"andrewpreece" wrote in message
...

"simon beer" wrote in message
...



Any body ever laid slate floor tiles?
I've laid slate on concrete before, but I did it the wrong way! I'm
telling
you so you don't try it that way. I laid them on a bed of concrete, and
had the idea that for full strength they should be totally in contact with
the concrete below. To this end, I laid each slab on a more or less flat
bed of concrete. That's a hard way to do it since all slates are of
different
thicknesses, so to get them to the right level, the only answer is to
shimmy
them around so that excess cement exudes from the gaps between slates.
Cement doesn't exude very well, and if you squeeze enough of the
water out of it it locks solid and shimmying no longer has any effect.
Then
you lift the slate and start again! If I did it again I would use the
finer
and
stickier cement grout you can buy,

What make?

and use a 5 dab pattern under each
slate, so it can be manouevred into position easily - it leaves airspaces
under the slates so when you drop something on them they sound a little
hollow, but so what!

If you have a well insulated floor, the masonry above the insulation acts as
thermal mass, providing you don't cover it with carpets. Dotting and dabbing
the slate tiles partially isolates you from a the thermal mass below. I
would not recommend dotting and dabbing anything. BTW, slate has the
highest "admittance" of any masonry material. Dense concrete is high too.
Use all that thermal mass as any solar gain in the room will be stored in
the thermal mass. The thermal mass prevents strong temperature swings.





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