Travertine Tile Sinking Near Skimmer

[Rob Snowden]

Hi all,

My travertine near the skimmer has sunken considerably. Initially I thought it was just settling. During the install, they had to dig a hole to attach the bonding wire after the fact at that very spot. However, this is started to look like a water issue.

The first picture was take in June and the second was taken this morning.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

[BigPapaSmurf]

What is the foundational material your Travertine tiles are siting on? I assume it is not concrete decking. Can you pull a tile up and exams the material under it? It might just be settling due to bad compacting job before they laid the Travertine.

 

[setsailsoon]

I had a lot of this in my pavers around the pool. Mine was due to a lack of compaction of the underlying bed and the wrong materials. It really could have used a complete redo but that would have cost a fortune. So I found that carefully removing the pavers in the affected areas (there are several cheap tools you can get for this that avoid chipping) then dig down about 8" and replace with a mix of paver base on the very bottom, then sand and Portland cement worked great. I compacted with a small hand compactor every couple inches and set the pavers to be level and slope toward the drains the same as the surrounding pavers - about 1/2 bubble using a long level worked great. Over time I got all the spots and it stopped settling completely. Doing this kind of makes a big mess so make sure you try to do as many areas as you can so you don't have to do a huge clean up too often.

I hope this helps.

Chris

 

[Rob Snowden]

Hi all,

My travertine near the skimmer has sunken considerably. Initially I thought it was just settling. During the install, they had to dig a hole to attach the bonding wire after the fact at that very spot. However, this is started to look like a water issue.

The first picture was take in June and the second was taken this morning.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

What is the foundational material your Travertine tiles are siting on? I assume it is not concrete decking. Can you pull a tile up and exams the material under it? It might just be settling due to bad compacting job before they laid the Travertine.

It’s a stone base. I am going to see if I can pry a tile or two up. And that is what I am hoping - it’s just bad compacting.

Thanks for the response.

 

[Rob Snowden]

I had a lot of this in my pavers around the pool. Mine was due to a lack of compaction of the underlying bed and the wrong materials. It really could have used a complete redo but that would have cost a fortune. So I found that carefully removing the pavers in the affected areas (there are several cheap tools you can get for this that avoid chipping) then dig down about 8" and replace with a mix of paver base on the very bottom, then sand and Portland cement worked great. I compacted with a small hand compactor every couple inches and set the pavers to be level and slope toward the drains the same as the surrounding pavers - about 1/2 bubble using a long level worked great. Over time I got all the spots and it stopped settling completely. Doing this kind of makes a big mess so make sure you try to do as many areas as you can so you don't have to do a huge clean up too often.

I hope this helps.

Chris

Hi Chris, what did you use to pry up the tiles.? The travertine is heavy and I am concerned I might break it.

 

[setsailsoon]

Hi Chris, what did you use to pry up the tiles.? The travertine is heavy and I am concerned I might break it.

Rob,

You can buy them online, or at big box stores but choices are very limited. They range from ~$30 to hundreds or make one out of some old scrapers. Works great and dirt cheap. There are several ways to make them from old paint scrapers or saw blades. There's a very clear video here - be sure to watch the demonstrations at the end. The home-made one worked way better for me.

Chris

 

[Rob Snowden]

Awesome! Thanks!