Hullo New Tiler! Just read your question about laying slate. From the measurements you gave, the slate is about half inch thick? Is it porous, ( i.e., absorbent), or is it dense? Yes, you can lay up to 40millimeters, or one & a half inches of 3parts sand, to 1 part cement,to a consistency that will stand up on it's own, but is still wet enough to wet the back of the slate, but no deeper than one & a half inches of mix. Otherwise it will break up, or crack, because it needs larger size aggregate over that thickness. When 'topping' an existing cement slab, it needs to be clean of dirt, oil, paint, etc. BTW, don't ever lay in a sand/cement bed less than 1 inch, it can let go of the slab it's sticking to, also. I would advise using a polymer additive also, and follow the instructions on the label! This additive will strengthen the mix a lot, and stick better to the concrete underneath. It's well worth the money, and saves a lot of jobs that would otherwise fail. The sand we use here, ( Australia), is Tiling sand, or washed beach sand. However, sounds like you might go close to the limit in depth of the bed, so I would use what we call river sand. It's a coarser grade of sand, with particles up to about an eigth of an inch. After you've mixed your 'mud', make a mix of neat cement powder and water, to the consistency of runny yogurt, and brush or broom it onto the immediate area you will lay your mud onto. Then lay the mud onto it, eg, with a spade, and roughly level it out to just above the required depth, so that when you lay the slate onto it, you have to tap it into the mix about half an inch, ( or less), to get the slate to the height you want. Any excess that oozes up above and over the edge of the slate, is just scooped off with your trowel, and you can clean out the joint with the trowel, or a rubber gloved finger, and sponge off the top of the tile IMMEDIATELY. These joints, or grout lines, will have grout squeegeed into them the day after the last slate is set into the bed, and immediately sponged off with a wrung out, flat sponge. Only grout about a square yard at a time if you are a beginner. As for levels, use your existing border as the guide, by stretching a string-line across the top of one side border, across in front of you where you're working, to the border on the other side of you. Just wrap the string around a brick a couple of times at both ends, and you can easily move the bricks around to tighten or slacken off the line, if you need to move it out of your way to place more mud, or while your working. When your tapping your slate into the bed, use a rubber mallet. You'll know if you're tapping too hard, as the slate will simply crack or break. Grout mix is 3 sand, to 1 cement, using the fine tiling sand, ( beach sand, washed.) Hope this hasn't confused you. I usually grade the slate into thicknesses first, and then lay in thin-bed adhesive. I've laid over 50 thousand square meters ( = square yards ) this way, but sometimes laying in thick-bed, the way I've described above. There's lots of different ways to lay stone, some-times mixing different methods to suit the job, but the way I've described will do the job. If you've got any more questions on this, I'll try and help you if I can. I've also done large ( 10 sq.yds. of wall ) fireplaces and feature walls in slate and sandstone in thin-bed adhesive and sand-cement. PS, make sure you wear rubber gloves when you grout, or you will be in pain for days from the raw fingertips, from the abrasion of the sand. Good luck with your project, Bruce.

I just built a quartzite patio in Reno, NV. I used the new product, polymeric sand and it worked great! I got the sand in 60 lb bags for $20 a bag from Home Depot. My patio is 9X27.5 and I used 5 bags. It looks like regular sand and sweeps into the joints. You then mist it 3-4 times waiting about 10 minutes between each misting. The water activates a weak polymer glue and locks the sand granules in place. We don't have much problems with frost heaves here, but if a stone moves you can pull up the sand in chunks and step on it or use a shovel to get it back to a granular stage, sweep it back in place and re-mist. Although the polymeric sand sets up pretty hard I don't think it would stand up to a leg from a patio chair, etc., so we plan on getting sled style chairs for the patio. It does do well with walking on it and the sand stays put! So far we are very happy with it. I'll let you know how it goes thru the winter. We get very little rain here but we do get snow.

Hi there. Nice home. Yes there are many lime formulas and techniques to white wash a house on the internet. Does your brick have a smooth finish to it, is it porous? A way to test this is to run water over the brick, does some of the water absorb into the brick? Does the brick stay damp for a bit? If so then your brick will work well with lime washing. If not then lime may not work well on your brick. So test a small area first. I know this may be a bit bold for you but I would consider white washing the entire house. I personally like homes in one color. It gives it more of a classic look. Also it would like very nice with the different textures of material( brick and stone). If you feel that might be a bit too much start with the brick first and see if you like it. Start with thin coats then keep applying. I feel the stone needs to be softened up a bit. So add a few thin coats over that as well. I would personally go all white and add plant, shrubs, trees and vines next to the house to break up the wall height. Plus that would really make your landscaping pop up against that White House and give it character. There is a lime formula that is mixed with white Portland cement that a world renowned architect Ken Tate gave me that we are using on our home. I've done some sample walls and it turned out great! It sort a tad thicker than a straight lime wash and it gives the brick a soft edge. It looks like it's been painted 100 times. Just like the old buildings in Europe were limed washed back in the 1800's. The mix I use is 4 parts white Portland cement and 1 part lime, 4.5 parts of water. Should have a consistency of whole milk but not too thick! You can mix pigment in with any formula but we choose not too. It comes out white but with a very soft gray white. I tested it with the reverse formula and the lime was Greek white. As light hits the lime, light reflects twice as much. So the more lime the brighter it greats unless you add a pigment. Some people like some brick sort of bleeding through, however we are covering all our brick so that it's all white. If you plan to go all white, you'll need several coats to cover. Sounds like you are adding shutters, good idea. That will give the house character. Also make sure when you buy or have them made to make sure they are sized properly to actually cover the window if they were closed. Not too small. I would go with a dark hunter green on your shutter and keep your windows and window trim the taupe color. And other trim white. If you go the lime route make sure you find someone that knows what they're doing. The most import thing when applying lime is to keep the wall wet down but not standing water, after applying the first coat of lime, let it dry 24 hours between coats. If you don't let it cue long enough between coats you'll have crazing (which are a network of very fine cracks). And make sure it's done between outside temperatures 50-90. Morning and afternoons. Try to not apply it when the sun is beating down. You don't want it drying too fast. We are liming the house ourselves, I know it's cray but we can't fine anyone that can do it. Also if you don't want to mix this yourself there is a company called Roma ( google Roma lime wash) they have premixed lime putty formulas and they can also mix in your pigment of choice. Just add water and your ready to start liming. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Holy Dog Urine.....that was fast! Are you all always this prompt when helping with Pet questions? If so, no need for me to ever go hunting and pecking all over the internet when I have a question/problem with any of my fur and feathered babes....I'll just come directly here! Cynthia, Ok, about the Lime...do you mean actual citrus lime? As in, juice? If so, then I'm in business as my neighbor has a lime tree and the limes are always dropping all over her yard and mine because she doesn't do anything with them. If not the citrus lime, what kind do you mean? Joepyeweed, Does Simple Solution have a decent scent? Normally I wouldn't care as long as I could get the old urine smell out of the area but since it's a place to relax I don't want another nasty scent added to the mix. Although, it can't be near as bad as some of the solutions I've tried already. lol Does Simple Solutions come in a concentrate so that I can mix up a garden pump sprayer of it for the week? I'll tell ya both...I had nooo idea old, dried dog urine could smell so bad when it's been dampened with hose water. My gosh, it was infiltrating into the house a whole double garage space away from it. You are both great for taking the time to read my question and respond, and so fast. Thank you both!