Good to see you again. What do you think about kirdy systems?

Here is a link that might be useful: caseysbuilding

I'm probably wrong too, but I thought that all the tiles were made to be about the same thickness in gauged slate so they can be installed with thinset. Otherwise, I think they would need some sort of mud backing to allow for adjustment so all the tiles can be on the same plane.

I don't know what Kerdi has to do with the question, other than it being an excuse to post a new member's website, but as for gauged slate, the best way I can describe it to you is if you think the stuff you've seen is bad, you ought to see UNGAUGED slate!! OMG!! Now, that said, it does sound like what you have is gauged, and although your salesman severely downplayed it, he's pretty much right. It's not difficult, but it IS bigtime labor intensive and time consuming, between culling to get pieces with (somewhat) matching thicknesses, and then buttering or scraping thinset from there. In addition, sizing is always a factor, as is squareness of the pieces.

Blondelle-- the only way to get slate all the same thickness is to get honed slate. Anything that's natural cleft, you'll never do it. It's literally impossible.

caseysbuilding, your response is not even applicable to my post. I would appreciate it if you would respect the rules of the forum and refrain from promoting your business in the threads. Next time, I see you doing this, I'll be reporting it.

I really appreciate the help.

Gosh, you'd think casey could at least spell Kerdi correctly. I guess he's showing his sense of humor on April Fool's Day.

lukkiirish, ungauged slate has two faces that are the result of the cleaving or splitting process. Both faces will have that nice craggy texture, but since the cleaving can follow the grain of the stone, it can vary quite a bit in thickness from one edge of the tile to the other.

Gauged simply means that it's gone through some sort of milling process to make the thickness more uniform. Gauged slate will usually have a natural face and the back will have milling marks. It's still not perfectly uniform in thickness.

Bill hit the head on the nail with honed. You want a nice uniform slate floor, honed slate is the way to go.

Mongo

thanks Mongo. Once again, I appreciate your help! I can see by the descriptions you and Bill give, that this tile is gauged.

lukkiirish, you've got great advice from Bill and Mongo. I just wanted to add my 2 cents worth, as we just finished building a slate shower, with gauged slate, and honed 2"x3" slate shower floor.

The most time consuming aspect of slate as Mongo said, is the sorting/culling through the boxes of slate to find a uniformity. Our shower needs meant we needed around 130 sq ft of slate. We ordered 150, and needed 20 more as two of the boxes were cracked in 1/3's, and some were just.. ugly lol. Hubby was the one to pick the African Gold, but I wanted more of the rusts and golds. I think we did a good job of picking out the right assortment, but it's very hard to tell what each tile is going to look like until it's washed. Yes our walls are "rough", what with the split faces, and the veining/clefts. I took a wide edged putty knife, and went at each and every tile to make sure there was nothing loose, as I didn't want layers falling off after install. I will have some of that happen I know, it can't be avoided, but it's some very lovely stuff!

Back buttering almost every piece (each tile is completely different from the next like mongo said. Thickness wise, size wise, and colour wise), laying out the "pattern" of colours, and praying that it was going to work esthetically was hard, but worth every minute of it.

Some of our tiles have come into their own colourwise with the grouting. I had sealed each tile face before they were installed, but I think the moisture of the grouting meant that some of the reds/rusts became more obvious after install. We sealed 3 times with a colour enhancing sealer, and so far it's holding up well.

I sure wouldn't have put our large wall tiles (even though the tile merchant said they could be floor tiles) as I don't see how it would be possible to sweep effectively. Yours may very well be more uniform than ours.

I know everyone here is sick of seeing the pics, but I will show you a couple of our post reno pics of the shower.
Shower curb and floor.

Oh, and as the second pic shows.. yes we kerdi'd the whole darn thing.. and love the stuff! (no we didn't kerdi the top of the tile LOL, just used left over pieces as runners when painting the ceiling).

Oh yes, Mongo and Bill have been my saving grace with this remodel, and to say I'm grateful is an understatement!

My goodness your slate is BEEEAAAUUTIFUL! Thanks so much for the 2 cents....it's worth a million! Ha! We installed our own hardwood floors, like you with your shower, it was a lot of work, but we love the results. I won't mind the extra effort if the finished product looks like that! I can't wait to show my DH!!! If you have more can you please post them as well? So your slate is African Gold? I saw that for the first time yesterday at the tile store and loved it! It's gorgeous installed. Thanks your post, I'm sure I'll have more questions before this is over!

lukkiirish.. I will send you an off board email with further pics etc if you like...we seem to have a preponderence of them!! I will send to your gardenweb address..if that's ok? That way, the pics will be fullsized in all their glory LOL!

That sounds perfect, countrycottage, I'll check my email, can't wait to show DH...oooohhhhh!

Sent ;).. if you haven't recieved it.. check junk mail, or let me know here ok?