could we talk about stone floors please?

[Heathcliffscathy]

interior and exterior.

inside we are using honed an polished travertine in 610mm by 610mm tiles and our dilemma is whether to go for brick layout or straight. I prefer straight as it looks cleaner to me, however we have very irregular walls, so would brick be better. is brick faster and therefore cheaper to lay as our builder is a big advocate of doing it this way.

outside we were thinking about untumbled unfilled travertine paviers in an irregular opus pattern. are we totally nuts to go for a light coloured porous stone??

anyone know about this stuff?

all and any advice gratefully received.

p.s. i'm trying to sort all this long distance as am stuck in america for another week!

bump

I like brick bonded. My interior tiles are rectangular and I think it looks great. Seeing as yours are square I guess either would be good (sorry sitting on the fence here)

I was advised against honed as they were filled with chalky stuff and therefore not as hardwearing ... or maybe my builder just wanted me to spend more ?

What grout are you going for ? just to be warned cream is a bugger to keep clean

Not sure what the outside plans are as it sounds like a different language you are speaking but the Alnwick garden in Northumberland have light stones outside and they look fabulous ... they also have little twinkling lights in them which sounds twee but looks lovely. But they also probably have a zillion volunteers who regularly mop it and keep it clean !

thanks for posting...travertine has to be honed unless you are going for a very holey look (which is lovely, very farmhouse, but not the look we're going for).

the grout is beige (to match the travertine).

anyone else?

if you go for laying them straight, but have irregular walls, it will nicely highlight the irregularity for you - is that the look you want?

brick layout could be easier to lay, as he won't have to spend quite so much time making sure that every single tile is exactly perfectly lined up.

It can be done though.I had square tiles laid square not brick in a v irregular open plan area.the tiler was brilliant and still wanted to do the other way!But he did it square in the end and he started in the centre and worked out and removed and repositioned skirting boards etc to get it as good as poss

now that is my kind of tiler noddy!

I have square tumbled filled chiseled edge travertine I think the same size as you're proposing in the kitchen and we have it laid straight. We have very uneven walls but because the kitchen units are around most of the walls you don't notice them at all. Our tiler actually suggested doing them straight! (I'd been tempted to get some sore of mosaic pattern so maybe he thought straight would be easier than that )