Travertine... or ceramic???

[EmmaApp]

We were dead-set on Travertine coping for our pool renovation. Until we couldn't go to the regular places (National Pool Tile and Master Tile in Houston) without an appointment and our pool builder - not to mention they're all closed on Saturday!

We found ourselves in a small, independent showroom who have all but done away with travertine. Instead, they're specializing on ceramic tile coping and paving. We really liked the uniformity and lack of sealing needed. Not to mention the durability. And the smoothing that they did to the edges for the coping was really nice!!

Has anyone else gone with ceramic over travertine?
Pros? Cons?

 

[kimkats]

Do they "tumble" it to give it some grip and not be as slippery? Ask to take some outside and splash with water and walk on in bare feet.

 

[DJFaninTN]

is it ceramic or porcelain?

 

[spd500]

We went to Master Tile off of 290 and picked ours out. We are going with travertine "tumbled" and it is really nice. I do have the latest catalog, depending on where you are in Houston I don't mind sharing.

 

[Hobbescom]

We went to Master Tile off 290 this past Saturday without an appointment and all the folks there were extremely helpful. They’re open Saturdays from 7:30am-noon...the only restriction is that they limit to 3 groups in the showroom at a time, so the earlier you go, the better.

 

[Whiskeyfox]

I picked tumbled marble at NPT(through an appointment with my builder). we're in love with it! we were originally going with silver travertine but the silver unfortunately still has the possibility of lots of tan and we wanted only grays.

 

[Aquaman7]

We also were deciding on travertine but decided to not go with it. We would like very little maintenance as possible with the pool deck. Sealing, cleaning, remove dirt and mold in the pockets was difficult to justify going with travertine. I did hear it’s beautiful though. We’re now looking into porcelain tile made by Arterra. Looks similar to travertine and has very little if any maintenance.

 

[spd500]

We also were deciding on travertine but decided to not go with it. We would like very little maintenance as possible with the pool deck. Sealing, cleaning, remove dirt and mold in the pockets was difficult to justify going with travertine. I did hear it’s beautiful though. We’re now looking into porcelain tile made by Arterra. Looks similar to travertine and has very little if any maintenance.

How do they seal the joints? It will still either have open joints or grout to take care of wont it? Never heard of the product, but zero maintenance sounds good

 

[Aquaman7]

Polymetric sand for the joints. Doesn’t need sealing.