HoosierDaddy
New Member
Hi,
I had travertine flooring put in and discovered later some problems. The contractor agrees and thinks he can fix things but I want to get some other opinions before doing anything because I can't understand how what he wants to do can fix it.
I am guessing the cause of the problem is that the concrete slab was not flat. So each tile in a row of tiles going down the center of one hall is tilted a little more than the last. The tiles are 18"x18" polished and sharp cut (don't know the term) with 1/8" gaps. I assume all of those factors make it harder to mask the changes in angle of the slab. I mean larger gaps, or rounded edges or smaller tiles where each takes up less of the slack would have ended up looking okay.
Now I suspect the contractor might be able to fix the hallway by completely redoing it BUT the entire first floor of the house was done with no breaks, so fixing the hall would seem to result in creating the same or worse problem at the doorways to the rooms off the hallway. And I'm not sure he can even fix the hall by relaying it because the same people did the hall as the rest of the house so can't figure out how this happened unless it was the best they could do with the changing slope of the slab.
Someone suggested, just having the hall way tile joints ground level and the tiles polished to match and resealed. Is that even possible? And if its done, obviously the tiles would not actually be flat afterwards. It would be gradual but I don't know if that would be very noticeable in the reflections (they are not highly polished).
And I would like to hear about other possible options, including using different tiles, etc. I know the varying angles of the tiles would be totally unnoticeable if the tiles had rounded edges, for example. But I can't really do something that anyone's first reaction will be "why does this area look out of place?"
As I said the contractor has a great reputation and says he will make me happy but he has been paid so I worry that the attitude could easily change. So I am completely agreeable to any solution that would not look strange. I thought about making a runner in the center of the hall out of other smaller, rounded edge tiles but the hall funnels out into a living area and the tilted tiles extend into that a small way and I can't figure out a design that wouldn't look funny. If only the entire first floor wasn't a single continuous run of the same tiles.
Thanks in advance for any ideas.
I had travertine flooring put in and discovered later some problems. The contractor agrees and thinks he can fix things but I want to get some other opinions before doing anything because I can't understand how what he wants to do can fix it.
I am guessing the cause of the problem is that the concrete slab was not flat. So each tile in a row of tiles going down the center of one hall is tilted a little more than the last. The tiles are 18"x18" polished and sharp cut (don't know the term) with 1/8" gaps. I assume all of those factors make it harder to mask the changes in angle of the slab. I mean larger gaps, or rounded edges or smaller tiles where each takes up less of the slack would have ended up looking okay.
Now I suspect the contractor might be able to fix the hallway by completely redoing it BUT the entire first floor of the house was done with no breaks, so fixing the hall would seem to result in creating the same or worse problem at the doorways to the rooms off the hallway. And I'm not sure he can even fix the hall by relaying it because the same people did the hall as the rest of the house so can't figure out how this happened unless it was the best they could do with the changing slope of the slab.
Someone suggested, just having the hall way tile joints ground level and the tiles polished to match and resealed. Is that even possible? And if its done, obviously the tiles would not actually be flat afterwards. It would be gradual but I don't know if that would be very noticeable in the reflections (they are not highly polished).
And I would like to hear about other possible options, including using different tiles, etc. I know the varying angles of the tiles would be totally unnoticeable if the tiles had rounded edges, for example. But I can't really do something that anyone's first reaction will be "why does this area look out of place?"
As I said the contractor has a great reputation and says he will make me happy but he has been paid so I worry that the attitude could easily change. So I am completely agreeable to any solution that would not look strange. I thought about making a runner in the center of the hall out of other smaller, rounded edge tiles but the hall funnels out into a living area and the tilted tiles extend into that a small way and I can't figure out a design that wouldn't look funny. If only the entire first floor wasn't a single continuous run of the same tiles.
Thanks in advance for any ideas.
