my wife and i are both keen on the idea of travertine for our bathroom. apart from knowing that it looks nice, i haven't got a clue where to start! how much should i look to spend and are there any drawbacks here?

thumbski wrote:
my wife and i are both keen on the idea of travertine for our bathroom.
apart from knowing that it looks nice, i haven't got a clue where to
start! how much should i look to spend and are there any drawbacks here?


worst problem is acid attack from descalers , wine etc. etc. IIRC it is
a limestone.

Dunno where to get it - I've used marble that I got from end of line
sales and off scrapheaps etc. Never paid full price for it tho.

Doesnt' look expensive though
http://www.travertinedirect.co.uk/ca...FRR8fAodUjiPeQ

Do use a LOT of sealer on it post laying though.

Travertine for walls, requires sealers etc.
Use something else for floors, because it is vulnerable - both
mechanically and stain wise.

Use Marmox or similar (plenty of clones) for the bathroom, it makes it
warm, fully waterproof, 6 to 60mm thickness available. Nothing quite
like an internally insulated bathroom for warm - despite being tiled
it is no longer a cold "sink-hole" in what is usually a room with two
outside walls, large glazed area, cold cast-iron / steel / ceramic
bath, high ventilation etc.
I would rather have a minimal cheap Ebay travertine and insulated
walls if necessary.

Shop around because prices vary a lot, but price out the required
adhesive & grout, sealers etc - conventional pva-n-chalk will not hold
much travertine because of the weight. Likewise blown plaster will
soon end on the floor, hence Marmox or equivalents are much better.
You can get travertine look without the cost & downsides.

On Feb 8, 11:34*am, thumbski wrote:
my wife and i are both keen on the idea of travertine for our bathroom.
apart from knowing that it looks nice, i haven't got a clue where to
start! how much should i look to spend and are there any drawbacks here?

--
thumbski

Travertine is form of marble. It has lots of naturally occurring holes
which the makers fill. In the cheaper stuff they fill them with
crappy stuff that soon looks poors and may fall out.
This is how the contrasting colours are made.
However, there may be unseen voids just below the surface you can't
see.
These can cave in after a while and have to be fixed. Not easy to fix
either so that they look good.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travertine

thumbski wrote:
my wife and i are both keen on the idea of travertine for our bathroom.
apart from knowing that it looks nice, i haven't got a clue where to
start! how much should i look to spend and are there any drawbacks here?

There are two major styles, natural travertine which has holes and "filled"
where all the holes are filled with resin. In a bathroom you would probably
want the latter. We've used lots of travertine in Italy where it costs less
than tiles. In the UK it's foolishly expensive also I've not encountered
any UK companies that can do as well as a good Italian marble specialist.

In the UK we used marble tiles in the bathroom, not travertine, after
fitting them I saw some white granite tiles which, to my eye, were much
more attractive than the marble. Too late however.