Does anyone have a travertine floor?

by Karen

+13

Answered

Our travertine on our entry level is cracking. The floor on the lower level is fine. And our fake wood floor in the dining area and living room is kinda sagging. I can feel it when we walk. Both of the flooring is just over 2 years old. Should we pull it up and reinforce the sub-floor? Any advice? Thx!

4 answers

17335038 on Oct 12, 2017

Sounds to me like the flooring underneath the tiles and the laminate was not levelled before the installation.

Did you do the installation yourself, or did you hire someone do install it?

Do you know what kind of subfloor is underneath?

Helpful Reply
- See 1 previous
- Karen on Jan 24, 2019
  
  sorry. I am an idiot. I just saw these answers I guess.
  Maybe a pic will help as I have no idea what you mean as to what type of sub floor.
  
  Helpful
- Karen on Jan 24, 2019
  
  The travertine sits on the same floor next to the wood. The only reason that is exposed is a piece fell off thanks to my daughters friend.
  
  Helpful
Naomie Moore aka baileyanddaisey, Castaic CA on Oct 12, 2017

My first thought is who installed the floors? If the sub floor isn't sound than anything that you place on top will fail. If professionally installed, go back to the sales guys and installers, they know better and this was just sloppy work. If you did it yourself, it is now an expensive learning experience. Take up the floors, see if you can salvage and reinstall once a proper sub floor has been installed. So sorry this happened to you!

Helpful Reply
- See 6 previous
- Karen on Jan 24, 2019
  
  The house was empty for about 2 years before we moved in. The people purchased it and “flipped” it. They took their time. They did some of the work and had help with some was my understanding. It wasn’t their first or second investment property. We met them. They sounded on the up and up.
  
  Helpful
- Naomie Moore aka baileyanddaisey, Castaic CA on Jan 24, 2019
  
  That may be all well and good, but if your beautiful travertine floors are cracking and the laminate floors are sagging, that speaks volumes of a cheap and sloppy job by inexperienced installers. They will seem nice as they want your money, then they could care less. I am not that trusting. I would call them back and show them your problem areas. I would be super curious to see what they have to say. If this was a new build you could go after the builder. You still could go after the sellers, but most likely more trouble than it is worth. You just had a rude wake up call in the world of purchasing a "flipped" house. Cut your losses and hire licensed professionals to take up all the floors and start over. Which means moving out of part of your house, then moving back in. Here is how to hire licensed professionals:
  
  https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0242-hiring-contractor
  
  Again so so sorry this happened to you. You live and learn, now you know better.
  
  1 marked as helpful
- Karen on Jan 24, 2019
  
  I mentioned to my husband we should call the prior owners. They live in the neighborhood I believe. Their address isn’t on escrow docs though.
  Our house sits funky on the lot as well so their may be some movement. It’s rare but we have a basement here in San Diego. It’s behind the bottom floor. Bottom floor is ok however. We did see workers here as we got to choose the carpet for the rooms. I’ll look at the sight. I’ve always been a person to “trust that instinct” feeling. Now it’s been 3 1/2 years. It was 2 years when it first started. We just replaced the heater and now have woodpeckers booting into our roof. So why not a floor too. Lol.
  Thx for the website!!
  
  Helpful
- Karen on Jan 24, 2019
  
  Ugh. Woodpeckers boring into our roof. Obviously can’t type today.
  
  Helpful
- Naomie Moore aka baileyanddaisey, Castaic CA on Jan 24, 2019
  
  Ah yes, a basement in California is a rare thing indeed. My parents first house had a partial basement. It sat on an odd lot too. Glad you use your gut when making decisions. They may have been decent folks, maybe just not well educated in home renovation, didn't follow local code or hired unlicensed workers. Whatever the case may be, it sounds like you are now stuck fixing mistakes of others. If you love the house and location, worth repairing if you have the budget to do so. The website will guide you through the hiring process. Since you are in CA here is a link to the Contractors State License Board. It is a wealth of free information, and where you can check the license of any contractor in California, no matter what trade they are in. Need to hire a welder, get their license number (or name) and run it here. Hire a landscaper, run the license.
  
  http://www.cslb.ca.gov/
  
  Now I will go find you something for the woodpeckers!
  
  Helpful
Eleanor Korf on Oct 12, 2017

In order to have a stable floor there should be a subfloor of 3/4" and on top of that another layer of at least 1/2". The cracking travertine is most likely the result of not a good enough base. You will have to find out what thickness of sub-floor you have and remedy that if that is the problem, which it most likely is. You might be able to salvage the travertine IF you are willing to use it even with the cracks, or possibly by breaking the tiles up and making your floor into a mosiac floor, but only after you have solved your basic problem. The tile backer-board is screwed down before you lay tiles. Most home improvement stores carry tile backer-board of varying thicknesses.

1 marked as helpful Reply
- See 4 previous
- Karen on Jan 24, 2019
  
  The subfloor doesn’t look like it’s that thick. And when we are in the basement we can hear everything in the living room and kitchen. Ugh
  
  Helpful
- Karen on Jan 24, 2019
  
  I do like the travertine. It’s pretty. I don’t need to keep it. Now I’m getting frustrated. Ugh.
  
  Helpful
- Eleanor Korf on Jan 24, 2019
  
  I had the same problem, but with ceramic tiles. Once I got one tile up I was able to get most of them up by using a flat spatula, slipping it under the tiles and carefully "working" the spatula back and forth under the tiles to loosen the remaining tiles. I think the lack of sub-floor support had losened my tiles up a bit and that might be true with yours. You might give that a try to see if you can get the tiles up, or enough of them that you could possibly use them along with some new travertine tiles in an innovative pattern.
  
  The critical part will be fixing the sub-flooring problem that is most likely causing the cracking in the first place. I sent you some information on what you could use to fix the basic problem. If your situation allows a layer of
  tile backer board (some is 1/2 " thick) or some other subflooring that could bolster your existing sub-flooring. That might cure your problem.
  
  In my original reply to your question I may have given you wrong information re sub-flooring thinckness. Unfortunately I cannot look it up on-line and not lose what I have written. You might want to google it, but I think that adding a layer of 1/2 inch tile backer board would take care of your problem.
  
  Good luck. You have quite a project ahead of you, especially if the area is quite large.
  
  Helpful
- 17335038 on Jan 25, 2019
  
  Eleanor, If you want to 'look something up" as you said, while typing an answer, simply go to whatever Browser (Safari, Firefox, etc.) you are on, open a new page, and then search for whatever information you want.
  
  If you haven't closed your Hometalk page, then it will still be open. You should be able to have several pages open at any one time. The page you are currently working on, reading, etc. is in the foreground; all the remaining pages that are still open are 'behind' the one presently on your screen.
  
  Helpful
- Eleanor Korf on Jan 25, 2019
  
  Thank you, I will see if that will work.
  
  Helpful
Naomie Moore aka baileyanddaisey, Castaic CA on Jan 24, 2019

Here are some remedies for your woodpeckers.

https://m.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Woodpeckers

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/why-do-woodpeckers-like-to-hammer-on-houses-and-what-can-i-do-about-it/

https://www.bobvila.com/articles/how-to-get-rid-of-woodpeckers/

https://www.pests.org/get-rid-of-woodpeckers/

Helpful Reply