Tumbled travetine

[adamb4321]

Hi,

I'm going to replace my kitchen and utility floor tiles which totals about 20m2 I've seen some very good deals on the web for travetine tiles in honed and tumbled finishes.

I don't want to name companies but are these bargain priced tiles (between £16 and £24 per m2) any good?
I'm hard pushed to find a ceramic tile that looks good for the same price.



After reading countless posts about stone floors it seems like they can be a can of worms, is tumbled travetine too soft to use in kitchen areas and how much more expensive will it be to lay in materials (adhesive, sealer etc) than ceramic?

I think the subfloor is chipboard but until I pop some tiles off I won't know for sure.

I was going to overboard in waterproof ply but have seen recommendations for using a reinforced cement board like "no more ply" instead, are there any other recommendations for over boarding?

Anyway, any help appreciated!

 

[tpt]

there are bargains to be had, but sometimes you really get what you pay for. You need to see a sample and check for large voids, large lumps of filler or an overly light (weight) tile. ideally order a sample of a premium\mid range one so you can compare.
We use 3 suppliers that tend to be at the mid/premium end, mostly because when we drop in price, we see a lot more breakages, unfilled areas or filler!
To give you an idea, if we buy good stuff in full containers direct from the quarry we'd lose money selling at those rates.

trav has gained a bad name because of the c**p that some are importing and selling. Good trav isn't too soft for any domestic floor.

regarding the floor, personally i think no more ply is better than ply, we certainly get no failures if its used correctly. you need to be honest with yourself about your current floor, if it bounces when you walk on it you should consider strengthening it as no overboarding can cure joist deflection.

one golden rule with trav - use a white adhesive or you can get shadowing through the tile after laying. seal once before and at least once after grouting. We swear by either lithofin or LTP sealants. You shouldn't need to reseal too often - 12-18 months.
the white addy, some extra labour and sealer are your only real extras.

In general, if trav is out of your budget - dont try to bend it to fit

 

[adamb4321]

Hi Tpt,

Thank you the info, all makes sense.

I think I'll try to find some ceramic tiles that I like rather than going for budget travetine.

As for the floor, I think it's fairly solid but having said the the current tiles are cracking up but it looks like the builders just layer them straight onto chipboard.

When I chip off the existing ones I'll be able to make a better judgement.