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Have an electric fire - want to use natural stale tiles for the backing board and hearth..
There will be no heat to worry about.
Need to fix the heavy large tiles to some sort of board..
The tiles are natural slate floor tiles 40 X 60 cm and 10mm thick..
Question..
What sort of board would be best?
What adhesive would be best?
The vertical area to be tiled will be small.. One tile fitted verticaly at each side and one horisontal width of tile across the top..
Also, I have an elecrtic tile cutter, with a water tank under the circular blade.. have cut thick porcalain tiles with no problem with this but the slate tiles could be a different issue.. any advice????
Thanks for any help given - need it quick!!

I couldn't recommend fixing slate vertically on any board. Is it not possible to build the vertical back with brick or concrete and fix the tiles to that?

As for cutting, use a diamond blade in an angle grinder. Don't attempt to cut & snap, just cut right through with the angle grinder.

Thanks for the speedy reply.. no unfortunately it isnt possible to use brick or concrete.. Is the reason you wouldnt recomend using board because of the adhesion? Would I possibly be able to secure hardibacker board to a back board and tile on that?

It's just that slate is smooth and the only thing I am familiar with that would create a good enough backing is mortar. I would fix it by making a bed of mortar and pushing the slate into it so that the mortar squeezes into the joints and is then scraped level. That way you would get a cohesive joint that is not reliant on the adhesion of a subsequently added pointed joint.

I think you'll have to wait for a tiler to come along and recommend another solution if you can't apply the tiles onto brick, concrete or mortar.

As an afterthought, maybe it would work on board with a tile adhesive if you cut a pattern of grooves in the back of the slate.

You should be able to use a tile backer board such as aquapanel or hardibacker board.


Ardex s16 can be used as the adhesive, but it is fast drying and so you have to be fast with it, so don't mix too much at once. Or you could use Bal rapidset

Your cutter should cut them, although it may be underpowered, so you can either hire a professional one or use a small andle grinder with a tile cutting blade outside- make sure you wear safety glasses when cutting them.

There is a good post here from Mudster that has good advice for laying slate-

new-slate-floor-t367.html

As above (again)...............Hardibacker/aquapanel, glued and screwed to the fire surround and hearth.

Then any GOOD make of powdered floor cement will be ok. Not BnQ cheapo crap.

Your cutter will cut them, but make sure you have plenty water in it.......and change it when it starts to clog up with slate dust (slate paste build up)


Don't forget to wash slate afterwards.

And seal before grouting

Excllent advice all, thanks.. I hunted around for hours trying to get the right adhesive and some of the advice given in the various tile shops was frightening!! No such thing as 'cheap' adhesive by the way.. I ended up getting a good powdered adhesive which stated it was for slate tiles etc.. Why do they only sell big bags??? £30.00 to fix eight tiles!
Will try the tile cutter first but have got an angle grinder just in case..
Will keep you updated