Slate flooring - stay or go?

I can't honestly say. It's not my area of expertise.

Perhaps call a contractor in to take a look before you start demo. They will be able to tell you straight up what your dealing with. I paid $30 sq/m to have the glue/mix/bed removed and then a further aggressive grind to expose the aggregate in the slab.
If you just need the bedding ( which in my case was cement up to an inch thick ) removed perhaps $15-$20.
Who knows, You could get lucky and whatever is holding the slate in currently is dead soft.

 

Spoke to a local handyman who said, for my area (about 40sqm) he would be looking at about a days work to remove and dump old slate tiles, so about $500 in labor and about $150 to dump old tiles..

Seems VERY reasonable?!?!?!

 

Awsome mate.
$16.25 a square meter !
bang on my estimate.

Your better off leveraging your time elsewhere.

Good luck with it all.

 

Very cheap... I was getting quotes of $30-40sqm

 

Well im probably going to start the job this weekend. The guy I decided to go with is charging $850 to remove 40sqm of slate and grind down the slab.. Im still ummming and arrrring as to whether i should just buy a jackhammer and do it myself or just pay him.

I know slate is probably worse that tiles to tear up (as it flakes and crumbles), but how hard can it be?

 

I don't like slate either but I'd love to see how this sort of project came up! Interesting idea...

 

Considering that I'm planning to remove the slate before i start my kitchen reno (in 3 weeks time), I'm just worried that if i take the slate up ill damage the slab and leave leave it full of holes! I think i think like this becuase when i was removing nails from the slab (when pulling up carpet), little chunks of concrete come up when removing the nails

The down side is that I'm only going to have cash in the new year to lay down new tiles, so im going to have to live on the slab for a few months!

 

Robbie, nobody knows till they start how easily something like that will come up. You might get lucky and slate could have been laid on a tile bed that didn't bond to the slab.
If you're going to tile over it, I wouldn't be worrying about holes. They're easy to fill.

 

Wouldn't worry too much about making small holes - I ripped up 130 sqmtr of tiles out of a house (5 different types!) - some came of easy - some were a pain. I made a few holes in the existing slab - these were filled and levelled before I started the new tiling.
Even with new builds the slab is rarely perfect - there is often some work to do before flooring goes down.
Good luck with the job - just think of the money you are saving when you are in the middle of the dust storm!

 

I think it saves about $500 if i do it myself...

I have 2 guys willing to do the job for $950 (including grinding and tipping), whereas it will cost me about $500 (hammer drill, flat chisel bit, grinder hire and skip).

 

If you get lucky with the bedding under the tiles, you won't need the grinder.
If you get unlucky, It's going to be a bad weekend. A really bad one.

 

I guess theres no harm buying a hammer drill ($100) and doing a small section and see how they come off, if they pop off then consider doing it myself, if its a struggle, get the guys to do it.

Thats the advice my tiler gave me

 

Yep. Worth a go. The drill will be handy down the track. Not sure whether a $100 drill will be enough, though.

 

$100 won't be enough to do the lot, or it will but you'll need the week off work

 

Added to this... I have 3 young kids!

 

Better get three extra jack hammers!