Fixing holes in travertine floor tiles

[pejoli]

Hi,

The kitchen in my house has travertine floor tiles (I think ... see the pictures below) and I have a couple of problem areas:
1) damage on the edge of one tile has broken all the way through, and is slowly getting bigger as the tile undermines and flakes off - at the moment about the size of a fifty pence coin.

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• pejoli
• 16 Oct 2014
• 1

2) a small area that has 5-10mm pits either where the filler has come out, or something acidic has eaten away.

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• pejoli
• 16 Oct 2014
• 1

Anyone know the best way to fill either type, and bring the fill back to a decent enough finish (tiles are honed, not highly polished). What sort of product is best for each, and is this something an amateur like me could take on, or would it end looking a mess (both areas in the middle of the floor).

I got a quote from a flooring company (London) and it was well out of my price range (£12-1500) - though they were offering to grind the patched tiles and then polish the entire floor.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[AdamCH]

You can probably fill it with http://www.pureadhesion.co.uk/jolly-stone-glue-filler.html

Comes in quite a lot of colours and may need a bit and trial and error to get the shade right.

I wouldn't have thought it was necessary to refinish / polish the whole floor. If you need to polish parts then you could use silicone carbide disk http://www.pureadhesion.co.uk/sait-silicon-carbide-velcro-back-no-hole-125mm-disc-1200-grit.html

Refinishing a whole floor can be expensive though.

 

[pejoli]

Thanks for the advice, ordered some, and will report back on how I get on.

For the big hole should I look to cement a lump of something in there to take up some of the volume ? I assume I don't want an inch of filler ? Or do I just slowly build it up in layers?

And - I have underfloor heating - any concerns wrt thermal expansion?

 

[AdamCH]

Whatever caused the original filler to fail might happen again but the filler is made for the job & should work. Alternative is to replace any failed tiles but try filling them first.

I wouldn't try to use anything to take up the volume - give the epoxy filler the best chance by giving it a good surface area to grip and make sure it's clean. Build in layers if it's a deep hole.

 

[pejoli]

Thanks, really appreciate the advice.

When I've now taken a closer lok at the hole, it looks to me like someone has dropped something and actually broken the tile - it goes all the way through, and the edges are slowly breaking down and flaking, rather than it being a smooth edge. And there is a void underneath. That area also sounds shot - there's a hollow sound when I tap it, whereas away from that area (on the same tile) it sounds solid (there's a hair line crack across the tile which would allow that)

I read about companies that refix tiles by injecting filler underneath rather than lifting/replacing. Given I've got a ready made access point, is that something I should also try - do I need a completely different product for that or can I just try and ram as much filler in underneath and hope it attaches sufficiently. Or am I in 'professional' territory here?

Many thanks for all your help so far.

 

[AdamCH]

It's quite easy to replace a tile especially if it's already cracked - just smash it with a hammer and chisel and drop a new one in.

Only issue will be whether you have a spare.