Slate

[AllThumbs]

I want to install Slate tiles in my kitchen, but my concern is that the raw tiles I have seen seem to flake and are some what rough.

Once installed does that all change? Does sealing the tiles eliminate this problem?

Thanks in advance

[CThomp]

Slate tiles usually are some what rough. I've very rarely seen them in kitchens. Maybe I just didn't look hard enough.

I've never seen slate tiles flake though.

My brother in law did slate tile on his out door patio. They look exactly the same now as they did whn he installed them 2 years ago.

[Vector]

We thought long and hard about putting slate in our kitchen, and decided we just didn't want to put up with the maintenance issues (any real stone will require periodic resealing).

We ended up going with a porcelain tile that looks very much like real slate (nobody has yet realized they weren't until we told them). It's got a texture, enough to fool you, but not enough to make them hard to clean, they're colored throughout the tile, so chips (should we ever get one, they're hard as rock, harder than real slate for sure) won't be very visible. They're Italian, I think. I'm pretty sure I still have a box somewhere and could find the brand.

We used them for a fireplace surround also (6" there, 12" on the floor) and used real slate for the blacksplash (1" mosaic tile). You'd honestly never look at the real stuff then look at the floor and think it was fake.

[AllThumbs]

I didn't realize you could get such a product. Looks like I will be headed back to the tile shop to see if they carry it.

Thanks