Slate flooring - stay or go?

Hi guys,

I hope you all well..

I have slate flooring in my home in the hallway, entry dinning, kitchen etc. See attached.

Its probably about 40sqm and I am not sure what I should do about it..

I can either keep in and really buff it up (stripping and sealing would cost about $25 per sqm, so I would end up doing it myself) or I can have it removed and re-tiled..

Whats everyone general opinion on slate flooring.. personally I don’t like it, but is it worth the effort to have it removed?

Cheers,
Robbie

 

Is it IP or PPOR?

Slate comes up very nice with a good scrub and then new sealant. I did it myself last time. The cleaning part takes the longest. I used a course brush on the grout .

It comes down to personal opinion on its looks. I like natural products like stone and slate but it can be a bit dark in some houses.

 

Its my PPOR..

With regarda to the slate I have… the house is very old fashion with a dull yellowish paint on walls, stained brown skirting and a terrible pine coasted kitchen, which doesn’t complement the slate at all.

As I am busy renovating my house, I’m just worried that the slate floors wont complement a new kitchen and a new paint etc.I would hate to full renovate and then decide i dont want slate as it looks terrible. If im going to take it up, it must be done before i renovate kitchen and other areas etc.

Do you get a machine that can clean the slate before you seal it?

 

I just hand scrubbed and put the sealant on.

If you go for lighter colours throughout the area the slate might look good but it really is personal preference. I like slate.

 

Can you change the colour of your slate?

 

Also.. some areas of my slate are chipped, worn as well as has small holes in it (it was like that when we bought the house a year or so ago)... can this be fixed?

 

Slate is generally considered to be "old fashioned" now. It's a hangover from the 1970's. Personally, if the finances allow it, I'd ditch it and retile.

 

Well thats my thoughts exactly.. might be worth my while investing in a decent jackhammer and chipping away slowly.

Anyone been through soemthing like this?

The only reason i would look at doing it myself are due to the costs involved in removing the slate... which i think are more than laying down new, really nice tiles... and most tilers i spoke to avoided the job of removing slate

 

Hire a kanga (jack hammer) from a hire shop over a week-end. When I did a bathroom, it was like slicing through butter with a hot knife. It is just noisy and dusty.

 

You make it sounds so easy (and fun)

 

Careful if you do choose to rip it up. I recently removed a heap from my place (kitchen, laundry and bathrooms) and all areas were lined with cement/asbestos sheet under the slate. IMO get rid of it unless you want a semi-renovated look.

 

I jackhammered up 90sqm of tiles on 30mm of screed at xmas. Took 2 days and a 4 cube skip, but the end result was worth it. Blackbutt hardwood in its place

 

If your house is quirky e.g. Mud brick or lot brick walls and beams or period home that will be renovated in period style, slate floor can look really good. But if it is 70's brick and veneer without major features like listed above get rid off it and modernise the house.

 

Thanks for the advice guys... i guess i will bite the bullet at some stage and rip it out..

Out of interest.. was this a floating floor? If you dont mind me asking... what was the cost to have this done (per sqm)?

 

I'm a huge fan of natural building materials. But slate looks very outdated in my opinion.

I recently removed all the slate tiling in my PPOR. Approx 100sq/m with jackhammer by hand and disposed of.
Two truck loads and had a total weight of 2.7 tonne. Each piece varied in size and thickness. Some pieces were 30mm thick.

The bedding used was essentially a concrete glue/mix and I had a contractor come in and he used heavy grinding machines to clear this away and expose aggregate in the existing concrete slab.
I then enlisted a separate contractor to go through the polishing process to the existing concrete slab to arrive at final product.

The process was long and I can not begin to explain the mess and dust that was caused. My wife and I actually moved out of home for the duration of this.

In the beginning I toyed with the idea of perhaps painting the slate all black ( mine was multi coloured ) and then having a clear coat polyurethane installed over the top. It is a much cheaper alternative but not quite what I was looking for.

 

Is there much you can do wrong when lifting the slate yourself with a jackhammer?

Does the slate come off easily with a jackhammer, even with the toughest of adhesives used?

 

From what the contractor told me. Back in the days of slate tiles circa 70's and 80's most were put down with a sand and cement mix. It's literally concrete.
If they were put down on a concrete slab as was my case. It would be near impossible to remove without grinding machine.

In my situation I used a wide flat chisel piece and worked at the tiles from the side until they vibrated loose.
Removing the tiles was the easy part. Most came up in whole pieces. The bedding was impossible.
I attempted to at first. But it would bring up pieces of the existing slab with it. Leaving slight divet holes.

As the slab underneath was going to be the finished product I quickly stopped right there and then and got in the grinding machine in.

 

if the slab isnt the finished product, but rather tiles, would i still need a grinder to get it all flat and level?

 

I'm a fan of polished concrete. I have always wondered what a 70s slate floor would look like if it was ground smooth and finished in clear epoxy. I reckon it could look fantastic - and be easy to keep clean.
All the hire shops rent out concrete grinders. I did a slab in my back shed late last year. Messy job, but not hard.

 

If you remove the slate and bed then the new finish will be 2" lower than the slate. You will need to put a new screed down before laying tiles. You won't need to grind the floor.
Use a flat blade on the jackhammer to lift the tiles and bed.