I am a geologist, and I love all the natural stones making their way into homes. I don't have sandstone (SS) on my floors, but I did look at it as a wall tile. The SS is not really scratched. SS is by nature 'friable,' which means that the grains are lightly held together with cement and the cement breaks down with time and 'weathering.' When the cement breaks down, the grains come apart. Keep in mind that the SS tile was probably on the order of several million years old (yes, really). Before it was quarried, it was not subject to chemicals in the air, cleaning products, feet, etc. Basically, it will weather to a pile of sand over time.

A BETTER choice would be a quartzite, which is the metamorphic equivalent of a SS. Metamorphic rocks have been subjected to heat and pressure, which make them less subject to falling apart in your hands.

Travertine and marble are the metamorphic equivalents of limestone. They are harder, but they are not chemical resistant. My bathroom is limestone, and I have to be very careful what cleaning products I use. We even discovered that shampoos with color (think Head and Shoulders) discolor the tiles. The stain eventually wore off, but do keep the nature of the rock in mind when choosing.

I bet you can get the same color/look in a ceramic tile. I wish I had done that in my shower stall at least.

Here is a link that might be useful: Friable

It is *beautiful*, isn't it? I can't say anything like what teched has taught us, but I do know that it's not a good stone for traffic-ed areas. If you want it, you can put it somewhere that won't get any rubbing, like on a column or something--inside a shelf? On an accent wall? There is a bathroom in a book of mine (one of the Dream Bath semi-book-like-periodicals) that uses sandstone as an accent on non-used walls. It's gorgeous. After I gave up my dream of using it in the bathroom, I still am planning to use some on the fireplace vertical. Not the horizontal hearth seat in front, just the vertical.

I agree, I lived in Sydney Australia for many years and the place is practically MADE of sandstone, I love it but would not use it in any place where it's subject to wear, there are sealers/treatments that might make it tougher, but for flooring or most parts of a bathroom would be unwise.

I used to scout locations for film companies and there was one house I used a number of times for tv commercials, they had sandstone steps at the back of the house which caused me many concerns, the edges were very delicate and you could actually see evidence of wear over the course of a day with a lot of traffic.

It is possible I suppose, that those tiles were synthetic?

I love the teakwood sandstone. I came so close to ordering a container of it last year, but as others have mentioned I just wish it was more durable.

Mongo

Sandstone is a great material for cladding both indoor and outdoor but not for flooring at least not for a residence.

In India you can see entire palaces, forts done in red sandstone that weathers gradually and looks great even after 400 years...

There are several examples of red sandstone clad buildings in los angeles.

Cross cut travertine has that striped look you are going for and works well for flooring.