As with any purchase, there are key factors to consider when purchasing Travertine and Marble Tiles or Pavers for your project. Here in our Learning Resources Center we offer some of these factors to consider when making your decision.In addition, at Travertine Warehouse we employ a highly trained and qualified staff of Natural Stone Specialists equipped to assist you throughout the decision making process.

What is Travertine?
Where does the Travertine or Marble I am purchasing come from?
Are all Travertine and Marble the same?
How do I know I’m getting a quality product?
What is the advantage of buying direct from the importer?
What is the right application for my project?
What is the difference in the finishes offered?
Are there different installation methods for Travertine and Marble?
How do I install Travertine pavers?

06 Jan
Learning Center

Where does the Travertine or Marble I am purchasing come from?

Where Does My Travertine/Marble Come From?

shipping container photo

Photo by Rennett Stowe

 

Most of the Travertine found in the USA comes directly  from Turkey in form of containers. There are many ocean freight services which transport this material across the Atlantic Ocean. It takes approx. 6 weeks to arrive from Turkey. About 95% of the Travertine containers arrive at the Port of Tampa. Next, they are distributed from the port to several different warehouses and wholesalers via freight forwarders.

06 Jan
Learning Center

What is Travertine?

Travertine photo

Photo by Alaskan Dude

Travertine is a natural stone like Marble, Granite, Onyx, Limestone, Slate etc. The key differences between Travertine and other natural stones stems from the way they are formed.  The stone themselves have very different properties such as the hardness of the stone and the appearance.

Travertine is formed in hot springs and/or limestone caves. It is formed by the precipitation of calcium carbonate.  In other words, a chemical soup very high in concentration of calcium carbonate precipitates off the liquid and the remaining chemical soup hardens and is compressed into the travertine stone we have today.  Kind of like a natural concrete in that you have a soupy mixture that hardens.

Travertine is not the same as Marble, Granite or Limestone which falls in the metamorphic rock category. Key characteristics of Travertine stone are the holes within the stone which are caused by carbon dioxide evasion or CO2 bubbles in the mixture as it is setting.  Metamorphic rock is a rock that has undergone changes through usually pressure and heat.  It causes the rock to change or go through a “metamorphosis” that often forms crystals in the rock giving granite that sparkling look.

Getty Museum photo

Photo by Ed Bierman

Travertine has been used for centuries as a building material.  The most famous structure built with it is the Coliseum in Rome, Italy but there are tens of thousands of buildings travertine has been used to construct.   One of the most recent famous buildings would be the Getty Museum in Los Angles, California.

25 Nov
Learning Center

Learning Resource Center

As with any purchase, there are key factors to consider when purchasing  Travertine and Marble Tiles or Pavers for your project. Here in our Learning Resources Center we offer some of these factors to consider when making your decision.In addition, at Natural Elegance Collection we employ a highly trained and qualified staff of Natural Stone Specialists equipped to assist you throughout the decision making process.

  • What is Travertine?
  • Where does the Travertine or Marble I am purchasing come from?
  • Are all Travertine and Marble the same?
  • How do I know I’m getting a quality product?
  • What is the advantage of buying direct from the importer?
  • What is the right application for my project?
  • What is the difference in the finishes offered?
  • Are there different installation methods for Travertine and Marble?
  • How do I install Travertine pavers?
01 Nov
Learning Center

Natural Stone Has a Wide Color Variance.

Color-variation-sample

All of these pieces of Ogee are all Cappadocia travertine. As you can see there is a wide variance of color.

One of the things that surprises a lot of people is that natural stone can have a wide variance in color.

This is true for the tones that are more vibrant and rich, the softer tones that lean closer to white like Ivory are less likely to have noticeable variation. Yet no two tiles or pavers are exactly alike. Some colors like Leonardo can have a wide variance from white to charcoal with lots of reds and creams streaking throughout the stone are extraordinarily beautiful and although the colors are the same the pattern is far from it.

These stones are created by nature laying down layer upon layer of different materials. The material for travertine is calcium carbonate. In hot springs it precipitates and over millennia form into the stone we have today.

There are a number of places in the world that travertine is found and harvested. Natural Elegance Collection travertine comes from Turkey.

31 Oct
Learning Center

Make sure you order extra.

It is important to understand when doing business with Natural Elegance Collection that you are buying from a direct importer and a volume seller.  We are not a retailer like the box stores.  We ship more stone around this country than just about anybody. Because of this, that material you just bought from us is not sitting around in our warehouses waiting for you to do your job to find out you need 200 more square feet.  That shipment of stone you bought 2 months ago has long been cleared out and an entire new batch has been brought in.

It is important to understand what you are doing when buying from us but it isn’t difficult.  That is why we have this blog.  To educate you so you can get the best stone at the best price and have confidence in what you are doing even though it may be the first time.

It is different for different size jobs and of course you want to take into consideration cost and storage but as a rule you should calculate for at least 10% extra.  This should be calculated in when you are planning your job and ordering.  You have to order more stone than you need for several reason and breakage during shipping is one of them.  Another is simply for craftsmen error.  Another is to have extra material in storage to replace any pieces that might get damaged over time.  In other industries overage is calculated as much as 20%.

Do the math. Then add 10%. Then look at how many tiles or pavers 10% is.  You want to have at least a half dozen left over.  Maybe more if you might decide to do an accent later.  Then you have the right stone.  As mentioned, at a later date that stone will have been shipped around the country and will not be available.  We make our business in volume not margins.  That is why we price so aggressively.

Talk to your stone specialist today and lets get your home looking more like a castle.