First time with travertine - TilersForums.co.uk | Tile Forums

kurgan · 20-06-2008

Long time browser first time poster

I'm doing a small bathroom in clear filled and honed travertine 600 x 300 x 12, it's my first time with natural stone and I'm looking for advice. I've perused over other postings on the subject and want to run what I gleaned so far past the group.

The floor is around 4 sqm of TG, to keep the step size down I'm thinking of 6mm no more ply screwed and glued with the TG screwed as well. Adhesive and grout I'm not sure about as I've seen conflicting opinions on that. flex epoxy etc. so I'd welcome opinion on that.

walls I'm thinking 6mm ply screwed into the masonry, tanked around the bath/shower.

How small would you go on the gap to get a continuous look? also finishing the edges around the window, I saw a suggestion of using a router?

to get a gloss finish I've seen a suggestion of slate seal should I use a penetrating sealer as well?

Any and all help gratefully accepted

Turkish · 20-06-2008

Just some things, i would backbutter the tiles when laying them. With a soft stone like that i would want something a little stronger as a substrate, maybe 10mm backer board glued and screwed or maybe use of a decoupling membrame with the 6mm board. I wouldn`t ply the walls mate in a bathroom, either plasterboard or backerboard. As for addy it`s up to you, BAL SPF with microflex grout maybe?

Good luck!

Turkish

bootsmckiber · 20-06-2008

I've just finished about 10,000 sq ft of travertine,used a 1/8 grout line all through,looks great,are your edges straight cut or chiseled?If they're chiseled keep in mind your grout line will be wider because the chiseled edges all get filled with grout,you could go with 1/8 inch spacers and still have a 1/4 inch grout line effect because of the chiseled bevel edge.And without a doubt use a penetrating sealer,and of course don't forget to use white thinset,good luck,I found travertine a pleasure to work with,
Mike

**devonmark** · 20-06-2008

as long as the floorboards are are secure, no-more ply will be fine, use white flexible adhesive and flexible grout....my preference is mapei kerraquick addy and granfix maxi grout. you would be better using 6mm no-more ply on the walls, there is no need to tank then as it is water resistant..for finishing the edges you can use a polisher or orbital sander with the appropiate sanding pads..Mark.

basshunter · 21-06-2008

forget the gloss finish-dont think they have come up with a sealer that can do it and not look pants.I normally just buff the stone the best i can to get a little shine if the client wants that.USe a normal impregnator sealer
for the floor-if your going with 6mm ply/backer use keraquick white with latex(2 part).pricey but 1 bag and a bottle will do that floor- you can throw a party in there and it wont let you down....grout with ultracolour plus.
are the walls all over the place?

welcome to the forums!

GazTech · 21-06-2008

Welcome to the forums, with 6mm backer on the T&G you still require 2 part flexible adhesive. 10mm boards and you can use single part or rapid flexi. As Devonmark says, ditch the ply on the walls for backerboards then moisture problems won't come into play....Gaz

kurgan · 21-06-2008

Thanks Guys, I thought the engineered boards on the walls would be a bit of overkill but I'll reconsider that. I was definately going to back butter anyway although a cursory examination of the stone hasn't revealed many unfilled voids. The walls are a bit of mess, one wall has been brought back to the masonry while the rest are either painted plaster or has chunks out of it from where the old tiles were removed. the edges of the stone are straight cut. I'll definately go with the two part based on your reccommendations, if no one has any more thoughts on getting a gloss finish then I'll stick with the standard sealer. Cheers!

**wetdec** · 21-06-2008

Hi

Personaly I would just 12mm plasterboard the walls then tank with Durabase membrane. The floor overplied will be cool with a 2 part flexi adhesive

The stone is resin filled so you will need to go easy on sealer but deffo not a wet look it wont work, use a colour intensifier or stain stop if you must seal at all (i would doubt it)

tiler

..

**wetdec** · 21-06-2008

doubled

smartile · 21-06-2008

I would go for the best strength on the floor. dont compromise with travertine as the natural flaws in the stone are the weakest points and cud crack if floor flex is too much. Also I wud use white powder addy as grey can bleed through the stone and stain and gets into the pores and shows when you grout. Dont use slate seal its more like a varnish. you need something to penetrate into the stone to seal prior to grout then as is a bathroom maybe a waterproofing oil finish with a satin wax and buff for a nice but not too gloosy shine....good luck

**wetdec** · 21-06-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by smartile

I would go for the best strength on the floor. dont compromise with travertine as the natural flaws in the stone are the weakest points and cud crack if floor flex is too much. Also I wud use white powder addy as grey can bleed through the stone and stain and gets into the pores and shows when you grout. Dont use slate seal its more like a varnish. you need something to penetrate into the stone to seal prior to grout then as is a bathroom maybe a waterproofing oil finish with a satin wax and buff for a nice but not too gloosy shine....good luck

This is gr8 advice but on the sealing side you will struggle because of the resin you will find they might not take. I am guessing its a noce or wallnut travertine ??

tiler

.

silver · 21-06-2008

Hi,
The guys have already covered all your backerboard, adhesive, grout, seal issues......
On a recent trav job I did........the b/reg weight restrictions were an issue. The walls were all skimmed and the weight of 1m2 of the nice trav they had bought exceeded the 16kg/m2 guide for skimmed plaster ability. They insisted they wanted the trav.......so they took all the newly boarded and skimmed walls down in their bathroom extention and reboarded with the HARDIBACKER board. Problem solved...almost
I then found a problem that you may wish to check out yourself. ?
Where the builder had reboarded onto the wall batons....putting a straight edge across the walls either side of the door (there was no architrave on)found they didnt run with the straight edge. One side slightly kicked into the room...hence the straight edge left the wall on the other side of the door. This meant that somewhere when you travel up the wall from either side of the door...above the door would result in a mega proud edge to a tile butting upto the next one......I tried really hard to explain this to my customer that tiles dont bend .....it aint like wallpaper ! etc and somewhere a "twist" would be apparent to accommodate this error. But they thought it didnt matter cuz I wasnt tiling the door space ! I got there in the end and the builder was able to pull in the board by removing a levelling wedge from behind the baton.
The same situation can obviously happen around the windows.
In most of my jobs the door / frame is up into a corner of the room not centre to the wall so cutting in the tiles accomodates slight wall mis alignments.
I know we all check out these things whilst measuring up........but the bigger the tiles and with engineered edges the sightest "proud" will be obvious etc.....and its bad enough with trav the first time. Hope I have helped even a little ?

The first time with trav or any other "different" tile to ceramic is always a bit of a "ring clencher" ! I know how I felt so take your time...steady away...step by step and I am sure you will be fine. It will be a bonus in your porfolio.