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Got a call from a previous customer who has a slate table outside. Wants to know if it can be polished. If so what do you use. Thanks Shawn
Shawn, I depends on what type of slate. I just installed 700 sq ft of India slate in my new house. This peticular stuff is very sedimentary. Makes mud when you cut it with the wet saw. I sealed it with a silicon based product. My wife saw a similar floor on Sat. and now I guess I going to be sealing it again but this time with the “wet look”. Don’t know how well sealer would hold up outdoors. Flag stone types are much harder and would lend themselves to a wet ground polish type surface then sealed kind of like tarrazzo. But again sealer products outdoors? Also very slick when wet!! The India slate types have the color in the top surfaces anyway and all would be lost if ground upon. Good luck DG
Shawn, I’ve heard of everything from linseed oil to a very fine sandpaper but you might want to check out this site.
Shawn:
I would be very wary of any sealer if there is a freeze/thaw cycle in your area.
Water will penterate behind the best sealer in the universe and when if freezes, it will spall off huge chunks of sealed slate instead of little unsealed ones.
Joe
Agreed Joe. I see places with old clocks made out of slate where they use a bees wax to polish it up. I guess all slate is not created equally. And, the clocks ar not outside.
We used some slate for a back splash on one of our displays. Flakes off with your fingernail. We tell people it is pretty, but don’t use it in a real kitchen. Kitchen Porn…….
Thanks for the replys. I am not sure if it is honed or rough. I have not seen it, just had a message left for me. Shawn
Hi Shawn,
If it is honed (very snooth) then just work it like marble, but only take it up to about 400 grit sand paper. If it is rough then buy a slab of honed slate and fabricate it like marble. I did an island out of honed slate for an NFL player in Tampa and it was pretty simple. It had an undermount sink in it too. Not my choice but it did look pretty good in the end.
I finally got a look at the table yesterday. It is a round piece of grey slate a little ofer 4″ across and 1/2″ thick. It is not honed as there are small ridges all across it. It has spent several years out in the weather and has a white residue on it from water. The wife wants to know if the water stains can be taken off and the table possible “shined up”. I told them about the sealers and what could happen in the winter. The customer has a moving company and the table was aquired after on of the former employees thought it would be best to roll the top to the truck, Several chips on the edge later, a new table had to be purchased for the understandably upset homeowner. Thanks Shawn
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