Need more slate
June 24, 2012 6:25 AM   Subscribe

Where to buy/acquire pieces of slate in Manhattan NYC?

I need more thick, irregular pieces of slate f(same link as before) or my garden/patio. The ones I have came with the house. Everyone who has these wants to keep them, and most people wish they had more.

Home Depot used to sell bags of these and they delivered, but they don't seem to carry them anymore. I only need about 10-15 of them to complete my patio. I don't have a car, so would need them to be as local to the East Village, Manhattan, as possible. I would carry them in my shopping cart.

(in the center of the picture one piece is a square, and really, square ones would be fine too, as they're going to be put in a not-so-obvious place)
posted by DMelanogaster to Home & Garden (2 answers total)
 
If you live in Manhattan, then I assume you do not have access to a small truck. The best would be to borrow (or rent) a pick up truck, and drive out to a paver / brick supplier in New Jersey.

But, if you can't get a truck to move the slate yourself, then you order it on-line and have it delivered from an on-line paver / brick supplier. This is the more expensive option. Also, if you buy on-line, you can not hand examine each individual paver as you select them, and that is nice to be able to do, especially with uneven material like slate pavers.

In your picture, the slate pavers are very uneven. When you buy them, they are nearly even 1ft x 2ft rectangles - but some paving contractors randomly break-off corners to get that uneven look like you see in your picture

Also, another piece of advice, when laying pavers, the MOST important step is take the time to clear, level (but remembering drainage plan), and hard-pack the ground surface BEFORE you begin. You will need 2x4 piece of wood, a shovel, and a tamping tool. Believe me, taking a few hours to do the prep work correctly will make it look so much better and last so much longer.
posted by Flood at 7:07 AM on June 24, 2012


Response by poster: I have 90% of this done already, as per 10 years ago, Non-Tamped, Non-anything, and boy are you right. But "I was young and foolish then, I'm older than that now." Unfortunately, too old to redo the damned thing. Just trying to fill in around a table so my guests will not sink into the center of the earth while they're eating.
posted by DMelanogaster at 7:34 AM on June 24, 2012


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