Hi,
Firstly does anyone know where I can find a free web-based usenet reader that allows posting without the horrendous delay from Google, which is why this is out of order as I can read from elsewhere before Google has any idea what is going on!
Anyway,
I laid a kitchen floor in Slate a couple of years ago, 13' by 8'. I didn't prepare the tiles before laying and methodology was roughly:
- Select tiles and lay as you suggest (although I laid out a grid between the skirting in string before starting as I found the tile sizes were not terribly accurate and I was worried about starting in the middle and finding the lines curved at the end).
- cement them down, which I did individually just with the adjacent tiles lifted off the dry grid. I basically buttered the back of each tile (like bricklaying) rather than spreading adhesive on an area of floor as this made it easier to try and match the edges up for height. Any adhesive that got onto the tiles was removed immediately with the favoured wet sponge.
- Two coats of stain preventer stuff
- Grouting - just the lines, not sure about yours but given the riven nature of my slates (Wickes) the idea of floating the floor would have been a disaster. Most of the cleanup was done with the wet-sponge.
- Follow grouting with use of cement grout remover (Wickes again) to ensure any film of grout was taken off.
- Finish off with 2 coats of polish.
All tile cutting was done with an angle grinder with a standard stone wheel, which I've also used on roofing slates. No lubricant/cooling and I was able to cut corners out for round the door (carefully) - I think I broke two tiles, 1 corner and one that I dropped (now under the cooker).
It did seem to take an inordinately long time (mostly waiting) but the final effect was great, and follow up care was just washing (probably more occasional than it shoul have been!) and the floor still looked great when I sold the house earlier this year. - Now I've got to do it all again in the larder of my new house as soon as it's no longer a shop storeroom.
If I was doing it again, I can't think of much I'd do different. Except of course that I mixed the adhesive and grout by hand!
The sub-floor was concrete but I did a similar thing on a wooden bathroom floor with the addition of all the priming stuff.
Happy to help if I can,
Stephen