Sealing Honed Travertine That Will be Polished in the Future

by Merilee
(Palm Desert, CA)

Hi -

We just installed honed travertine in a portion of a bathroom that previously had carpet.

The rest of the bathroom is polished travertine, as are all the "public rooms" in the house.

I want to use 511 Porous Plus on the new honed travertine because we are not ready to have all the other floors cleaned, repaired and re-polished, so my question is,

will sealing the honed travertine now result in problems later, when we have the new travertine polished to match the rest of the house?

Thanks,
Merilee Colton


Merilee,

You should have no problems in the future with your travertine finish when decide to polish in the future.

My concern would be the sealer you're using. Although Miracle 511 and the Porous Plus are a very reputable company, and most contractors use them, they are not my choice for sealers for natural stone.

I would look for another penetrating sealer, like Stone Tech, Modern Stone Technologies, and host of others that are better quality and don't smell as strong as the Miracle products.

Also, the Porous Plus is for porous stone. Travertine is actually a very dense stone and some people say it doesn't need to be sealed because it won't absorb a penetrating sealer.

Travertine is very holy, but very dense at the same time.

My other problem with the Miracle products is there sealing agent is silicon based, which in my opinion, can leave a residue that can be hard to remove if not careful.

If you do use this sealer, be sure to remove the residue after it is applied. Read the directions very carefully and make sure the residue is removed.

This is the most important part of any sealer application and the root of almost all the problems I see with the Miracle products.

Sorry for getting too opinionated about the product you're about to use, but it's from my experience.

You should have no problems with polishing your floor, when you decide to do it.

If you need a recommendation of someone, I know a guy in the Palm Desert area.

Just go to my contact us page and ask me.

Good luck.

Pedro