Slate Flagstone

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Comment by Thomas Omlid on June 5, 2010 at 9:27pm

This is a house that I have been working on for the past couple months. This is only the foyer of the house. Took me 12 days to set this floor. It still needs a seal and enhancer applied. Just acid washed it yesterday. The place has 5 other bathrooms and a large kitchen and mudroom/laundry. Also a bathroom in the garage.
Wet setting stone like this is slow. I can average about ten feet per hour if it goes well and that includes the washing of the grout. I use a washed sand from the local ready mix plant so it has larger stones in it. Gives it an exposed aggregate look and also is more resistant to cracks that can show up with mortar sand.
This particular stone is Indian Multi-color slate that was 1/4" to 1" thick. Most of the slate ran 3/4". I start out with about 2" of regular dry pack mud. A 1/4 bag of portland and 15 shovels of sand. Two batches of this and then spread it out. Then fit the stone in place. After I have this area covered, I mix the "Fat" mud. Same amounts of portland and sand with two shovels of type M and lots more water. You want this mud to be like block mortar in consistency. Then lift out a few stones and fill the area with the fat mud. Set the stone in the mud and using a rubber mallet and a 4 ft level, set the stones level. Keep working the same level throughout the floor. Selecting the stones is something you will get used to. Knowing what will or will not work is something that only experience will teach.
Hope this is of some help to you guys that are thinking about trying this.