Travertine

Well its been around for thousands of years as flooring, paving, vanity tops the list is endless so why is it that i get call after call from homeowners complaining about there newly installed travertine floor. If its not holes appearing its the lack colour and character in the floor.

Most people spend a lot of time choosing colours, locating sockets etc but when it come stone flooring they go by the best price available, now im not trying to say that the most expensive is best but with travertine the more you learn about the make up the more time you will spend looking for a good quality at a good price.

Travertine is a limestone which in its structure is very similar to an Aero chocolate bar, what you want is as few big holes within your stone and the only way to do this is look carefully at what your buying, its is almost certain that once purchased there will be some tiles that will have holes in them. Its here that you need to be wise in purchasing, check that the type of filler used in filling any holes in the tiles is not pure cement as over time this cement will shrink and fall into your tiles leaving you with a nice big hole to fill. The best test is to wet the tile and look for traces of pink which is the cement changing colour. Ask your stone salesperson what type of filler is used in your stone (if he says none walk away), what your looking for is some form of resin fill.

Note: that most new floors develope holes, these can be treated by filling the holes with a good resin fill when they occur. It is not an indication of bad tiles that holes occur but may be that the floor is being overheated or over cleaned with the wrong type of cleaner!

Ok so we have our stone picked and its on to the installer, its here that i get my next problem. You go and get various estimates from tilers and you go with the guy giving the lowest price or who is recommened to you as he has just laid your friends ceramic floor and it looks great. Stone needs to intalled by a stone pro, ask for references of previous stone work. Call these people and check your guy is what he says. Be prepared to pay upwards of €35m2 to €50m2 for a good hassle free installer.

A poor installer can leave you with tiles that have lips between each tile or just a very eneven floor all over. Your pro will look for overfilled tiles and select these for cuts. A poor installer will leave you with a grout haze thats hard to shift which makes your newly installed floor look shaby from day 1. Make sure that your installer covers cleaning the tiles fully before he move onto the last stage sealing. Again if your guy doesnt recommend sealing think twice, all natural stone will require sealing after instalation.

Last part is to choose a sealer which matches your tile, i recommend a water based one such as Aqua Mix Sealers Choice Gold as it works well on wet (which your new tile will be during instalation) tiles. Solvent based sealers will also work but not all the sealer may make it into the tiles as the water in the tile will resist the solvent in the sealer. Make sure that all excess sealer is removed from tiles as this causes the tile to cloud over and is difficult to remove once dry.

Ok i hope i havent put you off travertine but once you spend time choosing the tiles, the installer and the sealing you will now have a floor to be proud of.

Feel free to contact me with questions before or after buying a new stone floor and the tips above work for most natural stones.

Frank