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Groundwork & Foundations

Waterproof based sealant for joins slate steps?

Anonymous user 09/03/2024 - 3.06 PM

Hello. I am looking for the best way to waterproof-seal the joins on slate steps? As a bit of background on I'm dealing with: we have 6 slate steps leading up to the front door. Underneath the steps is a 'room' that used to hold the coal back-in-the-day when coal-men used to come round and dump coal into the little room by lifting the first step. There's access to this little room from inside the house, and the people living there would go down into the basement and get the coal for the fireplace etc. On the steps, there's a little gap between where two slate meet/sit on each other - I wish to apply some sort of sealant to the whole width of the crack, but as this it totally new to me, I am unsure what the best way to go is. There's evidence that something was there before, but it's cracked away. Water is now seeping in through these tiny little gaps, and I wish to stop it. Does anyone ave any recommendations on what to use on the slate? Would some sort of waterproof based silicone work for this or has anyone got some caulk recommendation? Thanks!

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4 Answers

PaveWise

Rating: 5 out of 5

Bolton

Ever build Weather mate is a decent external sealant,but it depends on the size of the gap between the slate steps anything over 10mm it would need packing first

Answered18 January 2020

Anonymous user

If you don't need to ever open the steps again, get some expanding foam and use that from the inside. You will need to make sure that the surface is clean and dry and I advise looking on youtube to see what it does so that you are not surprised when you first use it. Where gloves and have a plastic bag to hand to put over the nozzle when you are finished. It is a nightmare to get off anything so old clothes is wise too. You can use any of the many silicons but I'd use expanding foam. You should not need to spend more than £5-10.

Answered18 January 2020

EJR Pro Build

Rating: 4.9 out of 5

Reading

Hi there, I presume the joint has worn away over time or proor installation I personally would use a tile grout that closest matches the colour (micro max by BAL would be ideal for thin joints) as sand and cement would possibly be to course. as an added protection you can also apply a spray sealer or a lithofin sealer which will help in repelling the water .. hope this helps

Answered18 January 2020

Ajp building and landscaping

Rating: 3 out of 5

Gloucester

Hi I would suggest that you would have to use a tanking membrane and a tanking paint first that would be my best thoughts and it would be water tight

Answered18 January 2020