# Grouting travertine



## YouveGotGold (Jul 25, 2008)

Ive done it before on smaller jobs and for the most part its been a pain. This is a much larger commercial job and I was wondering if anyone had any tips for efficiency. Even though some of the tiles are very porous I think we are going to use a grout that matches the color of the tiles and not clean it out of the holes and then seal the whole tile.

Anyone have any ideas or tips for this? Were grouting 6 kitchen floors of 12x12, 7 showers with the same and 6 bathroom floors with mosaic.


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## genecarp (Mar 16, 2008)

the last few travertine jobs we did, the trav was filled pretty well out of the box, i have seen trav that had many open holes in the finished face, is that what you are dealing with?


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## YouveGotGold (Jul 25, 2008)

genecarp said:


> the last few travertine jobs we did, the trav was filled pretty well out of the box, i have seen trav that had many open holes in the finished face, is that what you are dealing with?


Yes, and they will be on the floors in retirement homes which is why I want to fill it with grout. Normally I wouldnt but I would assume that they are not going to be properly cared for and some of the holes are big enough where liquid could easily settle in the holes. Ive also sealed them before I lay them a few times which worked ok but since our budget was at the mercy of the customers we had to use pretty much every tile which included a lot of tiles with holes that go clear through the hole tile.


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## Bud Cline (Feb 12, 2006)

Travertine in its natural state would be unsanitary especially in that environment. Grout everything. Seal the tile first then grout then seal again. I doubt the local Health Department would accept the raw travertine anyway.


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## Bill_Vincent (Apr 6, 2005)

Hit it with a WATER based penetrating sealer before you grout. It'll grout up like glazed tile.


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