Anyones views please on kitchen wall tiling. The natural slate tiles i am to put up are 30 x 30mm with some areas of the kitchen (between worktop and wall units) 55cm, therefore there is less than 2 tiles height. Would it look better to have a row of whole tiles from the worktop followed by a 3/4 tile on top up to the wall units or 2 rows of equal height tiles or any other combination??? Secondly, i have yet to see any suitable 'edging' for these slate tiles either on external corners or where the end of a row does not meet a wall unit etc. Any ideas please.
go ver the slae in olive oil as sonn as its laid then.
Nice sheen...
You can seal slate perfectly adequately with lithofin. Ive splattered tons of oil, paint, doggy do, kitten do and lord knows what else over our slate floor, and it all washes off..
Yep. Agreed. You can use natural stones in a kitchen as long as they are sealed with the correct, good quality sealers and treatments. I used Lithofin products throughout and find them excellent. I used tumbled marble tiles on the kitchen walls and they are also fine for that application. The one thing that would not be advisable would be to use marble for a worktop - it's too soft and is affected by acids such as lemon juice.
Regarding slate tile sizing, you can get larger tiles than 30x30 if you feel that that might help - for example my floors are 40x60 and you can get 60x60.
I don't think you'll find edging tiles in the same sense as you do with factory made products. Keep in mind that slate is a natural material. The tiles will vary in thickness (unless you buy them calibrated on both sides - machined flat - but that looks boring) and in colour and appearance.
The normal way to fill small spaces and details is to simply cut pieces of slate to fit, and also to carefully select a suitable type and colour of grout - white is probably not a good plan. For example, during my kitchen construction, I needed to have a shallow plinth to take the AGA and raise it to the correct height level with the granite worktops. The plinth is concrete and about
50mm high. It's finished by having a small upstand of the floor tiles and blends perfectly. The same can be done for a wall.
Alternatively, you can mix in another type of tile - small marble mosaics is one option around the edges or as a band a little way in from an edge. Personally, I don't care for it because I feel that slate is something that should just be seen as naturally as possible without added fussy bits. For the same reason, I use a low sheen sealant which has a colour enhancing property but does not make the tiles look glossy. I hate glossy floors anyway, but with slate I feel that it looks completely wrong. If you find a good slate selection then there will often be fossils of various sizes and types and these look very attractive .
I would suggest a) going and looking at some design ideas and b) buying some samples and c) a small quantity of sealer.
I bought my slate and marble from Stonell
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and found them very good on ideas and good quality materials. There are a number of similar organisations.
I found it helpful to seal some pieces to get the right appearance and then lay them in situ for a few days trying different layouts and sizes.
It's certainly worth taking time and getting it right. I am not sure that you can be definitive about layout. What looks right with one stone may not with another.
I am not sure slate is a good material, at the very least you need to seal it. Cheep slate (ie not welsh) flakes apart, even the good stuff does in the end.
Cheep slate (ie not welsh) flakes apart, even the good stuff does in the end.
There are some very good slates that are not Welsh, and there are some quite crappy Welsh and Cornish slates on the market. It's a question of examining and comparing, paying a fair price and then installing it correctly. This includes using correct adhesives, correct preparation and correct finishing.
Hewn rather than calibrated slate may lose a few small flakes from the surface soon after installation, but that stops quite quickly.
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