It depends. If you want to darken the grout some, use the enhancer. If not, then just use a normal penetrating sealer from the SAME MANUFACTURER.

This weekend I juse set and grouted filled honed travertine floor tile. I sleaed most of it about 12 hours before I grouted. However, about the last 20 tiles were laid in the mornging of the day I grouted. Frankly I did not see any difference in cleaning the grout off the sealed vs. unsealed tiles. I will seal, grout and all, in a few days.

Bill - can't a tile person do it this way? Can they be set almost touching, grouted WITHOUT filling the pits in the marble?? If the marble is sealed, how would it then be a breeding ground for bacteria? You CAN NOT set tumbled marble that close without culling through alot of stone to get the proper sized ones you want. I'm about to do a wall hanging project where I bought literally three times the entire square footage for just this reason-- to be able to cull through and get the stone I want for it. That's 45 square feet for a 15 square foot project at 7.00 a foot. Tumbled marble varies so much in size that to set it tight like that would end up in misalignment of the tiles pretty quickly, and then the whole thing would end up looking like hell. appears to be mostly contractor types with will intentioned advise but laced with poor opinions of kitchen designers. Actually I'M the one with a poor opinion of MOST kitchen designers. Many of them don't think things through. So long as they can create a piece of eye candy that THEY like, they're happy. Now, NOT ALL of them are like this. I know of several good KD's. But I've also heard more than my share of horror stories about them. I feel that contractors objectives on a backsplash job may be to get in and get out as quickly as possible, and to do at least a good enough to not get called back for rework. If you'd gone through my gallery AT ALL, you'd never make that statement. They may not want to do a project with grouted joints but leaving the aesthetically desirable voids of tumbled travertine/marble unfilled because it would be hard to do and take too long. That's simply ludicrous. If someone's willing to pay for my time, I'm willing to do what they ask, no matter HOW crazy I think it is, so long as it's not detrimental to the installation. There's a project I've posted many times here and at John Bridge's forum of a roman tub, deck, and circular floor that I did years ago-- total about 150 square feet, and it tooke me three work weeks to install because of the way the homeowner wanted it installed. So don't tell me I'm not willing to put in the time. Concerning some earlier questions, the tile are spaced at about 1/16" +/- You've got two courses of the same sized stone together. Try doing an entire backsplash with that small a joint!! and are set in white mastic. This one speaks for itself.

Thanks to all so much -- annekendo -- that kitchen blog was so impressive. I'm trying to imagine a whole kitchen remodel for $12,500! Bill -- your quilt design is just another example of your work that is just incredible. Your clients are very lucky, indeed. From what you have both shown, custommade harlequins would be an option if I can't find what I want. I actually have much of my limestone tile left that I could perhaps incorporate. If I could find honed marble 4x4s to go with the WZ Dore Royal and Ligt Travertine polished marble harlequins I found, I think I would be in good shape. All along I was sure I would go with tumbled, but after my kitchen came together I thought it might be too busy with my granite, floor, etc. What do others think after looking at my pictures? Thanks!