I’ve been thinking about Scott’s really big piece of slate from Monday and it reminded me that I often see old slate roof tiles in skips around our estate as houses are renovated and new roofs added.

We have a slate surround and hearth for our fireplace so slate goes well in our living room but we already have some slate coasters and to be honest, we don’t use them much.

Any suggestions how else we can use the skip-dived slate tiles around the living room or elsewhere?

The tiles are flat, and usually about 30cm by 20cm and between 5mm-1cm thick (1’x9″x um, a quarter of an inch or something).

(Photo by Flo_Evans)

Had an email from Scott Tillman:

I hate throwing away old furniture, but sometimes there’s nothing left to do but mulch that old wood and move on. That’s fine except now I have the slate top to an old pool table (so its about 4’x8’x1″) and I’m trying to figure out what I can do with it.

I’m a handy-man, so no idea is too crazy. I have thought about building a new base for the pool table, but I don’t really have a rec room big enough to use it. And I _really_ don’t need a 500 lb. chalk board.

If it’s in a good condition, I guess you could use it as dining table top – but only if such a heavy and striking feature would work in your house.

The other idea that springs to mind is Freecycle in case anyone else in Scott’s area could use it as a pool table or whatever – but it sounds like he’d like to use it himself – so any suggestions? Remember crazy isn’t an issue : )

(Photo by cmx82)