Personally I would not be happy about it. I guess he did not offer and you did not ask for a layout to approve (probably would not have shown the slivers anyway)? At this point I don't know what your recourse would be as I doubt you will get him to do it over. You could decide what it is is worth to you as far as that goes.

Thanks for the response. I did no think to ask for a pattern layout approval. I was, naively I guess, working off the 3d video rendering of the area.

They have not done the final compaction or sanded the joints yet so I could attempt to have this redone.

As someone who has travertine around their pool, I can tell you those tiny pieces are going to jiggle, sink, rise, etc no matter what they do...and in the area that gets the highest traffic and pressure (jumping, diving, etc). If you can possibly convince them to fix it, you should. Travertine has been a great choice for us, not hot, not very slippery...once you get this resolved you will love it. Good luck.

About 10 years ago on a pool build, a separate contractor installed a travertine patio set dry like a standard brick paver for my client. Over time time the material cracked and was loose in it's base.

It's awful material in the northeast and the thickness is usually no more than an 1 1/4" thick. With that thickness, the stones are very unstable and rock. Standard brick pavers are 2" plus for stability.

I'm not crazy about using them outside either. I would only set them wet (in cement) not dry if someone really wanted them.

We did an indoor pool about 6 years ago in Brooklyn, and the we set the travertine wet. It came out beautiful. No rocking and rolling-or cracks.

The honed and filled stones are best to use.

We have used it for coping jobs on pools/spas without issues.

Look at all the other edges. If one shifted the pattern over to eliminate the small pieces by the coping, how would it affect cuts on other sides and at other edges?