Looks good!

@jillcdaniels

I am in the middle of building a pool and just had my deck installed. But I bought a lower quality travertine than I was expecting and HATE it.. It has a LOT of holes in it. Large ones and small ones. Nearly 85% of every paver has significant large holes in it.

I have 3 questions for you please:

1) Did you fill the HOLES in your travertine with grout, or did you just use grout for the lines?

2) Did you use travertine pavers (1.25" thick), or travertine tiles for your deck?

3) Are you still happy that you used grout instead of sand?

Hi! I used travertine tiles and I think most of the holes are filled in. There are some holes but they don’t bother me. I like the grout install, with sand-it grows weeds and there is always sand escaping. I only grouted the lines.

Trey Allen - I have travertine pavers on my patio. It is a commercial grade with lots of holes. I own a company that does stone restoration so I am a bit of a purist when it comes to stone, I love it's natural.

When installed they filled in the holes and between the tiles with a polymeric sand. Polymeric sand might be something you want to consider as it does not allow the germination of seeds as much as regular sand. The problem with any sand is cleaning the stone as it will be removed with most (not all) cleaning techniques. I clean mine every few years and have removed all the polymeric sand and really like it natural......personal preference that we receive lots of compliments on.

As for as sealing patios I see little value in sealing exterior patios. We see more problems with improper sealing and are frequently asked by our clients to remove the sealer do to it being so slick. Water/humidity beading o the surface will make it slick. Not something you want around a pool. In my opinion, sealers better suited for interior applications.

@Beyond Clean Tile

I also love my naturally holey travertine deck, installed last summer (2020). As I understand your post, you removed the sand when you cleaned and did not replace it. My question for you is, do you have any trouble with freezing and damaged travertine with the polymeric sand removed. I loved the way the stone looked before they added the polymeric sand. It’s still beautiful, but with every rain some of it comes loose and it seems like we will be redoing this quite often; very rainy climate here in Virginia. Even with the poly, we had a few damaged tiles after the snow and freezing this winter, especially where the area was shaded and did not melt quick.

Renee, You are correct, we removed the polymeric sand when we cleaned. Unlike paver stones which have more space for sand to fill between pavers, travertine pavers we have were installed very close with little room for the sand. The sand did fill the holes and pits but living in Texas, allowed mildew and growth in the holes just like it would if soil eventually filled the holes. We do not have freezing problems here like Virginia, so I'm not familiar with the freezing problem you mention. Also, our patio is about 5 years old and I have not needed to either replace a tile or relevel a tile. I think that would have as much to do with method of instillation as anything else.

We have a travertine deck around our pool and it had so many holes in it. I hated it so the installer grouted the joints and filled in holes with grout. It looked great in the beginning but now (2 years later) the grout is cracking and falling out! How do you keep the grout from cracking outside? Thanks.

I hate my travertine deck too 😩 there’s holes, mold, weeds and moss growing in between the joints. We put so much money into the deck and now I’m left with a product I didn’t know would turn out like this less than 1 year after install. I’ve poured so much blood sweat and tears trying to repair it myself the last 5 years and have called around to find a company to repair it but I’m beginning to think this is how travertine pavers are…if anyone in the Dallas area can help, please reach out! Thanks!

Jacqueline is yours laid on top of concrete or sand?

Beyond clean- do you happen to be in the Dallas area?

mozaic8211, sorry I can't help as we are north Houston area. Try this, remove the weeds, find a dry day and apply this product: D2 Stone Cleaner . We have good results cleaning with this product. It is a long term biocide as it minimizes the mildew and growth from living off the minerals in the stone. Apply annually or as needed.

The pavers were laid on top of sand. Is that okay? What the installers did was 1. Demo the existing concrete pool deck 2. Laid maybe a thin (1 inch layer on gravel like rock, not even around the entire area) 3. Poured sand 4. Laid the pavers 5. Filled the joints with polymeric sand. I was told that he should have poured concrete, sand, lay pavers then grout or fill joints with poly sand. Should I invest in having it all taken out and laying them with concrete? (~$15k)?

Mine is laid on sand

Moziac I have the same question. It's so frustrating after paying so much for it!

Our travertine deck was done two years ago. They laid it over sand, put polymeric sand in between the tiles, and to fill the holes and their errors in cutting or sizing. I absolutely hate it. There are so many holes, gaps, the mold and mildew from the humidity in Houston makes it look ugly, and it is slippery. I complained and the people who installed it said it was normal wear and tear, that they would repair it, but I would have to pay. I am like Jacqueline, and am so frustrated and disappointed. We flooded from Harvey and had water in our yard and downstairs for almost 2 weeks. We had to replace everything. I should have gone with stamped concrete and wish I could replace this terrible deck. Buyer beware!!!

I clean it on a regular basis. Buyer beware. There are unscrupulous companies that install things like this and imply it is normal and they will repair for a price,

Mine look like this too except I have pavers popping up and a hole that leads into the pool from the deck and sand goes into the pool 😩

Who did you use to do your deck. You don’t have to include their entire name, just indicate if perhaps, it begins with an “A.”

Penny mine was a company called southwest landscaping by a guy named Brandon ( I found in D Magazine as top companies) but little did I know they are just paid ads. I think they don’t operate anymore bc I couldn’t find their webpage anymore.

Penny what was the name of your company?

Hello Penny and Mosaic and jacqueline...

I'm a homeowner but very handy and just finished building my own pool. I live in Florida, so also have horrible humidity with algae as a real thing to deal with. I decided to go with travertine deck but regretted the decision only a couple days after the pavers were installed. I too hate the holes and didn't realize before then, how much of an algae trap they would be encouraging mildew and mold and growth. so I decided to fill them. I did this already just to half of my patio cuz I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out but so far it's been great and I'm planning to do the other half this weekend.

Here's what I've done so far:

From Lowe's I bought high quality UNsanded grout. I tested out sanded grout as well but definitely like unsanded best. I have Ivory travertine so I used the Mapei Keracolor U, in the Linen shade. It matches absolutely perfectly. I tried about six different shades and this is by far the best for ivory travertine. Note, if you have a different color travertine, always use a lighter grout not a darker grout or even the same color as your travertine..

I mixed that with MAPEI Grout MAXimizer instead of water so there are some natural sealant properties to the grout.

Note that unsanded grout will produce a much finer-looking texture that will blend in significantly better with the travertine, then sanded grout will. At the same time though unsanded grout isn't as durable as sanded grouts and over time will chip out from the lines where the pavers meet due to micro shifts. I haven't had any problems with grout coming out of the field holes though.

Generally speaking I added more liquid to the mix then the directions called for so I had more of a liquid slurry than a paste, and I literally covered the entire deck filling in every little tiny hole and big hole, using a squeegee. This allowed a perfectly level application and filled everything perfectly. It is extremely tedious and time consuming but works great. After it's dried about 30 minutes to come back with a towel or rag and have to buff off the residue from the grout. And then it needs one more final buff another 30 minutes or 45 minutes later. Also note that while it covers perfectly level at first, when the grout dries it does shrink a little bit so what was once a leveled paver ends up with small divots when dry. However those divots are far better than the massive holes that were there in the past. And I would assume if you wanted to you could do a second coat of grout to make it really flat and level.

Then the next day I hosed it off and buffed it again to make sure there was no dust left, and then the following day I sealed the grout with a product called Deco 20.

then the next day I hosed it off and buffed it again to make sure there was no dust left, and then the following day I sealed the grout with a product called Deco 20. en the next day I hosed it off and buffed it again to make sure there was no dust left, and then the following day I sealed the grout with a product called Deco 20.

The travertine is slightly more slippery than it was before, but it looks infinitely better and the sealant should prevent mold from growing, or certainly from growing badly.

In the 2.5 months that have had the deck now, there is zero mold on the section that I grouted and sealed. And there's a lot of mold on certain pavers that haven't been sealed yet.

In the 4 months that have had the deck now, there is zero mold on the section that I grouted and sealed. And there's a lot of mold on certain pavers that haven't been sealed yet.that have had the deck now, there is zero mold on the section that I grouted and sealed. And there's a lot of mold on certain pavers that haven't been sealed yet.

I plan on pressure washing all of that this weekend and grouting the rest of the deck.

Here's a link to a video I did while filling the travertine. I need to get some after pictures but don't have any handy. Someone reminds me later I'll take a picture of the deck and post it out.

https://youtu.be/hwxW97S4Hro

Thanks so much for the information Trey. We also had the installer grout the large holes and the joints by the edge of the pool but now, a year later, there has been some settling and shifting and the grout is literally cracking and coming off. 😟 I don't know if we should have it regrouted or just go the sand route. So frustrated.

Thanks Trey! Will try this!

Penny Koepsel: Old post I know. All hard surfaces need maintenance, just finding the right process for your hardscape is the key. See my post above, use D2 as it will kill the mildew and if used every every so often it will continue to keep your patio clean. https://www.bonstone.com/shop/hardscapes/hd-cleaning/d2/ . Apply product, let it sit, scrub with deck brush, rinse well then we reapply a light coat. Basically follow directions. Feel free to call me if you like or contact Bonestone as they are helpful.

We purchased a home built by a wealthy single man in 1969 who used an architect and a commercial builder and donated the house to a college in his will. (The man had been a delightful neighbor of ours.) We were the second residents; have lived in the house for 27 years; and raised our two children and now our 4th dog here. The travertine was placed in the large entry lobby, in the lobby powder room, and in the 2nd floor living room, dining room, walk in closet, and bar, excluding the conversation pit. The travertine has been, in some ways, wonderful to live with! Our children had plenty of large parties here - initially our 5th grader invited all 3 classes of 5th grade in his school for his birthday party. Our daughter had a large 16th birthday party and an "after prom" party with many invited guests and lots of party crashers. The hard floors were tough for 2 parents to chaperone all this but the light beige travertine doesn't seem to show dirt and hasn't been scratched, dented, or dinged like 56 year old wood floors would have been. What I have never liked about the floor is that it is unfilled! Sadly, after the mid century popularity of travertine, the look was copied and made into inexpensive vinyl floor tile in beige and black for the holes. We have very few places where the original "clean" unfilled tile can be seen - most of the flooring has black dirt that has seeped into the holes and stays there. I've had them steam cleaned and I had tried scrubbing them with small brushes and a shop vac, but the pores clogged with dark dirt remains. The original question was posted 11 years ago so I'm sure the homeowner made their decision LONG ago, but I would definitely suggest having travertine filled!