The Overview 

Travertine is one of the most known forms of natural stone that homebuilders and homeowners have been using for a long time for building exquisite architectural marvels, standing still to the present day. Travertine’s long-lasting beauty and proven durability have prompted homebuilders and homeowners to use travertine tiles for modern-day construction and renovation projects. The natural stone’s versatility makes it appropriate for various applications across indoor and outdoor spaces. Besides, Travertine comes in different grades, types, patterns, and styles.  

The Travertine Story 

Travertine is a visually appealing limestone formed out of calcium carbonate deposits near hot springs or limestone caverns. Travertine is the most loved, globally popular construction stone known for its eye-appealing fibrous patterns, natural marble like textures, and alluring earthy tones.  

The Features 

Travertine is typically available in tile form across the global natural stone markets. The natural textures on the stone’s surface make travertine tile the first pick of homeowners for interior and exterior flooring projects. Home designers now consider Travertine tiles to be an enduring, beautiful, and feature-loaded construction material for various residential projects, including flooring, walling, backsplashes, shower stalls, fireplaces, fire pits, patios, and other applications. 

Travertine in The Modern Time 

Travertine texture tiles have gradually started evolving as an alternative to conventional stone materials, like marble or granite. Travertine natural stone tiles offer a wide range of neutral and bold colors that quite well match the aesthetic preferences of the modern generation. Distinctive colors, textures, and patterns, including beige, silver, yellow, stone, grey, and even gold travertine tiles, have already started transforming the modern stone market’s scenarios.  

Besides, Travertine tile is an exclusive natural stone material ideal for homeowners with lavish budgets who desire antique vintage beauty across the home. However, this natural stone tile variant requires regular maintenance. 

The Exploring 

Travertine tiles have various grades, types, and styles that this article will explore to help understand why and how the natural stone tile can be the best pick for any restoration project. 

Travertine Styles 

Travertine tile is available in three main styles/ patterns, including tumbled, honed, and polished travertine.

Tumbled Travertine Tile is rough yet the most natural- looking style with uneven edges, while the tile’s surface may be more rigid with some dents. The tile style is surely a decent choice for places across the home. Tumbled Travertine Tile typically looks amazing in showers, spas, backsplashes, pools, and patios while adding unusual elegance to home floors.  

Tumbled Travertine Tile has limited scope for the high sheens due to the rougher exterior. Semi- gloss sheen is the highest shine level that tumbled travertine can attain. However, experts recommend the satin finish to ensure the unique graceful look to the home’s darling spaces, including pools. 

Honed Travertine Tile is a more modern style with a smoother finish and smooth edges, while the tile is typically factory filled with pits and holes. The honed surface of the travertine tile is an outcome of fine single-side grinding. The tile style is popular for indoor flooring in bathrooms, around pools, and in the kitchen as backsplashes. Honed travertine tile is available in filled or unfilled finishes for any exterior or interior place across the home. 

From a satin finish to a high shine, honed travertine tile can attain any sheen, however, depending on the travertine’s grade. The math is simple here – the higher the travertine grade, the higher the sheen for honed travertine tile. 

Polished Travertine Tile is the most popular tile style, with a classy, modern, and sophisticated look that delivers a rich, luxurious feeling. Like the honed variant, polished travertine tile is ground on one side with abrasive grits to ensure a shiny finish. Polished travertine tile can go well with any atmosphere. However, spaces with more water can be risky, as the highly shined surface gets slippery easily. Polished travertine tile is available in semi-gloss or high-shine finish. The tile can retain the sheen for a long time and easily regain the original shine even if the surface gets dull over time. 

The polished travertine tile’s top can offer the highest shine. However, home designers would not recommend applying topical sealer travertine, as the sealer would crack down and look bad over time. 

Travertine Grades 

The next important thing to understand is Travertine’s grades, which include premium, standard, and commercial levels. The grades vary slightly and have an awesome, easily attainable grace post-installation. 

Premium/ First Grade is the highest level amongst the three grades that has the evenest cuts with precisely equal thickness, has very little filler, and has the most uniform looks. The first-grade travertine comes in the most vibrant color variations with a double-filled feature that ensures the most level of grades. The grade is easy to polish to any level of sheens, including the highest shine. 

Standard/ Second Grade belongs to the honed style travertine tiles with even cuts of uniform thickness. The tile would need double filling to deliver a more prominent and noticeable appearance. 

Commercial/Third Grade tends to have uneven cuts with irregular thickness and more fill variations. The grade only supports factory-filled and not hand-filled finish, with small pits and holes staying visible at the installation time. Third-grade tiles tend to have a somewhat tumbled surface top that makes higher sheens hard to achieve. Besides, the grade is more of a natural stone look with a more rustic feel and look. 

All these grades have different characteristics that help homeowners choose the best tile options for bland home places.  

Travertine Types  

Homeowners must know that all the different styles and grades can have these types found within them. There are two cut types - vein and fleuri – available for travertine tile, while the tile cut type has gained its unique identity from travertine stones’ bedding planes. 

Vein Cut Travertine has a vein cut when cut against the bedding to give the travertine’s surface a linear pattern look.. 

Fleuri Cut Travertine comprises cross-cutting against the travertine tile’s bedding for a circular, uneven pattern. 

Both the cuts are beautiful and a more distinct elegance and style to the travertine tile for various home renovation or new construction projects.  

Travertine tile is an advanced natural stone material, ideal for large-budget construction or renovation projects with a plan to provide an antique vintage beauty that this natural stone provides. However, homeowners can also look out for other pocket-friendly natural stone tile options if there is an unwillingness to reseal the floor regularly or if the high price puts the home improvement plans on and off. 

The article here could help homeowners and homebuilders choose the appropriate style, grade, and type of travertine tile for the next construction project. Reach out to the nearest travertine dealer for any questions or information.