Re: New Owner/Build - IG Pool sloped yard - Riverside County Southern California
The travertine experience.
Here's a little story of my adventure in travertine.
OK, the coping was supposed to be a lighter color, and I'm told it will lighten up quite a bit over time. Regardless, the plan for colored concrete deck definitely had to be revised because none of the concrete colors really work for us the way we like, especially compared to travertine which my wife started to fall in love with the more she looked and researched. The cosmetic look first attracted her, but the cooling benefits in the sun sold her on it.
I'd like to start by saying, I know zilch about travertine. I researched it pretty heavily for 3 days, craigslist, calling distributors and wholesalers. I found a place in Anaheim which claimed to be the spot. The guy said their prices will easily beat anyone else I can find, they're a direct importer distributor, and they don't sell to the public, except one sales rep who is authorized to.
I go down there and he says 3.50 sq ft. That's a great price for this region because it's quite a bit more here than some of you lucky Miami folks get to pay. My lowest I could find was 3.89 and I had to travel to Carson which is about twice the distance for me to drive. So Anaheim it is!
Being a travertine newbie, I did not even consider that it would be too heavy for a pickup truck. I'm not even joking, the pallets are almost 3k pounds. The lightest one we had was 2.5k pounds, I had him load that in the truck. Had him put another crate on the uhaul trailer on the back (rated for 1500 lbs).
The guy tells me, you still have 7 more pallets. I shake my head and start thinking about ways I can have it trucked to me at a decent rate. No way I'm driving back and forth here 4 more times, especially pushing my Tundra to the absolute limit.
I'm pretty scared tbh. My shocks are nearly bottomed out, my hitch is only a couple inches from the ground. I had to wrap up the chain to keep it from dragging on the ground, the hitch was so low. Very slowly I drive away and carefully maneuver to the freeway where the plan is to drive 45 mph in the slow lane, for the 40 mile trip. 5 miles into the trip, crisis mode. . .blown tire on the uhaul trailer. Ohhh no!!! I'm stressing out, only 5 miles down the road and this weight is too much. I call roadside assistance, but the whole time I'm stressing out about whether I'll blow another tire during the next 35 miles. What a crappy feeling.
He fixes the tire, and as he's doing that, I unload some of the pavers, spreading them out all over the trailer, trying to better distribute the weight. Same thing in the bed of my truck, even putting pavers up in the cab, anything to lighten a few hundred pounds. Tire is fixed, and I take off. There was a few unhappy drivers along the way, but I crept my way all the way home.
Screw this, I'm calling someone I know to arrange delivery for the next day. Here's where it gets interesting.
I called Greg at the stone yard to get a ballpark on how many crates are left. He says 7. I'm beyond confused. I ask him, how could there be 7 crates left, I only ordered 700 sq ft. He says, it's big and takes up a lot of room. Ok, I'll have a guy there tomorrow to pick it all up. 13k pounds left, and to my calculation, much much more than 700 sq feet unless I"m missing something (perhaps he's sending partial crates, that's my only explanation).
So next day, Pedro, my truck driver arrives, and I've got hired help to unload him. I'm adding up the footage, and I quickly get to 700 and notice I have almost that amount leftover. They sent me over 1200 sq ft of travertine, I paid for 700 sq ft. I call Greg and let him know (I'm actually a little upset because I had to pay for all that to be transported and then paid to have it unloaded). If they think they're just going to come and pick it up, they're going to have a problem. I get ready for an argument, and he completely shocks me. "Sorry about that, feel free to keep it, unless it's an inconvenience to have it, and we'll arrange for someone to come get it if it's in your way".
so, 500 sq feet of extra travertine pavers at 3.50 per sq foot.
I ended up paying a total of 450 for delivery and then a couple laborers to help unload it. So 1200 sq ft of Travertine for less than 3k. Finally something works in my favor! This is a huge help to getting further under my budget, though completely lucky.
I kid!
