Slate floors

Joannaclaire

We're trying to work out what flooring to go with in our new kitchen. On the weekend we looked in B&Q and were surprised to see how cheap slate is - same price approx as laminate. As our budget is as little as possible for as nice as possible karndean, real wood aren't options even though I'd prefer them.

Is it relatively easy to look after once it's been sealed?

Also is it tricky to lay given it's rugged texture - I'm vaguely toying with the idea of tying to do it myself, but have no tiling experience.

missimaxo

Just my personal opinion but I hate our tiled (cheap) slate floor in our kitchen. It is a rented house so we can't change it.

Even after I have washed it, it dries and looks filthy straight away, it is always freezing, and some of the tiles are quite sharp where they are uneven.

I can't wait to buy and fit our own non slate floor (not sure what yet - probably laminate!)

kb36

I love the look of slate and had our bathroom tiled with it. Do make sure you get it sealed as it is liable to staining - soap, water etc and sealing helps prevent this although does not eliminate it. We did however decide against it when having our kitchen floor redone due to the fact that it does stain easily, and kitchens - or ours at least - takes such a hammering! Went for a ceramic tile that looks like slate which scrubs up a treat :rolleyes:

guy7469

Hi
If they are cheap,rough and uneven real slates they are a nightmare to lay because of the various thicknesses. If you really want slate go for the riven ones that are uniform thickness otherwise go for a ceramic lookalike.
Natural tiles also need a different adhesive which are more expensive.
I hope you are laying onto a concrete floor as laying onto a suspended floor will cause you even more problems ie you will have to lay plywood sheet over the existing. Wickes do some nice slates aswell.
Alot to think about but worth it if you do it right.

Cheers
Guy

Joannaclaire

Thanks all for the advice. Yes it is a concrete floor, so we're fine there. Hmmm maybe the cheap ones are not such a great idea then as yes they did look a bit uneven, so I don't want to be stubbing my toes every day. Will check out Wickes - ta for the tip.

weekendwarrior

The uneven slate tiles are not a problem as you can level them off with a hammer and chisel.

They will be cold though, unless you opt for underfloor heating.

divorcingjack

Hi there,

We laid the cheap slates from B&Q in the kitchen. (I'd be happy to post pics if you like)

They look fantastic now, and I would do it again, but a couple of points to look out for.

- check every single box for breakages - I would say about 20% of the tiles were unusable. They were either broken, cracked or had a massive variation in thickness.

- We just boxed all the broken ones back up and took them back. I didn't try to hide the fact that all the returns were broken, and they gave me a refund without a murmur. HOWEVER, we went back the next week and saw the boxes we had returned (where every single tile was broken) back on sale! :eek:

- Don't even consider trying to lay them yourself. The tiles are so cheap, it's worth getting a stone-specialist tiler. It took our blokie two full days with an apprentice to get them level and square. Done badly, they could look absolutely horrendous.

- We combined them with expensive slate mosiac tiles for splashbacks; this looks really nice.

- Make sure you get a proper sealer - not the B&Q rubbish. Lithofin and Fila come well recommended. You will have to clean the tiles about 6 times before sealing to get the grout and gunk out of the pores. Don't do what we did and clean them once with water (as opposed to an intensive stone cleaner) and then seal all the cement in. :eek: It took me MONTHS with a hand brush to restore them.

- They are really easy to clean - I just brush them every day, and mop once a week or so. I feel they don't show the dirt at all, and I dribble tea on them at least once a day.

I would say go for it, if you can find a fantastic tiler. We paid £300 for floor and splashbacks including materials and the area is about 8ft by 10ft.

Let me know if you'd like to see pics.

Good luck

dj

Joannaclaire

Thanks for your post.

Just got a chance to jump back on the computer to check for updates. That's really helpful to know that the cheapie B&Q tiles can be made to work ok. Lots of food for though there. I guess the cheaper tiles means paying for a fitter really. Still probably worth it.

Pics would be great if you have them :-)