It's not the weight that will be a problem or even the breakage as much as Slate is a very porous stone and requires specific care like sealing every six months.

Yes, it can also break fairly easy so you need buy extra and sort through the boxes to inspect and remove the bad tiles. There are different grades and to make sure your slate is a good quality, soak it over night and see how it holds up. If it breaks apart after being soaked for several hours, you'll know it won't work well in the shower.

We used Indian Autumn slate for our bathroom floor/shower and have not experienced any problems at all. To avoid issues with soap scum we just use liquid soap. If you do a search for slate in this forum you'll find several threads with lots of helpful information and pictures.

The slate sold at Home Depot can be horrific. Some have a very loose grain, it's more sedimentary like "layered" shale versus what we think of as slate, even though they are related.

Prior to installing any piece, balance it on three fingertips and give the edge of the slate a rap with the edge of a metal trowel. If it gives a nice "ring" then the grain is fairly tight. If it give a dull "thud", set the piece aside.

The cleft of slate will catch shower debris. Soap scum, sloughed off skin cells. And slate can shed layers of stone over time. Definitely discuss the upkeep and cleaning and maintenance with your spouse prior to using it.

Slate is one of my favorite stones, but I generally don't recommend using it in a shower. There are several decent ceramic faux-slates available today, they look fine and perform much better than true slate in a shower.

If you can find a honed slate, it's generally a better quality stone that natural cleft slate, and as such it will perform much in a wet shower environment.

Just my opinion.

mongoct, thank you for your insight! The slate I was considering was from Lowes but last night I soaked it in our sink and this morning there was a bunch of grains in the bowl so we have decided it is not going to work for the shower. Sigh, back to the old drawing board!

For tub and shower surrounds I prefer a tile that's as smooth as possible to make cleaning easier.

Take a look at some of the faux slates, here's a link to DAL's Continental Slate series, which is a through color body tile, and one to their Villa Valleta series, which is a glazed tile.

They are not the only ones out there, but they are a good product, accessible, affordable, and if you find one that fits the color range you are looking for they look decent to the eye.

I've used both tiles and they are easy to work with. The Continental Slate Asian Black was used on several shower floors when the goal has been a dark tile with a bit of texture. It's what was used in the 'Kerdi Shower thread' shower floor too.

Mongo

I used an Indian autum slate in my ensuite shower. No problems tro date with cleaning and maintenance. It's honed though. Got it from a tile store.

As for the test you performed with the soaking, did you give the tile a good wash/scrub before putting it in the water? If not, then your results may be inaccurate since slate tiles tend to be very dirty out of the box. I went through and washed all of my tiles ahead of time (i'm crazy like that) to get off all the flaking pieces etc...

You might want to try your test again with a clean piece.

Dan

I found a beautiful slate porcelain tile that I am considering for my mudroom/laundry room. I saw it in person and was amazed that I could not tell until touching it that it was not real slate. I have been shopping for it online and will be placing my order soon.

I think that if you see it you will like it. I will try to post a link to the picture below.

Here is a link that might be useful: