Flagstone Flooring in the Kitchen - Part I

Sunday, my wife, our four kids, and I went searching for flagstones in the creek that runs through our farm. Using a spud bar, even our youngest children were able to separate layers of thin silt stone that we then loaded in the back of our Polaris Ranger. (Tons of this stone gets busted up and washed down the creek with every heavy rainstorm, so our environmental impact was extremely low.) From previous expeditions, we already had about 2 pallets of flat stones in the back yard. But this time, we were trying to find really thin stones (3/8" to 1"), for use inside of the house. Siltstone is not as durable as slate, granite, or even limestone, but I think that with a good latex-enhanced mortar beneath it and a good sealer on top of it, the stone will work fine in our kitchen. And if a stone breaks two months (or two hundred years!) from now, replacements will be close at hand.

Rocks just inches apart from each other varied widely in color. We found layers that were bright orange (from iron deposits?) as well as blue and buff layers. Monday, after the kids were off to school, my wife and I salvaged two more loads of rock before a near miss with a copperhead convinced us it was time to stop shopping and start building. We took our last load of stone to the house site and began experimenting with patterns and colors for the floor in the kitchen. Fairly soon, we realized that we didn't want to use really small stones, and that we preferred very thin mortar joints.

To get the thin mortar joints we liked, it was necessary to trim at least one side of most of the stones. A diamond blade on an angle grinder made short work of the siltstone. I would recommend wearing leather gloves and hearing protection, as well as keeping the shield on the grinder. (Hey, at least I'm wearing a respirator and glasses in the picture!)

After reading the directions on the grout bag, we think that perhaps our grout joints (between the stones) could be too thin for the grout to work properly. Oh well, we'll re-grout it with epoxy grout if the standard latex-enhanced stuff doesn't work. With this many stones fitted together, its too late to turn back now!

So far we have at least 40 person hours invested in the floor, with less than 90 square trimmed, fitted, and bedded. And we still haven't grouted or sealed the stones. Definitely not the quick way to cover a floor, but it has been very fun and rewarding for my wife and I, as well as another good lesson for our kids (i.e. "everything doesn't have to come from China via Walmart or Lowes"). Whats more, I think this floor could last a lifetime.