Holes

by Cary
(Texas)

I recently had my travertine tile professionally cleaned by Dalworth and now there are holes in it.

The epoxy filler clearly came out in the cleaning process. The manager came out to look at it and told me that he think the epoxy filler was defective and should not have come out.

Is that ever normal for the filler to come out,during a professional cleaning?

Does this point to some error on the part of the cleaning technician (wrong chemicals or technique)?

Any information would be helpful thanks!





Cary,

Very strange indeed. We clean and seal travertine more than any other stone and tile combined, and we never pullout resin, opening holes like the ones in your photo.

However, we do commonly see travertine with holes before we ever do any work.

The holes open up in high traffic areas, and from my experience, this is normal for a high traffic family.

We carry a travertine fill that is made from Tenax, which is a polyester resin, that is already pre-mixed to the travertine color.

If we are doing a cleaning and I see a few larger holes, I fill them at no extra charge.

If there are a lot of holes, I will give a price for filling, based on my time to do the work.

If we were to open up holes during a cleaning (can't remember this happening from a cleaning), I would fill them at no extra charge.

The only time we've opened up holes in travertine tile, is when we are using course diamonds to restore a floor.

And I mean very course diamonds, which we use to grind a floor flat. In a normal restoration, meaning not grinding the floor flat, holes don't usually open up.

Even when grinding a floor flat, I've never seen holes open up that big in your photos.

In my opinion, the cleaning company is responsible and should fill the holes at no charge.

I hope this information helps.

Pedro