Slate tile can be a great way to spice up the décor of your remodeling or upgrade project. With the vast competitive nature of business these days, the consumer benefits from and should take advantage of the price reduction and sales available. By checking online suppliers and your local home improvement stores, you can find a wide range of colors, styles, and varying price ranges to fit almost any type of budget.
The benefit of choosing slate is its natural stone appearance, and varying color patterns that occur naturally in the stone itself before harvesting. This lends a rustic appeal to any slate tile floor. Even though colors can vary significantly, suppliers do try very hard to ship orders in batches that match as close as possible the color pattern that you chose.
Slate tile prices can range from as little as $.67 a square foot up to $5.00 or more per square foot. The best way to ensure you get a quality product at an affordable price is to comparison shop, visiting flooring suppliers and home centers in your area and backing that up with information and prices found online. You should be able to find the right product to fit your project and budget with relative ease.
The variety of colors that naturally occur in slate is a rich blend of blues, reds, blacks, grays, and coppers, lending an extremely unique and warm feel to your new floor, making it a great option for use throughout your home indoors and out as flooring, wall tile, back splashes, and looks great when laid next to hardwood flooring.
When installing slate tiling for projects in high moisture areas, such as bathrooms, check which types and manufacturers are best. Many slate tiles are extremely impervious to sealers making them susceptible to high moisture quantities, however that natural impervious behavior will generally resist a fair amount of moisture as well. Consult a knowledgeable sales person to find the correct tile for your intended uses.
One important factor when planning your slate tile installation is to minimize the available deflection of your new tile. This is done by checking the joist spacing in your home and selecting an underlayment of the proper thickness. If your joist spacing is unknown, then go with a ½” cement type backer board to guarantee you maintain the proper rigidity to support your tile. Be sure to consult installation guides and manufacturers suggestions before installing any products. Adhering to these suggestions can reduce the risks for failure or unwanted results significantly.