We are remodeling our kitchen and family room area (one large, open area). We love the look of chiseled travertine but have an 85 pound Lab and 2 cats (not to mention a 10 year old daughter and plans for more down the road). Are these floors hard to keep clean? If we go with a filed travertine, will that help us keep the floors clean? Any advice you have will be helpful. Thanks!

 

Dear Karen:

Honed and filled travertine is going to be easier to clean, due to its smoothest surface; but it will require more maintenance in terms of restoration down the road. (Every 5 years or so it will need to be professionally re-honed.) Chiseled travertine will never require restoration, unless the holes open up for some reason (you do understand that the natural holes in the stone must be filled, right?) or some tiles crack.

Yes, of course, it is a tad more difficult to clean a somehow rougher surface, but with the right cleaning product (such as MB-1), the right frequency, and, maybe, the aid of little residential buffer to quickly scrub the floor periodically, it should not be difficult at all to keep your floor clean despite the kind of “traffic” you have in your home.

Whatever your choice is going end up being, remember: it's never too early to think about the proper maintenance of your stone. 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.mbstone.com/HH_promo/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.mbstone.com/literature/literature.htm .  

And remember, every single penny of the cost of the literature will be used to support this site and its cause: your cause.

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Ciao and good luck,

Mauri zio Bertoli

 

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