Step 1: Don't pay more than $1.60 a square foot, and over-buy (ONLY if you can return them) so you can get the right color pattern
Step 2: Slate is not perfectly square all the time, so you need to chalk lines that are square so you won't be frustrated when things go wonky. For our 1'x1' tiles we chalked 2'x2' squares
Step 3: Open and layout a few boxes of the tile, so you can see the color variation. We got slate called California Gold and the colors ranged from red to blue. We chose to alternate red, blue, gold, green.
Step 4: Mastic those tiles down!
Step 5: Scrub em with water, they have not been pre-cleaned. I used a bathroom scrubbie and a tile sponge.
Step 6: After it is 100% dry seal the tile, if you don't do this, grouting will be REALLY messy. Let it dry for 3-5 hours.
Step 7: Grout. We used a color called New Taupe, the best way I can describe the color is warm-gray. Also, since slate is generally not super smooth, we used a grout bag (basically an over-sized cake decorating bag.) IF you use one of these make sure your mixture is thinner than usual, otherwise it's really hard to squeeze out into those cracks!! Another thing we learned is its easier to spread and smooth the grout between the tiles then clean, doing things in sections. With other ceramic tiles you can clean everything later. The grout tends to stick to slate more... Allow a minimum of 24 hours for it to set and be dry.
Step 8: Wipe the tiles down again, I used a tile sponge and water (changing it frequently)
Step 9: Seal everything again. The guy at HD said "pour it on." We spread it with mini foam rollers. **Make sure the tile is 100% dry from your last cleaning - if you still see clouding wash again, because you'll just seal in those clouds. Let stand for 3-5 hours before walking on it.
As you can tell this is not a one day project, it nearly took us 3 weeks to finish!!! So as Counting Crows sings: NEVER AGAIN, NEVER AGAIN - NO! NO!
