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. Installed, sealed but not grouted. Finished..mostly LOL 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).

Hi Bill, Thank you for your help and patience! I finally talked to someone at Aquamix that agreed the solvent based sealer would be better then Aquamix Gold (water based). She also didn't think putting the solvent based sealer over what is left of the TileLab (water based sealer) would be a problem. That the solvent based would work thru the water based. She also recommended using a product called "Aquamix Renue" before sealing. As that will help to get out any calciium deposits, hard water stains and minize the etching or spots. I appreciate your recommendation regarding the best type of sealer to use. What I couldn't understand is on the Aquamiz web page they state the solvent based sealer has "superb water resistance". So why would they recommend the water based sealer Aquamix Gold? Maybe they work on commision! Thank you again for all your help, patience, and understanding! Karen P.S. Maybe the reason Custom Builders purchased Aquamix is because they wanted a product for the high end market that is sold in tile stores (Aquamix). Especially since they had the low end covered with TileLab sold at HD (like Delta and Brizo or Moen and Showplace in the faucet market). I just hope the quality of Aquamix doesn't come down to TileLab's level!

You see the pic with the statuary white marble? That's EXACTLY what I had in mind for my master bath if this house goes thru, except with a pink glass accent (for my wife)!! Thank you for that!! Now I can SHOW her what I want to do!! Now for YOUR questions: Is it all thick enough for a bathroom floor and walk in shower walls? Absolutely. I don't know where you're seeing 5/8" thick tile, though. Normally, the thickest stone tile you'll find will be absolute black, which is usually 7/16" thick. Most of it's usually either 5/16" or 3/8". I HAVE seen thicker stone tile, but it's always been special order, usually specifically for mudset applications. Do you think I should get the floor warmer mat for under the marble? Let me put it this way. Years ago, I had a house down in Connecticut where the master bathroom floor was a stone called pink argenta (My ex loved pink, too). It was bearable, but there were alot of times, especially during the dead of winter, where I would've really liked that floor to be a bit WARMER first thing in the morning!! :-) I'll let you take it from there!!

As a banker, I know that in the industry there are certain groups of high-earning professionals that have a reputation for being very poor money managers. There are lots of banker insider jokes about this particular pool of professionals. I know they are not unintelligent people. They couldn't be as judged by their education level & career successes. Many, fortunately, turn their money over to a financial manager. Those who do not are a banker's worst nightmare (well, that's not true...but close enough). Honestly, the reputation is so bad that if bankers could reject people without feeling they were discriminating soley on career...they would. So, I know from experience that IQ level does not guarantee understanding of finances. It seems to be rather that these people have been so involved with the education process in their chosen career that other areas of knowledge are short-changed. They 'could' understand but don't bother to learn. I've found myself in situations that required IQ testing several times. My scores have ranged from 131 to 136 with the higher score coming on a day I was completly stoned on Roxicet (recovering from major surgery & the test day couldn't be changed) & could hardly read the questions. The breakdown of my test scores tell a much different story though than one might assume from just the overall score. I'm just on the positive side of the moron level spatially. Well, not quite but didn't score very well at all. However, my language score was 187. So, when the other test parts like math (I think there was another part also?) were averaged, I came out OK. Since this was a private test situation with no privacy concerns, the administrator of my test said that they rarely saw such a divergence in scores & asked about my background. I was sick as a kid & missed 5th, 6th, 7th, & almost all of 8th grade. During those years, I had a home teacher who came for one hour/day. We mostly focused on maintaining the dexterity in my hands (I play piano) & history. I clearly remember going through my 6th grade history book in two week's time. I did A LOT of reading during those years. But, I was mostly bedridden so had few experiences out in the world. At 14, I was given IQ tests & some type of highschool equivilency exam (this was in CA mid-60s). The school determined I didn't need to attend highschool. What to do with a kid that young who's not in school? In conjunction with my parents, we decided that I would attend school for 3 periods a day in the morning taking classes of my choosing. I took ONLY foreign language & literature plus one lonely history class. I took zero math or science classes. When I was old enough to work, the school got me a job in the Mayor's office & that, in essence, became my 'school'. I held that job for 3 years. The school gave me a diploma when I was seventeen. I went on to art school. I don't think my IQ score has played any significant role in my life other than frustrating me because I was always lost until GPS became available in cars! Did I mention that I love my GPS?! So, it's no surprise that my language skills developed at a higher level than my spatial abilities. It's not ALL in the DNA. Life experiences do contribute to our IQ scores. My father only had an 8th grade education & didn't learn English until he was thirteen; yet he became a very successful business owner (Russian immigrant family). He was a math whiz but not exceptional at reading/language. Yet, he was extremely adept at understanding the finances of his business & banking relationships. I believe he was successful because he deemed understanding his finances as critical to the success of his business and, therefore, devoted energy to learning how money works. My father was a musician & that's how he earned his living & supported his family until purchasing his first business at around age forty. Music taught him math skills (as it did me) as well as personal discipline. I believe it was those skills as opposed to his IQ (don't know what it was?) that contributed the most to his success. So, anyway...I'd be very hesitant to place any responsiblity for the country's mortgage debacle on IQ. I do, however, feel we are seriously lacking in even the most basic financial education in our school systems. My own son is a classic example. He received no financial education in highschool. In college, he was a double science major. In order to get through in four years he didn't have time to take any finance, business, etc. type of classes. So, were it not for DH & I being bankers he wouldn't have nearly the financial understanding he does today. I've always heard that IQ represents only 20% of a person's potential. The remaining 80% is determination & ingenuity. /tricia