Advice on travertine?

[mark foster]

Does anyone have experience using travertine as a patio surface in colder climates?

It is beginning to be marketed here and I would love to use it, but I am concerned about it’s performance this far north (Louisville, KY zone 6-7, similar to Washington D.C,). 

 Thanks for the help.

[Steve Mercer]

Hi Mark,

 

Are you using travertine pavers or tile?  Is your concern frost heaving?  Travertine pavers are on par with concrete pavers:

Travertine pavers have a PSI of over 8000 and a coefficient of friction of 0.77.   (Concrete pavers have a PSI of between 7500 to 8500) They are using them more and more in Florida.  They won’t be any safer to walk on in our Louisville Ice storms though 🙂 !  I haven’t layed Travertine pavers before but a paver is a paver.  There is a new aggregate out there that helps with the drainage under the pavers  though if used in conjunction with that and the sand that is available from the same company would be beneficial as the quicker you drain the water off of the surface the more stable it will be to walk on.   Cleaning may be an issue, since Travertine pavers are more porous you will have issues keeping them clean.  If you seal them to help keep them clean you will lose some of the advantages of a higher friction surface.  Using polished Travertine has the same issues as sealing.   If you want to talk about it offline look me up in the phone book in Louisville under Preston Greenhouse.

 

I hope this answers your questions,

 

Best Wishes

 

Steve Mercer

[mark foster]

Hi Steve,

I am looking at the pavers, and am not concerned with issues surrounding the paver system per se.   I’m mostly concerned about the travertine material itself breaking down in freeze/thaw cycles–especially given how pitted and porous they appear. 

Have you tried them before, and how are they performing? 

[Thomas J. Johnson]

Could you seal them?

It’s necessary to seal hand-seeded aggregate paving in Northern climates… maybe the same application would work on travertine pavers.

[jennifer Bloch]

I would be hesitant to use it with the freeze thaw – it is extremely porous -and it breaks easily. I use it here in the SF Bay Area – we do get some frost here but I won’t use it in frost zones. Sealing it is a temporary patch. It would need to be resealed again and again as part of a regular maintenance.

Also – the pitted travertine isn’t so great under bare feet  – the pores have sharp edges – can cut people.  You would need to fill those pores with grout to prevent this. They sell the stone with that already done for poolside conditions out here.

[Steve Mercer]

Hi Mark

No I haven’t had anyone “step-up to the plate” yet,  I suspect as long as you use pavers suitable for poolside applications (they have been grouted) and you sealed the surface every year they would perform okay. They are certainly strong enough.  You just have to be particular about the supplier of the stone to get a quality product.  Sometimes the price of using materials out of the area norm is higher maintence.

 

s.

[mark foster]

Thanks to all of you.  Honest and to the point, as usual……

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