Durango Honed Travertine Tile

I purchased this honed travertine tile for the shower walls and bathroom floor. My husband is in the middle of our bathroom remodel and has about 3 to 4 weeks to go before the tile will need to be installed. Tonight we were reviewing tile needs grout, sealer, etc and we started looking at the tile that I purchase. It is honed so that means it is semi-polished but this tile is rough. It is definately not something that I want to walk on each day in the bathroom. Why is it so rough? Is it supposed to be that way? My husband is pretty upset about it. Should I take the tile back where I bought it and ask for a refund? Thanks in advance for your advise.

 

Dear Lauretta:

Okay, I'm a total loss here. The roughness of those tiles is mostly due to the presence of the filler. That said, most people are willing to pay good money to have the tiles of their shower stall floor roughened up, so that they won't be slippery when they're wet!... I really don't know what to tell you: if you don't like them, either you can smooth them out with metal-grade sandpaper or take them back.

About the grout, if you care about my advice, I would consider using color-matching caulk instead of grout: it's water-proof and stain-less. Make sure that's pushed deep between the tiles. As for the sealing thing, Durango is pretty dense and, because of that, is not a good idea sealing it within a wet environment. You'rebetter off trying to get the proper intelligence about routine care of your natural stone stall. The issue of what you'll be doing day in and day out to your stone is – as it should be intuitive – vastly more important than its sealing (if and when possible and/or advisable) and it's all too often neglected. As you can tell by reading many of this site's postings, you're not likely to get good information about routine care from your dealer or installer. Don't become another statistic! By logging into the Helpful Hints section of our website at: http://www.marblecleaning.org/helpful-hints.htm, you will be able to get the short version of our maintenance guidelines at no charge. The full version of it – a 7-page document considered by many as an industry benchmark – is available in pay-per-download format in our Educational Literature section at: http://www.marblecleaning.org/literature.htm.  

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