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caroline94535

Twenty 12-in sq. granite tiles; WWYD?

caroline94535
9 years ago

We removed the ancient carpet from the living room and found solid oak flooring. A former owner had cut a 4'x5' square out of the wood flooring in front of the door. They slapped down 20 granite tiles and called the job good. I call it "not good".

Even as a type, a flooring man is here to repair the hole then sand and finish the entire room.

But, I digress. What would you do in the garden(s) with 20 square granite tiles?

At first I thought "stepping stones," but these babies are slick. The backs of the tiles are rougher, but I don't want to scape grout off of 20 tiles.

Here's the only photo I have of the tiles right now. They are a dark purply-brown with a yellow-goldish streaking. Not very descriptive, but my brain is tired today.

Comments (8)

  • steiconi
    9 years ago

    Lucky you to hit the hardwood motherlode!

    You could use the tiles vertically, like around a planter box; maybe even build some planters to showcase them.

    Breaking them up and using as mosaic pathstones set in concrete would give rough edges so not so slippery

    Kind of a specialty use: We're putting in an outdoor shower in a sunken area (used to have a pond there). I'm using slate tiles vertically to line sides of the area like a baseboard.

    You could do something similar on an exposed foundation or anything else you'd like to camouflage (thank heavens for spell check, I tried putting the U in three different places before I got that right)

  • caroline94535
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Steiconi! Your outdoor shower sounds wonderful!

    LOL While I was in photojournalism tech school for the USAF, a lifetime ago, we had a long list of words that we had to spell, on demand and correctly, at all odd hours of the day or night. Camouflage was one of them.

    As one of my airman once asked me, "You can't spell your own name correctly; why are you the Editor?" Be that as it may, I could spell "camouflage;" and as the ranking Editor, I could task him to check all the spelling.

    This was so long ago we published newspapers on typewriters, used bees wax to paste up the dummies, and checked copy with a dictionary and thesaurus.

    Oh for the good ole days.

    I went through the transition of doing them on the computer and sending the pages to the printing press through the telephone line. I'd have to stay late to make sure all the pages went through; it was very slow.

    I much preferred the old school way of publishing.

  • roxanna
    9 years ago

    i used similar sized marble "tiles" (inherited from a torn-down frat house decades ago) under the legs of all my garden benches, both teak and metal, to keep them from sinking in the soil/turf.

  • roxanna
    9 years ago

    i used similar sized marble "tiles" (inherited from a torn-down frat house decades ago) under the legs of all my garden benches, both teak and metal, to keep them from sinking in the soil/turf. mine are 1/2" - 3/4" thick -- if your tiles are thinner than that, this might not work for you...

  • caroline94535
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Roxanna, that would be a great use for old tiles! Mine are only about 3/8-inch thick but I'll give it a try. Otherwise, I see them going along on the next trip to drop off donations.

  • caroline94535
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I posted the 20 tiles on FreeCycle late this afternoon. I had three responses in just a few minutes.

    They have now been picked up and headed to their next great adventure!

  • kieranw172
    9 years ago

    My first post.

    I would have made them into planters.
    I have done this with slate and have set them in the borders. You would have got 4 good planters from them.

    I was planning on doing this with marble tiles, but haven't come across any local yet :) I love natural stone in the garden.

  • caroline94535
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Hi Kieran! I'm honored that your first post was to help me with my tiles.

    The gal that picked them up from FreeCycle was very pleased to get them. I know she's making something wonderful!

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