I grew up with a slate floor at home. In fact, thinking about it, the whole ground floor consisted of slate flooring and we had a few different types in different rooms. To be fair it took a serious battering; dogs, cats, us children growing up, building works, the entire ground floor was flooded (twice), house parties (too many), the list goes on, but it’s still there today and looking great. Nearly 30 years on, now that is scary!
For those geologists amongst us, slate is a fine-grained metamorphic rock made from silt and clay which have been compacted under high pressure and temperature. It’s a naturally dense material which makes it low-maintenance and stain resistant. For hundreds of years it has been a key flooring and roofing material.