Advice about floor tiles??

ok_go

Hi all,

I am looking to get some slate tiles for the kitchen. The slate tiles at £1.29 each from Topps seem pretty cheap but I have never bought floor tiles before.

http://www.toppstiles.co.uk/3/frame-0offers.html

Has anyone used them for a floor. Also is there any general advise about slate floor tiles e.g. thicker is better, don't buy tiles less than xx mm thick???

I was also intersted in the True cost of a slate floor. These work out at approx the same as half decent vinyl (£14 psqm) but I wonder how much more I should expect to pay for laying??? These slates from topps I believe have some variations in thickness too??

Hope someone can advise

regards

go

divorcingjack

Hi Go,

We laid a slate floor on our kitchen and got the tiles from B&Q. I love them and think it looks really gorgeous, but the colours are not even - bits are black, yellow, red, orange, grey, beige, so if you don't like that then don't bother looking there.

However, I found them really cheap - I'm sure they were cheaper than buying them individually. If you do go for B&Q ones, make sure you open the boxes and check for broken tiles, as I think about 50% of ours were cracked, broken or unusable.

As they were natural (not engineered) slate, the thickness varied enormously and would have been virtually impossible for a DIY'er to do. We had to get a pro in and it took him two full days to do quite a small area. He spent ages levelling them all out. We paid him £300 I think, and that included mosiac splashbacks. All in all, the slate worked out more expensive than regular tiles, but I think they are worth it. Would be happy to post a pic if you are interested.

Also - make sure you do an acid wash on them to get all the cement and grout out BEFORE you seal them. We made this mistake and managed to seal all the grout IN. It's a devil of a job to try and get it out!

Maintenance-wise, just a quick brush over and occassional scrub and they are no problems. (mind you, we are having building work done, so my domestic standards are lower than most at the moment!)

HTH.

dj