Slate can be made into roofing slates, also called roofing shingles, installed by a slater. Slate has two lines of breakability: cleavage and grain. This makes it possible to split slate into thin sheets. When broken, slate produces a natural appearance while remaining relatively flat and can be easily stacked. Silicone glue adheres to slate.

Slate tiles are often used for interior and exterior flooring, stairs, walkways, and wall cladding. Tiles are installed and set on mortar and grouted along the edges. Chemical sealants are often used on tiles to improve durability and appearance, increase stain resistance, reduce efflorescence, and increase or reduce surface smoothness. Tiles are often sold gauged, meaning that the back surface is ground for ease of installation. Slate flooring can however be slippery when used in external locations subject to rain. Slate tiles were used in 19th century UK building construction (apart from roofs) and in slate quarrying areas such as Bethesda there are still many buildings wholly constructed of slate. Slates can also be set into walls to provide a rudimentary damp-proof membrane. Small offcuts are used as shims to level floor joists. In areas where slate is plentiful it is also used in pieces of various sizes for building walls and hedges, sometimes combined with other kinds of stone.

Other uses John Betjeman's grave in Cornwall with inscription on slateBecause it is a good electrical insulator and fireproof, it was used to construct early 20th century electric switchboards and relay controls for large electric motors. Fine slate can also be used as a whetstone to hone knives.

Due to its thermal stability and chemical inertness, slate has been used for laboratory bench tops and for billiard table tops. In 18th and 19th century schools, slate was extensively used for blackboards and individual writing slates for which slate or chalk pencils were used. They were largely used in the 20th century, though writing slates were largely replaced by lined paper and notebooks, and slates still continue wide usage, though they are sometimes replaced with whiteboards.

Where slate of fine quality is available it is used for gravestones and commemorative tablets and by artists in various genres. British sculptor Stephen Kettle is notable for his use of slate to create statues housed in the Science Museum in London.

Slate is often used as a decor in freshwater aquariums. Slate will not alter the chemistry of water (except in the slate containing feldspar which may leach silicates into the water resulting in excess diatom growth in marine aquaria). Traditional Japanese Go equipment uses slate for the black pieces.