Does it discolor the shower surface you have now?

We don't have a tiled surface to use as a guide. We bought the house as a foreclosure and the master bathroom was a gut job when we moved in. We've never even used it. The previous owner must not have had the money to run the softener because all the toilets, sinks and the prefab plastic shower in the 2nd bathroom were bright orange when we moved in. It ruined the shower cause it's all stained now. The softener keeps the rust 95% under control, but when we lived on the west coast, rust was not an issue at all, so I really don't know how the Travertine will fair with the well water or if it's better to just look at a using a different stone. Can you offer your best advise?

Have you looked into treating your well?

My house in WI had iron bacteria in the well, it took a cleaning and a couple of shock treatments and flushes to get the system clean. That was back in '93 or '94 when I did that, after we first moved there. I did another shock several years later, maybe '97 or so. I did another when we went back two summers ago.

I wouldn't recommend travertine in a situation like that. And it's one of the few times I say consider going with an epoxy grout in residential construction.

That initial battle against iron bacteria was one of the biggest pains. The second shock was sort of a bit of a tune-up. The last one was only preventative.

Thanks mongo, we heard about shocking the well after we moved in and looked into doing something like that. We had a well guy come out to take a look at what we had and to "educate" us a bit since we were clueless. I don't remember the exact conversation, but he wasn't too thrilled with the idea at the time. He thought that the water softener should take care of the issue and for the most part I believe it has, I mean we clean our toilets, sinks and the bath/shower often so there's never any residue. I'm just worried about how it can affect the tiled shower over a long period of time. My gut is telling me to use something else, and you've confirmed that as usual, I should listen to my intuition. Thanks for the well tips and advise. -- Lukki

The water softener will indeed help remove iron. The one caution is that if you have iron bacteria in your water and well, they can produce a sort of orangey-brown slime. That slime can clog the zeolite in your softener.

An easy visual check is the toilet tank. If you have a rust-colored coating on the inside of the toilet tank, that's a byproduct of the bacteria. That check is good only if you don't have a toilet sanitizing tablet in your tank, as high chlorine levels would kill the bacteria.

the prefab plastic shower in the 2nd bathroom were bright orange when we moved in.

This is what I was talking about. I'd see about working out the softening system, and see if you still get staining on any other surfaces before you think about using ANY kind of natural stone, much less travertine. You get that on natural stone, and it's tough to get rid of, being that most of the chemicals that will clean it will also destroy the finish on the stone.

Mongo: Oh yes, I have seen that in the tanks, cleaned it out when we first moved in. I don't use those sanitizing tablets cause of the septic system. So can you tell me a little bit about what these shock treatments entail? Is it something we can do ourselves or do we have to hire for it? And is there a risk of damaging the well?

Bill: That's what I needed to hear, like I said, we haven't used the bathroom since we moved in, and it's only studs now, so holding off a bit longer to address the water issue won't be a problem.

As always your help is appreciated!

You could probably get by with the Travertine IF you towel down the surfaces after every shower. Critical with your water, but with any shower, it should be done. If you do, the shower will last virtually forever.

One other thing, there are water softener salts that have an additive that helps with excess iron. I was in WalMart today and saw a couple of pallets of bags of it out in the garden shop.

With my cottage well, I have to preface this by saying that the house was owned by an elderly couple and they'd done no maintenance on anything for years. The water supply was pretty atrocious.

I ran the outdoor hose bib then went in the basement and banged on the pipes, the pipes puked orangey brown water, so thick that I had small piles of sediment and a stained lawn.

Regardless, the gist of treating the well is to chlorine shock it. You also want the chlorine to run down the sides of your well as best you can so everything gets hit with chlorine. Let it soak. Overnight.

I then hit it with another dose of chlorine and opened all the faucets in the house one-by one until I could smell chlorinated water running out. Then I'd close the faucet and move to the next one. You want all faucets, all waterlines, laundry, hose bibs, fridge water line, everything, to get a dose of chlorine.

Again, shut the plumbing off and let it sit overnight. The next day flush everything out.

For severe cases, You can even have the well pump pulled and the pump and pipe can be sprayed with a chorine solution.

I have heard of a Pasteurization process where they come in and essentially "steam clean" your well.

My lake house was so bad that I even yanked out all the old plumbing in the basement and re-piped everything. Fortunately is was a small cottage, so it was easy to do.

I always think it's worth it to shock your well to see if you can rid yourself of the problem. Since you have a water softener, or using those "anti-iron" salts might help. You could add an iron filter too.

All depends on how bad your situation is. It sounds like yours is manageable.

One last thing, if you shock your well and don't want to run the chlorinated waste into your septic system, then you can flush out your well by running one of your outside hose spigots.

Thanks Mongo, very helpful information, we're using some of the salt you described. Our situation is actually very manageable because unlike the previous owners, we maintain the softener and clean our fixtures regularly. (something I don't think the previous owner had ever learned to do) We know the problem is there because we saw it, but we don't see it in our daily living. I just didn't know if the sealant would protect the stone & grout over the years. I think we're still going to keep shocking the well on the list of things to do for this spring. Thanks so much!