Hello Maurizio, I am going to have filled & honed travertine 18x18 tiles laid in my kitchen and foyer. My contractor suggested a sandless grout FlexFresh to be exact. I wanted your opinon. I also wanted to ask if travertine could be applied to the stairs off of the kithcen or would it be too slippery of a surface? Is ceramic tile more practical?

 

Dear Troylan:

I really don't know about that particular brand of grout, but sand-less grout is indeed the way to go.

About your second question, I assume that you're making reference to stairs leading from the kitchen to the outdoors.

To make sure, hone-finished stone is slippery when wet.

If you still want to preserve the continuity of the same stone but take no chances with the slipperiness issue, you have to go with a different type of finish, namely saw-cut and unfilled.

Now 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 vastly more important than the sealing 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 it 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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Thank you  

Ciao and good luck,

Mauri z io Bertoli

 

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