Soapstone Tile Flooring?

16 years ago

I was considering a slate floor for my tiny kitchen. I had wanted something with color variations and veining. I was considering honed silver slate or honed silvershine slate but I was steered away from those and told that they will scratch easily. I was then considering the natural or cleft surface, but was told you can't polish out etches or stains.

Looking on the net I came across soapstone tile as it has the beautiful surface variations. I was thinking of Ice Flower tiles. It's impervious to everything, but it's so soft I'm wondering about the floor getting all scratched up. I guess it would be OK if it were enhanced as a bit of enhancer would take care of the scratches.

Is soapstone tile a good choice for kitchen flooring? Would it have to be enhanced to be practical? That might make it a little too dark for me though.

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Comments (5)

logic
16 years ago
I have Ice Flower SS contertops...we love it...but, it does ding and nick and scratch farily easily....but not quite as easily as it did the first 6 months or so that we had it...

I think it would be best to get a few tiles...and walk on them for a while...in all sorts of footware..drop things, etc...to see if you are OK with the result.
florida_mimi
16 years ago
I personally would stay away from applying mineral oil to Soapstone flooring. (I would stay away from putting mineral oil on ANY flooring. Plus when you use a standard de-greasing floor cleaner it would remove it anyway.) I would also caution people who put it in high traffic areas that it will scratch and you will see the scratches. Please see the attached link for photos.

In a Kitchen area I know it would look beautiful, but think about how often if you have kids or you're just clumsy like myself that you drop a glass or items onto the floor. It will ding and scratch the stone. Soapstone is easy to fix by sanding it, but is that something you are willing to do? I agree with Logic. Buy a tile or two and ABUSE them..

Also something to keep in mind, The color of the stone will gradually darken over time and will be a somewhat charcoal grey. You'll also see that in the photos. These were taken at two entry ways. One in the front of a building (more traffic) one in the back of a house(less traffic)

Here is a link that might be useful: soapstone flooring
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eleena
16 years ago
Blondelle,

What is the color of your countertop? Perhaps, there is another porcelain tile you could use...
tammybrennan
16 years ago
I am choosing honed ostrich grey which is close to the silver grey for my kitchen floor. We were told that it should be fine as long as chairs and stools have pads on the bottom of their legs. We abused some sample tiles and it did scratch pressing hard with a key. it also chips if we stab it hard with a knife but to be honest it wasn't as bad as a few people let on. One vender said that she has changed her mind about honed slate flooring when she was in NewYork and saw it used a restruant. She said it looked beautiful.
ellessebee
11 years ago
Hi, all, I hope someone is still reading this discussion - I need some help with some soapstone tiles! I just purchased 50 sqft to use on a fireplace. They are fairly light in color and very smooth in texture. Some speckles but not much veining. That's the color/pattern I chose. I did not want to oil them because I want the natural color variations to show through. When I got them home I found that about half of them have scratches and dings - probably from packing - or maybe someone picked through them all and took out the good ones and I got stuck with the defects (they are now sold out and not restocking and I cannot return them!) I want to remove the scratches because they really show. I tried light sanding on one tile with wet-dry black sandpaper and it did get out most of the scratches but also changed the texture and color of the areas where I sanded in a circular motion. I'm looking for any advice/suggestions to make the tile beautiful again without darkening it with oil. Thanks.