SLATES / SHALES / PHYLLITES

First and foremost, slate is a metamorphic rock, in other words a rock resulting from the deformation and recrystallisation of sedimentary rocks. Belonging to the schist family, slate stands out thanks to the quality of its grain, its great fineness and its fissility. As a result, slate splits into thin, more or less irregular sheets.

Moreover, slate is a good building material with an excellent value for money. It is notably used for roofing and for outdoor and indoor flooring in your home. In addition, slate is particularly popular for landscaping your terrace and garden. It is thus available in different formats: stepping stones, slabs, wall cladding strips, palisades, stakes or privacy screens and even block steps or edging.

Indeed, this natural stone, whose colour can range from black to white, passing through all shades of grey, is particularly waterproof. Its main quality, watertightness, is joined by its lightness and its resistance to extreme temperatures.

There are several slate quarries around the world: in Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Brazil, India, China and France.

Each region of the world brings its own specific characteristics that make each slate unique depending on its area of origin. French slate producers, once numerous, have closed many sites and have since refocused on roofing materials.

Minéral notably offers a very dark black slate from the Galician quarries, a region in north-west Spain. Offered at a very good price, this stone lends itself well to garden landscaping with variants such as palisades, edging and stepping stones.

Schists from Brazil or India are very atypical rocks. With a very wide colour spectrum, these tiles range through highly nuanced shades such as the ferrugem schist or more original colours such as bluish slate or even purple. Particularly well suited to indoor floor or wall installation, their many details will bring a very distinctive style to your home.

Our BLACK SLATE AZUL schist produced in Portugal comes into its own in outdoor applications. Its raw look will blend very well into a contemporary-inspired garden. Among the wide choice of products in stock, schist works very well as palisades, stakes, stepping stones and rubble stone for building dry-stone walls.

Slate is a robust, resistant and long-lasting natural stone, which, beyond its roofing capabilities, notably in roofing work, comes in slabs, borders and stepping stones to best dress your interior and your garden. Slate is a natural stone with a formidable resistance to water, frost, and everyday stains and dirt.

Moreover, slate paving is easy to maintain. Thanks to regular cleaning with suitable products, your slate slabs have every chance of keeping their splendor over time.

Beyond its technical qualities, this rock adapts very well to a wide choice of environments.

Indoors, it can be used both as flooring (bathroom, kitchen, living room tiles…), and on walls as cladding strips to dress a fireplace or a wood-burning stove (corner pieces available for a more authentic look). It can also be worked made to measure in our marble workshop for making kitchen worktops, tables, washbasins or bathroom furniture.

Outdoors, its wide range of uses means it can be considered for a terrace, as well as a path, facade cladding, pool coping or even pool tiles. The choices are almost endless for a living, warm and modern material: each piece of slate is unique! Depending on the finishes offered, slate slabs can be perfectly non-slip.

Moreover, this natural stone also has its place in your garden as a decorative landscape element. On the ground, it is found in the form of slate mulch to accentuate the mineral side of your garden. Slate also fits into complete outdoor landscaping at very affordable prices: border, paver, stepping stone, palisade, stakes, take your pick!

Slate is one of the most accessible stones on the market. 

The budget to plan for slate paving depends on the type of stone, its origin, its dimensions and the natural stone finishes chosen. As a general rule, allow a price of between 40 and 90 € incl. VAT per m². For a tighter budget, opt for a smaller format, or one with a lower thickness.

Surprising fact: besides being offered at a very good price, natural slate can even sometimes be even cheaper than its factory-made tile copy ! This is the case, for example, with the black graphite schist paving, offered at a price of 46.99 € incl. VAT/m².

Slate is a noble, natural product that deserves regular maintenance. Suitable products from the Lithofin brand, very easy to use, are designed for this purpose.

Lithofin Wash & Clean will be your ally for the regular maintenance of your natural slate floor / wall. 

Outdoors, use Lithofin multi-cleaner for everyday cleaning of your slate tiles. It can also be used indoors for deeper cleaning of your surfaces.

To protect your floors from everyday stains, it is best to waterproof your paving as soon as it is laid with a product such as Lithofin MN Fleckstop.  

To revive the color of the slate, we recommend using a  slate oil. 

However, to counter the whitening of natural stone, using acidic products is not recommended, as they could damage the rock.

Beyond roofing and outdoor landscaping (garden, terrace, pool), you can also consider slate tiles. The slate slabs are worked to suit your interior space as well as possible. Laying slate on the floor is therefore a crucial moment in your project. Before you start, here is some professional advice to help you achieve a result that lives up to your expectations:

- We advise against using tile adhesive, for installation it is preferable to use an adhesive mortar suited to natural stone such as KTF 55 from Murexin.

- To make the grout joints between slate slabs, we recommend using grout mortar. An accessory that provides a perfect seal between the tiles and is available in several colors.

You will find all the prices of our installation accessories in the Accessories section (delivery possible or click & collect in store).

Indeed, rust stains may appear on your slate-covered surfaces over time. The rust found on schist is due to the iron pyrite that the stone naturally contains.

However, the appearance of rust really depends on the type of natural stone. Depending on the origin and the type of slate, it may contain more or less iron pyrite. If you are looking for a slate with a very dark black color containing no rust, turn to Galician slate.
On the other hand, the BLACK SLATE AZUL range naturally contains a proportion of iron pyrite that lets rust stains appear over time, for a raw and very natural decor.

Rust stains are not indelible and a few simple steps can protect and maintain your paving and slate wall, to reduce or accentuate them according to your taste!

Depending on the origin of the stone, rust stains may appear on your natural slate surfaces. It is therefore important to get good advice when buying slate, so as to know whether or not the type of slate chosen is prone to rust. Do not hesitate to ask for advice from our sales staff in our various stores.

Slate can be perfectly suitable for outdoor stepping stones. Outdoors, stepping stones are small slabs laid on the ground that form a path. Slate, a robust and reliable outdoor material, summer and winter alike, can then be worked in a wide range of formats, colors and finishes and allows for a natural and decorative outdoor landscaping. Its black color adds a designer touch to your garden and pairs easily with many other complementary products: palings, stakes, cladding strips…

As a natural stone wholesaler, Minéral has been striving for more than 70 years to select slates from the best production areas in the world. Our direct purchasing power from quarries allows us to hold a large stock, without intermediaries, at the best price. Minéral is able to offer you a delivery service across France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany (See our delivery conditions here).

In total, there are more than 2,500 products in stock to be found on our website: travertine, marble, sandstone, granite, limestone and of course our range of slate and schist, which we invite you to discover on this page.