Travertine Installation

Posted on August 28, 2007 - Filed Under Housing |

"We need a decision," the TileGuy said.

Standing in the doorway of the bathroom, glancing over the travertine on the floor.  This next decision I felt was the right decision.  But I dreaded saying it, due to my budget.

"Rip it all up."

In the main bathroom the travertine was only installed on the floors.  P1010059
Because it was installed in straight lines, the edges of the tile do not match up.  They are mis-aligned.  Hard lesson learned: when installing edge to edge, tiles should be staggered.  Never in straight lines.

TileGuy and his three helpers started.  It wasn’t long afterward that my cell phone rang again.

"There is no backer board under the travertine."

Ugh.

Travertine is a stone.  Thin stone.  Not flexible.  Very fragile.  What prevents travertine from cracking and breaking?  Backer board.  A rough definition: backerboard is placed under travertine to provide proper support. 

What is under the travertine now?  Wood.  Wood bends.

The travertine in the kitchen and master bath was installed in exactly the same manor.

For the main bathroom, I told them to install the backer-board.  Not replacing the rest of the travertine would be a pure gamble on my part.

And this had to go:  P1010055

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Comments

3 Responses to “Travertine Installation”

  1. Shaun on August 28th, 2007 8:57 am

    Wow.. I’m confused… Was this installed prior to you buying the place? It looks like whoever installed it didn’t have any idea what they were doing. But if your guys installed it, they should have known better in the first place and I wouldn’t trust them to fix it. Or at the very least, I wouldn’t pay them for doing it wrong the first time.

  2. Kenric on August 28th, 2007 1:05 pm

    That looks pretty bad. You can install travertine edge to edge, but with such a thin grout line or no grout line, everything needs to be perfect. As for the bathroom transition, a straight strip across the threshold should match things up.

  3. Clifford on August 28th, 2007 9:06 pm

    Shaun, there was no travertine in the house when I bought it. It was pure linoleum flooring. My former crew was the ones who installed it.

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