When considering all of the elbow grease (mental and physical) that you will be dealing with while installing slate tile flooring, there are a variety of tools that you will need to either borrow or invest in for the journey.
Tile grout is the first thing you should have on your tool list. In case you are wondering what grout even is, today is your lucky day. For it is the day that you learn that a grout is a construction material that is used to seal the gaps and joints between various things, such as tiles!
Grout is lined up between the slate tiles by way of a grout float. A grout float is pretty much a trowel-like tool. It is flat-edged and smooth, such that it smooths out the grout line you create in the first place. Also recommended is a grout sealer. It is a water-based applicant that you place over fully dried grout. It will keep oil and water out of your beautiful slate tile flooring.
Another item to add to your list is mortar. As in, brick and mortar, but without the bricks. A binding compound, mortar is a paste you will use to hold the tiles to the substrate.
Made up of water, sand and cement mortar is quite a construction staple.
To add to the madness, it is recommended that you have a variety of hand saws ready. One almost mandatory type of saw is a “wet saw”. This is a table saw that has a continuous stream of water spraying, such that the blades remain cooler and to keep the debris (from random slate tile edges) from flying out and becoming shrapnel to you.
(For that, you must wear safety goggles, should the water not spray down all of the sharp objects).
A nifty tool I recommend is called a chalk line tool. It almost looks like a regular measuring tape (which you should also have), but instead of a metal tape you will have a chalky length of twine.
It is very easy to use. Just hold the container at one wall, pull the twine out to the opposite wall, and snap the chalk onto the surface. Immediately you will get a straight edge lined for you.
Be sure to do the same with the other 2 walls, and you will get a near perfect chalked up “X” to tell you where your room’s exact center is.
I hope you have benefited from the sample of tools I’ve suggested for your big home improvement project. Don’t let me stop you there. You can dive deeper into the world of tile flooring and possibly find even more tools to help you get this big project done.
Ben Dziga can share his tips on slate tile flooring and all of the basics when you check out his slate tiles blog. Grab a totally unique version of this article from the Uber Article Directory
