Honed Slate Tiles and Slate Slab
To Create a Charming Slate Kitchen

February 16, 2010- Honed slate tiles and slate slab along with other category of slate tiles like brushed, flammed and polished create a charming slate kitchen to tell the story of uniqueness and individuality. Various colors, size, shape and texture of honed slate tiles can be used to create the difference. Also due to dark and sophisticated look honed slate tiles and slate slab are treated as the perfect choice for the kitchen floor, backsplash and countertops.

Although slate slabs are hard but these are flaky so a slate slab can split in half. In spite of this slate slates and tiles are very durable and so used in kitchen.

What is Honed Slate Tile?

Slate is a natural stone that has uneven surface because of clefs. But there are certain applications like slate countertops, cladding and outdoor flooring where smooth surface of slate tiles are required and for this the surface of the slate tile is grounded for a smooth finish. This process is called honing and the slate tile so produced is called honed slate tile.

Where in the Kitchen You can Use Honed Slate Tiles and Slate Slab?

There are primarily three places where you can use the honed slate tiles and slate slabs to make the slate kitchen. These are:

• Kitchen Backsplash
• Kitchen Floor
• Kitchen Countertops

Color of Honed Slate Tiles for Kitchen

To create a slate kitchen there is a huge range of colors from very light to dark. You can get white, pink, green, gray, silver, red and even black color in slate kitchen. Black slate slabs are hard to get so these are the most expensive of all. Deep charcoal is the favourite choice for kitchen floor whereas black and gray are used to make countertops and backsplash. Types of Slate Tiles

How to Care and Clean Honed Slate Tiles?

• Slate slabs or honed slate tiles are resistant to fire but not to scratching. So never drag anything on the surface of slate tile.
• For a regular and normal honed slate tile and slate slab cleaning, use warm water, neutral cleaner and soft clean cloth.
• The rough surface of honed slate tiles and slate slab catches dust very easily. So it is very important to do the deep cleaning before mopping it. Direct mopping will lead to permanent scratches caused by the dust particles on the surface of honed slate tiles.
• After cleaning it apply acrylic sealers so that cleaning in futurebecomes easier.
• To clean any white deposit from the surface of honed slate tiles and slate slabs it is better to remove the excess of white deposit which actually is the salt deposit. Now clean the surface of honed slate tiles with acid. Buy the acid cleaner after consulting your slate slab provider. Use of strong acid is never recommended for the honed slate tiles cleaning or for any other slate slab. You can use the mild sulfamic acid.
• If there are scratches on the honed slate tiles then you can apply topical sealer to hide them. If scratches are deep and strong then it is better to resurface the entire honed slate tiles. In case of uneven slate slab resurfacing cannot be done you can only use topical coating to hide the scratches.
• Do not use linseed or any oil on the surface of honed slate tiles for color enhancing purposes because it will attract so much of dust that you wont be able to clean it properly. If you really want to enhance the color of honed slate tiles then go with color enhancer without any side effect.
• To remove the build up wax on the surface of your honed slate tiles use the commercial wax stripper.