Mae sure you have a second subfloor layer prior to any floor installation if you want a smooth transition. We too are doing Travertine in a running bond pattern. I just plan on sealing very well.
No pictures as yet.

Travertine gets scratched easily, hard to maintain . I've got some pictures of a masterbadrom Travertine installed ,let me know if you wanna see them

I used to frequently visit the kitchen and bath forums, but I quit going there several years ago. Reason being anytime a subject came up like this on choosing between a dimensional stone or a porcelain tile everyone kept overlooking the biggest obstacle to this. People are always asking about maintenance but never willing to address what is going to be holding up this floor.

Unless it is over a slab, dimensional stone floors require twice the deflection and stiffness of a standard L/360 floor system. That's just a proven fact and no way around it.

Every time I asked that question I would get hammered. I don't get that from my own clients because they know I have their best interest at heart..... and mine too. :)

(sorry to detour a little)...jerry, how does that translate in construction terms, i.e., what would you tell your draftsman or builder for those areas?

Oh, I'm the one who detoured.... my apologies. My post was not directly to anyone one particular, certainly no one in this thread. :)

Hadley, not to over simply this but the architects know all about this deflection requirement when using a natural stone. Just to tell them in advance that some areas of the house will have stone floors.

That said, I fully realize that these decisions are mostly made in the final weeks and the builder needs to know asap so needed adjustments can be made for this. Adding more plywood can throw off the stair rise from passing code and also the electrician if he/she has the boxed mounted at the minimum heights before this was decided on.

Well, I just put in travertine on my kitchen floor, connecting entry way floor, bathroom floor, and lastly tumbled travertine as a backsplash. I'm not sure I did enough research before installation. I'm VERY concerned I've made a mistake. I think travertine is beautiful. We wanted something that looked natural, but was durable and didn't require lots of maintenance. I've sealed the floors with an impregnating sealant. I've tested the tiles with oils, catsup, mustard, vinegar, and peanut butter and everything seems to wipe up well. I might be making myself crazy!

Anyway, I have 3 young children and we love to cook and actually use the kitchen - the usual stuff - cookies, pancakes, breads, pizza, etc. Lots of hands on stuff. Plus, your not going to believe this, but the like to EAT and they are messy (they do eat at the table, but stuff drops on the floor). Does anyone have any advice? What can I do? Cover all travertine surfaces that the kids might mess up? Rip it all out and start over? Forget about it? Can I periodically get the stone cleaned if we get it messy?

I'd love to hear how your travertine is doing, especially if you have children.

I really love the look of travertine and want it as a kitchen counter top and back splash. You all keep talking about travertine flooring in the kitchen, but what do you all have to say about countertops?

I WOULD LIKE TO USE THE TRAVERTINE TILES IN MY SMALL TOILET IS IT ADVISABLE ?

Am planning to put travertine throughout my house including kitchen and bathrooms. I love the look over porcelain tiles but am worried about maintenance. I previously had beautiful hardwood floors which were destroyed in a recent flood and never want to go through that again, therefore the travertine. If anyone has any experience with this or photos pro or con, would love to see them. Thanks

Look, the bottom line is that "You Pays Your Money And You Takes Your Chances." Travertine is a natural and somewhat soft stone. You need TWICE the deflection rating...720 vs 360 to even HOPE that it will not shift or crack. It is porous and requires periodic sealing, it is soft and can be easily scratched. It is easily stained on a countertop or a food preparation area.

If you can live with all of that, Great!

Frankly, there are MANY porcelain tiles that mimic it quite well, with none of the downsides of Travertine.

I try to steer my clients away from it for showers for just that reason.....skin scales, soaps, etc.

I personally would not to live on a sponge with nooks and crannies for Ick to become embedded. Especially in the kitchen or most especially in a bathroom. For some strange reason though, it's always the germophones that want to choose the material that is the least suited to mopping and "disinfection", like wood and marble and travertine. Maybe because they buy into the marketing term "natural", forgetting that salmonella and dysentery and fungi and mold and rot and decay are all 100% perfectly "natural".

I hear about the maintenance of Travertine again and again and it frightens me. I put natural Travertine in my laundry/mud room. I have three kids, dragging in dirt and muck and salt and snow on that floor. It is the room where the shoes live. I opted not to fill the holes, so maybe there are more? Who knows.

It is my favorite floor. We put porcelain to look like stone in the bathrooms, and I don't like them as much as that stone floor. I have a washer and dryer in that room that have been dragged across the floor a few times, flooded the room, other disasters and the floor looks great. I don't see any etches or other problems. I expect that floor to outlive the house. LOL.

The only problem I have is cleaning it. I can't determine a safe cleaner, outside of hot water, for this floor. Since it is my mudroom/laundry, I don't clean the floor that often. HA!

Many homeowners and contractors shy away from flooring materials such as travertine, as it is prone to staining, and known to be slippery by nature. For those who wish to incorporate this luxurious stone in areas that have contact with water/liquids, such as bathrooms, pool decks, kitchens, entryways, mudrooms, laundry rooms, etc., sealing those surfaces is highly recommended by professionals. Once sealed, travertine (or any tile for that matter!) can become a slip hazard. We recommend SolidStepCote, which you can read about here. This product can be used over an existing sealer, or as the sealer itself, and is engineered to be non slip. It's available in four levels of slip resistance for your home needs.

You can enjoy the timeless beauty of travertine with a little added safety for kids, elderly, pets, and guests. So, it turns out you really can have it all!

Travertine slippery by nature? Completely wrong! Travertine is the only natural stone that is not slippery when wet! Unlike it`s cousin marble. And if You choose a filled and honed or polsihed travertine , laid down professionally the traditional way, like they do it in Italy With no gap between the tiles; you have the most easily maintaned floor in the world. As well as beautiful. It may have to be polished after installing to be serfect, not sure, trying to find that out myself. But it do need sealing. And like all stone it will stain from anything sour like redwine. But the more polished and sealed the floor is and the quicker you wipe it up; the smaller the problem. Travertine also have the advantage that the color nuances are showing very little dirt; they look great for a long time. If you want a quick, cheap and easy diy flooring; travertine is not Your cup of tea. If you want top quallity, durable and beautiful flooring or wall and are willing to pay for professional fitting; travertine can be the lifelong answer. I confess; i`m in love, : ) I wouldn`t choose it for Kitchen countertop though, but perhaps it would do in the bathroom. I recommend granite if you want stone countertop. Too bad they don`t come in those warm colors. For warm colored countertop i recommend wood; oak or beech. If you use small platters when cutting food, wood is ok. Wood also dries up very good, which mean bacteria get killed. You need to oil every now and then, but if you want maintenance free countertop i think laminate or composite is Your only options. Good Luck!