet cutter.Also most slate is different thicknesses so you will prob need to make cust aware if they dont already know.Not all slate is like that though so you will need to find out

[whitebeam]

You will need a wet cutter, slate needs to be sorted into different thicknesses. The thick ones lay in the middle of the room thinner ones to the edges and needs sealing

[doug boardley]

wet cutter or angle grinder (if you don't have access to a wet cutter) your dry cutter will not do them. Watch out (as Whitebeam says) for different thicknesses

[Eddie]

I use my dry cutter to score slate, so i can see the line in the wet cutter. Lay the thickest tiles first. Clean any flakey bits off the bottom of tiles first. Use quite a wide grout line, maybe 5mm or a bit bigger. Take your time and enjoy.

[kilty55]

mind n charge accordingly its more time consumin as well

[smurf21]

sometimes a manual cutter for scribing and a picking hammer on the back will do the job,but your much better of with a wet saw and an angle grinder,
grade all the slate first thin pieces at the edge of the room and thiker pieces towards the middle, grout and clean well a couple of times leave to dry out and coat with sealer.time consuming but done properly looks the nuts

[petenicholls]

Did my 1st slate job last week. It's more labour intensive than ceramics due to the cleaning and sealing processes involved. I followed the advice on this forum and the job went without a hitch. Without doubt my proudest job so far. (will post pics soon). I used calibrated tiles (same thickness) but if your job is uncalibrated you'll have to account for the extra addy you'll need to get the floor level. Also account for a quality sealer and maybe a grout residue remover, they don't come cheap!

As above regarding cutting, wet saw and angle grinder.

[Rob Z]

We have done quite a few slate installations, and one thing that I have learned is to warn the customer of the highly-variable nature of the slate itself. The worst batch of slate that I can remember was one where only 2 pieces were usable per box of ten . This stuff was real junk, and thankfully the customer provided it. He was really , but he had bought it at a place where I told him not to go because of the low quality material.

Anyway, you never know what you are getting and let the customer know that extra might need to be bought to deal with the junk.

And, as others have said, the sorting can really take a lot of time.