I am in the process of installing a slate floor in my mudroom. The durock has been laid, and the tiles cut and sealed, and I‘m ready to start using the medium set to secure the tiles in place, but as I‘ve never laid slate (or any tile) before, I have some questions. 1. The tiles are in place now how I want them, do I have to take up the tiles row by row before I start mortaring them in place, or can I do 1 or 2 tiles at a time?2. I laid the tiles out starting from the center and working outwards. When I lay the tiles in place do I again start at the center, or do I start from the edges, or doesn‘t it matter?3. What is the best way to prevent lippage? As this is slate there is a good amount of variation. Do I just back butter each tile so that it is as high as the highest tile in the room? How do I manage to do that properly?
Others might disagree, but here's what I suggest: 1. I take up at least a few rows of tile at a time, carefully stacking them in order. 2. Layout should always be done using a center line. There are options for the installation: - If you carefully snap or draw lines for each row on the Durorock and do not use spacers you can start wherever you want, for example against a far wall so that you don't work your way into a corner. - If you only use a center line and rely upon spacers, then you need to start at the center. Tiles tend to drift from each other slightly when you install using spacers, so if you start in the center and work in both directions the net drift toward the edge will be half as much as it would if you work from one edge all the way to the other. - I always draw lines for each row when I do a diagonal installation. I install the longest row first and the work away from it toward the opposite corners. 3. Once I mix a batch of thinset, I don't want to fuss much with tile thickness. So before I even lay the slate tiles out on the floor I sort them from thickest to thinnest. Individual tiles often vary in thickness from one corner to the other; others might have consistent thickness but be dished (not flat). These tiles are candidates to be cut for edge pieces, or they might not be worth using at all. Anyway, I layout the tiles from thickest on one side of the room to thinnest on the other and only need to butter a thin corner of that occasional irregular tile that is pretty enough to be worth the hassle. 4. See my answer to 2.
