Newbie laying a slate kitchen floor

[thesaxon]

Just wanted to say thanks to everybody here in providing me with some great and invaluable advice in all the threads regarding laying slate. None of my local tilers were able to start my job within two months so I had to attempt the job myself as time is ticking and the missus wants to move in, I'm a registered sparkie and have been working on building sites most of my life so at least I have a basic idea hehe. Besides, I love a change!

Its an 'L' shaped kitchen roughly 28m2 and my first job I guess was to get everything together. The materials I assembled were...

• Dunlop powered large format and natural stone tile adhesive x5
• Dunlop Liquid flexable additive x6
• Lithofin stain stop plus x5L
• Havent bought the grout yet though, cant decide or either white or black.
• Hired on Belle Maxitile260 cutter to help, also had my Stihl 12" petrol cutter with a solid diamond blade in for the long cuts (tiles didnt fit into the cutter) and my trusty 4" angle grinder with a solid diamond blade.
• Plenty of sponges and buckets of clean water

I first leveled the floor with a laytex self leveling compound where needed last week then spent 1/4 of a day getting the layout right, I came off my patio doors along the middle of the room then used some trigonometry to get an exact 90 degree angle off it between the two doors. All's looking good, cut-offs are as even to each end as I can get them so off I go laying them all. As you can see by the pictures I'm half way now after 1 day on the job and everyone was right, they are a pig to attempt to get level and even but still i'm looking forward to seeing the result tomorrow when ive finnished the laying.

Any advice good or bad is always appriciated, thanks,
http://www.imagebank.the-closed-circle.com/data/media/10/first_one_down.JPG
http://www.imagebank.the-closed-circle.com/data/media/10/going_well.JPG
http://www.imagebank.the-closed-circle.com/data/media/10/into_L_shape_tomorrow.JPG
http://www.imagebank.the-closed-circle.com/data/media/10/laying_out_tiles.JPG
http://www.imagebank.the-closed-circle.com/data/media/10/not_exactly_even....JPG

Mark

 

[LM Ceramics]

you hve done ok for your first go anyway i wouldnt go with white grout though defintley grey or black but buy a few sponges and wear gloves for black grout awful stuff to work with

 

[stevee]

look like a good job mate,well done

 

[chris.tiling]

Hi Mark - agree that looks good. I would not go with white or black grout - black will make it look like a slab and you will lose tiles into one slab. I always go with a grey grout on this type of floor.

Make sure you clean the tiles really well before sealing and grouting them.

looking forward to the finished pictures

 

[thesaxon]

Ok jobs going well, completed the laying into the 'L' shape now and have given the tiles a really good clean off, then another, then another, then polished off with a teatowel. Loking good so applied the 1st layer of sealent, if it looks a bit wet in the pics its because it is, should dry in 4 hours according to the tin Looking forward to sealing the rest tomorrow and grouting in a gray.

http://www.imagebank.the-closed-circle.com/data/media/10/L_done1.JPG
http://www.imagebank.the-closed-circle.com/data/media/10/L_done_2.JPG
http://www.imagebank.the-closed-circle.com/data/media/10/L_done_3.JPG
http://www.imagebank.the-closed-circle.com/data/media/10/L_done_4.JPG

 

[andy-p]

ive got a 28m2 floor to be tiled with riven slate coming up , anthracite grout is what ill be recommending...

 

[DHTiling]

Job looks a goodn...thanks for sharing it with us..