DH is very impressed :-)

It's funny, it's usually the first thing that male visitors notice. Women usually say "you've got so much space!".

It looks beautiful. I've always loved slate.

Mondragon that is gorgeous! I read all your posts and went to HD to do a trial in my entry, and the lot they had here at that time was all just a muddy dark gray, and very fragile. I've since found another tile, but this is making me rethink that: The colors are beautiful!

Very nice: slate is officially back on my list!

I do worry, though, about the variable thickness from one tile to the next, and even within a single tile. I'm concerned it could be a tripping hazard for my elderly mother...

oru - if you go back and read my very long post, one of the things I stress is finding someone with experience to lay them who has the skill and patience to make sure that no matter the thickness, the tops are level. Another issue with them not being level is that the top edges, when not lined up, can leave a higher sharper edge that's not fun to walk on. I scraped those down but they were a bother at first.

You can sort out the tiles that have canyons or cliffs (I've got a large pile of them outside) with sharp edges. After that the variation in the surfaces is pretty mild and in fact makes slipping a lot less likely.

Excellent enhancement. There is also a sealant that gives slate a high gloss look. Unfortunately, in our own home I used a polished copper-coloured slate that nothing adheres to. But it does look wonderful when wet.

I wonder if one of the enhancing sealers, like Enhance & Seal, would work for you. If it changes colors when wet this stuff will soak in and give you a similar effect, I think.

Mondragon
That looks wonderful!

You were so helpful as I deliberated the same issue for our slate kitchen flor.We decided against a sealer for the Vermont Structural slate and as promised, I'll have a few pictures for you after the painters dropcloths are gone!

docrck

Great = look forward to seeing the pics - I still have one more bathroom to do and love the look of american slate.

Stunning floor!

Fabulous Floor. I am wondering if anyone knows what this slate might be called outside of Expo?

mondragon, your original lengthy post about installing your slate floors has dropped off. Do you happen to have a copy of it? I am going to install slate in my living room and could definitely use your advice about laying the tile. I found some multi at Lowe's I may go with. Although I bought one box to see how they look on the floor. In that box five tiles out of eleven looked to me like they had chunks or streaks plled up and I wouldn't use due them. Is this normal? If so I will have a lot to return or perhaps I should go with the slate from the tile store which is one dollar a square foot more than Lowe's? Any advice would be appreciated. thanks.

It's funny, I haven't been on here for a long while so your timing is good. I must have it somewhere, I'll look for it when I get home tonight and also answer your questionss.

mondragon, I am so glad you saw this post. By the way your floors are beautiful and I would have opted for the matte finish too - till I saw the difference in your floors - MiraMatte really does bring out the color much better. I see your dogs love to pose for pictures too. Your first picture reminds me of my house for the last three years - ladders, drop cloths, paint cans, stain cans - and lots of dust - our list is getting much smaller though.

I look forward to your next post. Meanwhile I am going to call L's and ask them about the pitted slate to see what they say. The HD store near our town doesn't have the multi slate, but the one in the next town does - I may go by there and get a box of that from them - their boxes are smaller too and easier to carry in. Thanks.

mondragon: I would also be interested in the thread. We are focusing on our kitchen floors right now...tile or slate or similar. (We're tiling the Kit, foyer, & powder room b/c we have 2 dogs that spend a lot of time in these areas and I'm afraid scratching will be an issue if we have hardwood floors there. Hardwood will be throughout the rest of the first floor though.)

Bump - so message won't be lost.

Well it seems that for some reason even though I must have typed it into a text editor I didn't save it.

Dumb.

Here's the quick summary:

We found slate tiles on sale and HD Expo for about $1.50/sq ft. They were significantly higher quality (more on that later) than the crumbly pieces of mud we'd seen at HD and Lowe's. They had "Indian Multicolor" and "Rustic Green".

We calculated our square footage and bought about 1/3 more - initially. When I calculated later the cost per sq foot of what we actually used it was around $2.50, maybe a little less, so that's roughly an overage of 60%. We had them delivered - 450 sq feet was two pallets, almost.

I opened the boxes and layed them out on the driveway and hosed them off well. I noticed that there were a lot more charcoal-black tiles than I would have thought in "multicolor" - these had a slight sheen and looked almost like a different material. I also noticed that I really liked the Rustic Green so we made the first of several trips back to HDE and got a few boxes.

In order to get the checkerboard pattern I had seen in photos I sorted them into categories:

- green
- light colorful (my favorites)
- darker colorful
- boring but usable
- black
- unusable

Unusable to me were ones that were broken, had sharp ridges (like a low spot with a sharp raised area next to it), or had "rusty" inclusions. These rusty spots usually had very sharp edges, were pits that could collect dirt in them, and looked ugly. Most of the unusable set were because of the rust pits. I even got in a bit of an argument with a salesman at HDE when I went back once and complained about how many were like that and he said it was part of the nature of the material. I told him there was a difference between inexpensive and unusable and they had sold me unusable product. For all the difference it made :)

The Rustic Green were by far the most consistent and dense and non-flakey. They were two colors, really - a bluish grey-green, and a gold that reminded me of agates. After the washing and the sorting I bought a few more boxes, and also some more boxes of the Indian multicolor. I admit to opening the boxes and doing a quick sort to make sure that at least half were usable (while no one was looking.)

What i should have done at this point is taken all the colorful tiles and spread them out and scrubbed them with a stiff brush. Especially the reddish ones - they seemed to have a LOT of mud on them that when washed exposed some really pretty patterns.

Now I had 5 piles for the installers. The black ones went in the entryway, The green, light, darker, and boring tiles were piled separately and took one from the first pile, then one from the next, etc. I also told them not to put two of the same side by side especially the green ones.

We tiled the whole space before the cabinets went in and they used the unusable ones under where the cabinets were going to go.

The guys we got were excellent tile installers but had never done slate. Slate tiles are differing thicknesses and they need to use thicker mud and make sure that the tops of the tiles line up so that you don't have sharp edges higher in one tile than another. It was a one-day job so by the end of the day they weren't doing as well even though overall, for the price, they did an excellent job.

They installed on one day then grouted the next so my job (we did this as cheaply as possible) was to clean the tiles once the mud had set and to apply a coat of sealer. This is where I learned that the tiles should have been scrubbed really well before installing - most of the cleaning had nothing to do with the installation.

I used a Floormate wet/dry vac, I'd wet and scrub a section with a stiff brush until the water was coming off clean and then I'd vacuum it up. It took hours. Kneepads were required. But it looked amazing when i was done. I let it dry (it was summer and I had big fans on it) and then applied a coat of the Miracle SuperSeal. Good Ventilation is a must for that stuff.

Next day they grouted. Everyone's experience is that grout dries a lot lighter than the sample and mine was no exception. They did a good job of cleaning off the tiles but I did take a fair amount of time to do detailing where there was still small amounts of grout.

After that we sealed it a second time with the Superseal, and later the MiraMatte.

I still love the floor. It doesn't show dirt or grease.

I love your floor and the story! You took some time to figure out what you wanted and did all that sorting and it really, really paid off!

I used a fake porcelain slate and was so concerned that my tile guys would not place them in a layout that I liked that I volunteered to stay home one day and help. They said " no, thanks!?!" Lucky for them that the tile arrived and it didn't have enough variation that I felt the need to help out.

Signed....a big tile fan

Mondragon, thanks for all the information. Your floor is definitely unbelievably beautiful. The first time I saw the picture I thought the randomness and colors might be too much for my taste but it's really starting to grow on me.

I went and purchased a box of slate from Lowe's of multicolor and brought it home to lay out in our living room to see if I liked it. I was very surprised to find 5 out of the 10 pieces were what I would call unusable - they had either large rust bumps or large rust craters. The overall look of slate lying on my living room floor - I did like though. I then went to my tile store which has multi color slate samples in 12x12 or 16x16 - I would prefer to use the 16x16 in the living room because it is a larger room and I think a larger size slate would be better. The slate would have to be ordered. I then showed the salesperson at the tile store what the slate from Lowe's looked like (I had it in my car) pointing out the craters and large bumps of rust - saying I didn't want to get that from them - she said she actually liked the rust spots, but hadn't seen that before but suspected that was the way slate came from nature - well yeah maybe - but who can get the dirt out of a crater if it is on their floor. And if they are quarrying it and honing it - shouldn't they reject the rejects? What do I know.

Anyway I still haven't gotten the slate yet - had a small setback with matching our laminate floor in the kitchen (where the brand new Bosch/Siemens dishwasher leaked and ruined the floor - yes Bosch/Siemens can and did leak - but that will be another very long story on the kitchen forum).

I think I will go to HD (while I am waiting for my laminate sample) and get another box of slate and take it home and wash the slate (as you suggested) and lay it down on the floor to see how I like it. We don't have a HD Expo close enough to me that I am willing to drive there (4 hours one way is way too far).

The slate at Lowe's and HD were between $1.79 and $2.29 per square foot for 12 x 12 and the 16 x 16. The independent tile store was about $3.20 or so per foot for the 16 x 16, and the 12 x 12 was about $2.50 per foot - but I really like the larger size - but I am a bit concerned about ordering slate from the tile store and getting what I consider rejects and not being able to return them and that increasing my cost significantly. I liked the Arizona slate look alike tile but that was over $7 per square foot - not in my budget.

When I took back the one box of slate to Lowe's - they gladly took it back and said if there were tiles that were rejects they would take them back - but I think if I started coming with boxes and boxes of rejects - it might be a different story with them - not to mention having to drive back and forth and lug all that slate back and get more.

I think I will probably go with the 16 x 16 - so I might as well take the risk and get it - their multi slate display board at the tile store showed more grey slate - which is the look I am wanting - I'll post when it is done - but it might be a while - the way the laminate story is progressing.

thanks again.

I wondered if the special order slate at $3+ might not be a better deal. I'd have a clear conversation and something in writing about the expected quality so that if half if them are unusable you don't have to pay for them.