Sealing slate · Perth
Protect slate the right way.
We seal slate floors, paving and cladding with JUMBOGUARD MineralProtect: the one and only next-generation mineral sol-gel surface coating in Australia. Nothing else works quite like it. It bonds into the slate itself, colourless, and keeps the stone breathing while it protects it.
What goes wrong with slate
Slate is tougher than most stone. Not tough enough.
Slate reads as a hard, dark, no-fuss floor, and it is more acid-resistant than limestone or marble. But it is still porous, and in Perth it fails in ways owners recognise the moment you name them. The sealer it usually comes with is part of the problem.
It drinks in oil and marks
A slate floor takes cooking oil, food, drink and greasy foot traffic straight into the face, where it darkens and sets. Alfresco and kitchen slate is the worst hit. Once it soaks in, mopping does not lift it.
It goes dull, patchy and green
Walked-on slate wears to a flat, patchy look where the traffic runs. Outside, in damp shade, it holds moisture and goes green with algae. It stops looking like the stone you paid for.
Salt and damp push from behind
External slate paving and cladding wick salt and bore water from behind. When that moisture cannot escape, salt crystallises just under the face and lifts it. A sealer that traps moisture in makes this worse, not better.
The usual seal fails it
Slate is often finished with a dark wet-look film. It looks great for a season, then chalks, wears off in traffic and has to be stripped. The penetrating alternative soaks into the pores and quietly fails from inside within a year or two in WA sun and cleaning.
How we protect it
Not on the slate. In it.
For decades there were only two ways to seal stone: lay a film on top, or soak a repellent down into the pores. Both wear out in Perth, so you reseal again and again. MineralProtect is a third way. It is a water-based mineral sol-gel that bonds into the surface as a thin inorganic network, right where the stone is used.
It bonds into the surface
Slate is a siliceous stone, so its surface carries the mineral chemistry our coating grafts onto. The sol-gel anchors into the mineral and pore structure as it cures, so there is no film sitting on top to peel and nothing loose to wash off.
It protects where the wear is
The protection lives at the surface, exactly where the mopping, foot traffic, oil and sun meet the slate. A penetrating sealer builds its protection down in the pore, below the wear zone, where none of that reaches.
And it still breathes
Because it works at the surface instead of plugging the pores, moisture can still escape. That matters on slate. A film that seals damp in lets salt crystallise underneath and flake the face off. Ours protects the surface and lets the stone dry.
The real edge
Built for how slate is actually used.
A slate floor is not a lab sample. It gets scrubbed, walked on, splashed with cleaner, baked by the sun and hit with oil. Every one of those acts at the surface, which is exactly where our coating sits and where a pore sealer is not.
Cleaning and wear
Survives the mopping and the scrub
The coating is a dense inorganic network right at the surface, so it keeps working through the mopping, scrubbing and foot traffic that wear ordinary sealers off. It fades slowly and predictably, and when it is due it renews with a top-up rather than a strip.
Chemical
Designed for cleaning, not just water
The inorganic surface stays stable through the routine alkaline cleaners real maintenance uses, the same exposure that breaks a pore sealer down from inside the stone. It is more resistant, not immune, so we keep harsh strippers and neat acids off it.
UV and sun
Does not yellow or chalk
Perth sun is what ages most sealers. Because our coating is inorganic, it does not yellow or chalk the way an organic film does on external slate and cladding. It is far more UV-resistant than a film, though not UV-proof and not permanent.
Oil and grease
Oil lifts instead of soaking in
Cooking oil, food and greasy foot marks sit on the surface and lift in cleaning instead of setting into the slate. A standard penetrating sealer repels water only, so it leaves the face open to the very thing that marks a slate floor.
Proven, not promised
One price. One seal.
We prepare the slate properly, apply the coating to spec, and register it. No guesswork on the day, no upsell on the finish. The chemistry behind JUMBOGUARD is tested at independent houses, so what you are getting is proven, not just claimed.
- Colourless and breathable. Same colour, same finish, same feel. It only changes how water and oil behave, and it lets the stone keep drying.
- No strip to renew. It degrades slowly with no hidden failure point, and tops up over itself when it is eventually due, rather than being ground back to bare stone.
- Independently tested. The coating chemistry is tested at recognised independent laboratories and registered under a 10-year guarantee.
The seal, working
The proof is on the surface.
Drag to compare: MineralProtect-sealed stone, dry and wet. Water beads and rolls off instead of soaking into the face. That is the seal doing its job. The colour does not change, only how the surface behaves.
Where we will tell you straight
What a seal on slate cannot do.
Slate is a strong fit for our coating, but a good sealer is honest about its limits. Here is where we will not oversell you.
It will not stop slate flaking
Slate splits along its natural layers, and some slate sheds thin flakes off the face over time. That is the structure of the stone, and no surface coating glues splitting layers back together. If yours is already shedding, we will look at it and tell you whether sealing is worth doing.
It will not darken the slate
Our coating is colourless, so it will not give you that deep wet-look finish some people want on slate. That look comes from a topical enhancer film, which is a different product with different trade-offs: it eventually needs stripping. We will be straight about which one you are actually after.
It is not permanent or maintenance-free
It is a long-lasting treatment, not a forever fix. The beading you can see fades before the protection does, so a surface that has stopped beading is a prompt to check it, not proof it has failed. It lasts years and tops up without stripping.
Slate, answered
The questions we actually get.
Does sealing change the colour of my slate?
No. Our coating is colourless and non-pigmenting, so your slate keeps the same colour, finish and feel. The only thing that changes is that water and oil stop gripping. If you want that dark, wet-look finish, that is a different product, a topical enhancer film, and it comes with different trade-offs we will explain honestly.
Will sealing stop my slate flaking?
No, and we will not pretend otherwise. Slate splits along natural layers, and some slate sheds thin flakes off the face over time. That is the structure of the stone, not something a surface coating glues back together. What sealing does is protect a sound surface from staining, oil and the moisture cycling that speeds decay. If your slate is already shedding, we will look at it and tell you straight whether sealing is worth your money.
Can I use it on a slate floor inside and slate cladding outside?
Yes. The same coating works on internal slate floors and external slate paving and cladding. Because it stays breathable, it protects the surface without trapping moisture behind it, which matters on external walls and paving that draw salt and damp from behind.
Does slate even need sealing?
Slate is more acid-resistant than limestone or marble, but it is still porous. It drinks in oil, food, drink and grime, which darken and set into the face, and external slate goes dull, patchy and green in damp shade. Sealing it means those marks sit on top and lift in cleaning instead of soaking in.
Is sealed slate slippery when wet?
Our coating is a thin, conformal layer that wets into the surface and cures following the texture, rather than laying a film over the top. It changes the surface energy, not the profile your foot keys into, so it is a different thing from the wet-look films people picture when they hear "repels water". We do not hold a slip rating and we do not make slip claims. What we will do is a test patch you can wet and feel against the bare slate before we seal the rest.
How long does it last, and do I have to reseal every year?
The penetrating and film sealers in common use are typically redone every year or two in WA conditions. Ours is built to last years, and when it is eventually due it tops up over itself with no stripping back. Every seal we do is registered under a 10-year guarantee.
What does it cost to seal slate?
Sealing is $16 per square metre all-in, with a $950 minimum, and you get a confirmed price before you book. That covers preparation, the coating and registration under the 10-year guarantee.
Keep reading
Related surfaces.
Slate is one of the siliceous stones our coating bonds into best. If you are weighing up a mixed job, these are the closest neighbours.
Not sure where your stone sits? Browse every surface in The Sealing Library, honestly graded by how well we protect it, or ask us for a straight assessment.
Get a quote
Seal your slate once.
We will prepare and seal your slate with MineralProtect, colourless and breathable, registered under a 10-year guarantee. Confirmed price before you book.