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How slippery is your floor? Considering polished travertine

14 years ago

I have fallen on this old vinyl floor many times. I do not want to make a mistake and replace it with something else just as slippery.

I had a hard time deciding between real wood and tile. I have my heart set on real stone.

This is a complete gutted kitchen. We have custom maple cabinets. I finished in Farrell Calhoun frost glazed in mocha.

Artic Blue granite. No back splash final decison. I do have some blue crackle glass deco tiles I plan to you in the back splash and in a border on the floor.

A clearance store has gotten in a new shipment of travertine and marble. They have Italian Cream travertine that is polished. The color seems to be what I was looking for. The price at $1.99 for a 18" tile is awesome. The quality is much nicer than HD or Lowes honed and filled trash.

I am just so concerned about falling down forever.

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Comments (7)

ritamay91710
14 years ago
JMHO....I think it will be slippery, especially if it gets wet. I do love travertine though.
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davidro1
14 years ago
all floors are slippery when wet. Even the rougher tiles used around swimming pools.

I have some very rough tile designed to be antislip. It grabs more dirt and dust than any other floor. It requires more work to clean. It reduces socks to rags very fast.
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msrose: the Taj majal is gorgeous and right in line with everything I am drawn to for my countertops (I am also remodeling my powder room which also has the travertine floors). So, I think my travertine is the same as the one you are considering. We installed it about a year ago. I absolutely loved it until I started planning my kitchen and powder room remodel. I, too, considered wood as my alternative, but ended up with travertine because of 1) cost and 2) pool. The kids are constantly running in the house dripping wet. Regardless, at this point, I honestly wish I had chosen wood. It is sooo much easier to coordinate countertops, paint, and backsplash tiles with. In addition, I have read on numerous design blogs that the travertine is associated with the tuscany look which is trending out. I am not a trendy person, but we will likely only be in our house for another 8 or so years and need to be considering resale value. With all this said, I love the warmth of travertine and still think mine is beautiful. I will post a link for you in a mintue from a color expert regarding travertine that you might find helpful. Best of luck!
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susanka
14 years ago
I also love real stone. We settled for a porcelain NOT highly polished tile in our kitchen because everything I read about polished trav on floors told me I'd be insecure, and that's no way to feel in the kitchen. And I'm not a person who falls easily, so if you already fall I would surely advise against polished stone. On the other hand, davidrol's antislip tile sounds like a lot to put up with. Good luck making your choices!
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bestyears
14 years ago
Ask to see the rating (it might be called viscocity? Or that could be completely wrong, LOL). This was a big concern to me a couple of years ago when we redid the floor in our master bath, and in our kitchen because we have a pool. A floor store helped me understand that all tile is rated for slipperyness when wet. I have forgotten the scale, but any decent floor store should be able to tell you.
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User
14 years ago
Polished travertine wouldn't be suitable for most people for a kitchen floor regardless of whether or not it was slippery. It's relatively soft and porous nature which leads to scratching, staining and etching would show every bit of patina on a polished surface. It'd be OK for honed, if you were OK with a more "lived in" look, but polished would be a nightmare for most to actually live with as flooring. Add in the slipperyness factor that you are worried about, and you really need to move on to a different choice for your floor. Perhaps a honed version would work for you if you are OK with the maintainence needs.
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paulines
14 years ago
With floor tile it is usually the grout lines that give you some 'tooth'. An 18" polished tile will be slippery...beautiful, but slippery.
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bill_vincent
14 years ago
I agree with live_wire_oak. Polished travertine will look terrific for a few weeks. But sooner or later, it's going to get scratched, and within a year or two, you'll start seeing wear paths in the stone, where it's not nearly as shiny as the rest of the floor. I you're going to do travertine, use a honed stone. I still don't recommend it (because of staining and so forth-- rectified porcelain lookalikes are so much easier to keep pristine), but it'll stay in good condition alot longer.
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