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Male: The people building this country home wanted a durable interior featuring stone that would fit their casual lifestyle and be easy to install and maintain. They also wanted an eye pleasing combination of colors and textures that would match the rustic d?cor. They chose several shapes and finishes of slate and court site from International Slate, to achieve the right balance. The slate flooring called cookie walk, would look great and feel good underfoot. Richard Hoder, the founder of International Slate has created new look and applications for this stone.
Richard: We have our skilled artisans take the slate, which is about half an inch thick. And break it into pieces that are round and oval. Then we put it in a tumbler with carefully calibrated sand and we tumble it until we have the set and effect that looks like a river rock or beach stone, very beautiful in the sunlight. The pieces are in between 3 and 7 inches in diameter, and then they are bonded in to a plastic matting.
Male: Now the slate floor that we are putting down inside the sunroom and in other parts of the house is really easy to install because we are working with International Slate. They pre-gauge all their slates so it is possibly in the same thickness that makes it really easy. Plus they put this meshed backing on it, so just about anyone can install it, even if you haven't work with stone previously. You just lay it down in place on top of the adhesive and it works in almost any type of subfloor, whether it be wood or concrete slab.
Once you got it in place, you just come back later and grout over the top of it, and you end up with a really uniform finished floor. The slate comes with the option of pre-sealing in the factory, to make installation even easier and faster. All excess grout wipes off easily from the sealed surface. It makes grout clean ups a snap, you only have to seal the grout. The installers arranged cortsite tiles to compliment the slate stones for a unique effect. The two foot high walls in the solarium are also clad with cortsite.
Richard: And it's compose of Mika and quartz. And it looks like a million tiny diamonds, it will sparkle with the light and it's a very hard product, harder than slate.
Male: The crew installs thresholds in windowsills made from a deep, rich ebony slate. Using the slate in unexpected ways like trim and fine finishes, adds dramatic impact and interests.
Richard: This is a very hard and it's a different application, it has a nice soft look to it, and besides that it will last a long, long time.
Male: Ebony slate baseboards are installed in the solarium and continue into the master bath suite.
Richard: And in this case, we did a special design for this house, it's a trefoil design, and the trefoil design comes from homes that were hundreds of years old in Tuscany, in Italy. And this designs the copied and put into the baseboards and it's black and contrast with the variegated green. The trefoil design we've put in here by using a high pressure sand blasting technique to carved the trefoil design into the surface of the slate. And it has a different effect, because there's different hardness inside the slate, so it doesn't have the flat finish it kind of hasn't regular finish were you've sandblasted it off and this makes it even more beautiful.
We've taken the slate off the floor and put it on to the walls as well as the countertops and in this case what we've done is used the muted green for the counter top. And also used the black ebony base boards for the back splash on the sink and this gives a nice contrast for the black and the green and follows that scene all through out. Here in the bathroom floor we've used this variegated green slate. It comes from the same quarry as the muted green, except that it has oxides in it. It's our most popular slate and you can get a tremendous variations from it by having different sizes and you can develop different patterns with it.
Male: All of the flat slate tiles are pre-gauge to uniform 3/8 inch thickness for easy installation
Richard: We've used this variegated green that's 12 by 12 and we've laid it out in a diamond pattern, but the installer did some very nice creative things besides around the borders. So that it adds to the beauty of it. We have 8 different quarries and so that we have at least 8 different combinations of colors. Some of the two colors will come from the same quarry but we could wind up with 8 different colors we have 3 greens and then we have blacks, grey's and all other colors some other colors as well.
Male: Richard Hoder likes to develop new ways to work with slate like these shower tiles.
Richard: As you can see these pieces were cut into rectangular shape and tumbled in the sand tumbler and it this slight dome shape to it, that's almost imperceptible to the eye. But this dome shape does stimulate the bottom of the feet and the acupressure points in particular. And this creates the feeling of well being. So much, so that maybe a maiden would never want to come out of the shower.
Male: The ebony slate panels in the shower walls are 3quarters of an inch thick, each one weighs 150 pounds the crew tries to keep the huge panels intact, trimming away as little as possible.
Richard: This slate we're using for the shower walls is finely compress and very dense and very strong. In fact, it's one of the premier slates that we used and it's been used in the German parliament building for roofing.
Male: Slate is a non-porous stone that formed by the forces of geological pressure over a millions of years the same natural process that produces diamonds. Because it is so compact, slate is extremely resistant to wear and tear.
Richard: This slate will stand up to tough condition, hot, cold, extreme weather conditions and it will last forever. And it's not as hard as granite would be, but it is harder than marble. It's a nice product to be walked on because it's slip resistant. It withstands children playing on it with their mountain boots, inside or outside, the thing that is also nice about it is it's very easy to clean up, you can do it with a wet mop. The reason that I love slate so much, is because I love the nature and I love to see the beauty of stone applied to the home. It's truly amazing, the feeling you get and the warmth that you get from slate.
Male: For more information on how slate can add warmth and elegance to your new house visit International Slate on the internet at InternationalSlate.com.

Male: The people building this country home wanted a durable interior featuring stone that would fit their casual lifestyle and be easy to install and maintain. They also wanted an eye pleasing combination of colors and textures that would match the rustic d?cor. They chose several shapes and finishes of... click to read more