Can I use glue to secure my slate as I'm not too talented with grout?

4554290
by 4554290
I purchased this cute little electric stove for the basement from an estate sale. I got the slate tiles for free off Kijiji. They were used and needed a lot of TLC to remove the cement. I would like to find an easy method to glue the tiles perhaps to a wooden board. My stove is electric and doesn't require a hearth pad - so it's really only for aesthetic reasons. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
  7 answers
  • Maggie Maggie on Nov 04, 2017

    Yyou can use Liquid Nails and/or their new fuzeit. I would also suggest Gluing a rubber backing to protect your floors! I use tool box or kitchen rubber drawer liners. You might also use an anti-slip rug pad, or an upside down old bath rug.

  • Hbr31333664 Hbr31333664 on Nov 04, 2017

    Your home improvement store should be able recommend the kind of glue to use and the depth of the piece of wood foundation. If it's too thick then you'll have a new dilemma, how to cover that up.

  • Nancy Turner Nancy Turner on Nov 04, 2017

    I always use plywood under our fish tanks in case of spills. Cut a piece of plywood to fit the size of the slate tiles underneath. You can use as thin a board as you want as it is just to protect the flooring. Sand it if it needs to be smoothed out a little. Stain it to match the flooring underneath and use a polyurethane product to seal it. Verithane has one that looks just like your flooring, I just used it to cover the back of an aquarium stand and it turned out that color. I could not find a color on the can, sorry! We did not stain the board, just used a few coats of the Verithane and it got a little darker with each coat until we had the coverage and color we wanted, which looks like the color of your floor. We used real thin board for the back of the aquarium stand because when we brought in the plants we had to move it to put the plants on the floor by the windows and they were way too tall and heavy to put on it. We plan to put things in the cupboards and the back is towards the back door where the dogs go in and out the doggy door and don't want the one puppy to take things out.

  • Bijous Bijous on Nov 04, 2017

    How clever you are. Your idea of attaching to plywood is a good idea. Use quarter inch. The big box stores will cut it to size for you. Use liquid nails and colored caulk for the "grout". It'll look great.

  • Big lulu Big lulu on Nov 05, 2017

    Or you could buy quarter round molding and make a frame to go around the rectangular slate tiles. You might be able to get away with just laying the frame around the tiles without having a plywood base.


  • 4554290 4554290 on Nov 06, 2017

    Thanks so much for the great advice everyone!

  • Michelle Leslie Michelle Leslie on Dec 05, 2020

    Hi there, yes you can. I always use glue for my mosaic projects and only fill the gaps with grout.