Thread: Anyone experienced with slate paving?

Inside or outside? if outside it sounds quite cheap. I've not done inside.

For outside a cheaper approach than laying on a reinforced concrete base is to lay on 75 mm crushed rock, compact it, then use mortar - 5:1 washed sand/GP cement with either lime or plastisciser. I only use plastisciser now.

As the slate is of uneven thickness you float it carefully on the mortar that has been slashed or raked with the trowel to produce a series of small hills and valleys....sure this has a technical name....dunno what.

Lay the slate so it just squelches out the side to the desired level. I prefer to grout after it has dryed. My mate doesn't. I use a stronger 3:1 mortar that I load on a large trowel and point with a smaller one.

The path will crack a bit along the grout with earth movement, but detritus, moulds and fungi soon colonise the path so you hardly notice.

I don't like sealer on outside slate.

My thoughts only. Speaking as an amateur here!

Hi,

I've done my kitchen floor in slate. Are you doing random (crazy) or rectangular paving? I bought a $90 electric wet tile saw from Bunnies and got heaps of use out of it before I finally wore out the blade and had to replace it (a replacement blade cost $70). It's a great tool, you can cut L shapes or curves in tiles or stone, cause I recon an L shaped tile looks better than 2 little rectangles put together. I've even used it to cut bricks.

There are different types of tile adhesive, but if your paving on concrete you probably don't need a flexible adhesive (unless you've got joins in the pavement), just one that's rated for outdoor use. Flexible adhesive is pretty expensive, so talk to the tile shop about what you need. With slate I've found you can run over it with an electric sander and take out any high spots in the tiles. It abraides quite easily and you can even out the differences in tiles or any ridges or roughness.

Oh yeah - this is very important. Before you start laying anything, your tiles will all be different thicknesses. Arrange all your tiles in different piles depending on how thick they are. Start laying the thinest ones and finish with the thickest ones (or the other way around - doesn't matter) so that the tiles will be next to other tiles of the same thickness.

$44 per sqm sounds a little high. I get my stone form Edwards Tiles in Edwardstown. It's a long drive for me, but they've got a huge range and the prices are compeditive. They've got a good website too which is worth a look for what's available.

After grading your slate into 3 piles - thin, medium and thick - it is good practice to start laying with the thickest pieces first. It is easy enough to 'butter' the back of a thinner piece of slate to bring it up to level, not so easy to trim the back of the thickest pieces if you lay them last.
For a path it's probably not so critical, but for a level floor it saves lots of headaches.