Travertine tile edge smoothing

[Gotcha640]

Hello Forum

A house I bought in June has an unfortunate couple tiles right behind the chair legs in the breakfast room. They are about 1/16th higher than the next row, so the legs catch and you have to lift the chair to get out.

The first thought I had was carefully bevelling the edge of the tiles. Is this even a thing? Are there sealers for recut faces like that? I have to assume so, but I don't know anything about it.

Second easiest would be to slightly rocker the legs of the chairs, but either I do all the chairs or the right chairs have to go in the right place.

Removing and resetting the tiles will not be happening. Two little kids, house is destined to be a rental in another 3 years, I already have enough projects. If it's the only way, we can live with it.

 

[bdamico]

You need to hire a professional stone floor grinder/polisher. The grinding step to which you are referring is lippage removal and it requires the most aggressive of stone polishing disks. You can google. I don't think that step is really diy because you may need more than just a swing machine to get it done.

 

[duneslider]

It would be FAR quicker and EASIER to just chip out those couple of tiles and re-set them correctly than it would be to grind them down and re-hone them and it wouldn't require any "specialty" tools.

 

[Slowgsr]

Grind them. Must have been a diy job.
I've seen tile installers grind bad scratches from marble, they use a 4.5" angle grinder with a variety of stick on discs. Similar to how counter guys polish the joints on stone

My dads kitchen is 800sq ft of 16x16 marble and the installers did everything dead nuts.

 

[duneslider]

a half decent polishing kit is a few hundred bucks plus a grinder. You could chip out and replace a bunch of tile for that price. Travertine is also full of filled holes and grinding down is probably going to open up a number of holes and they will have to be filled with preferably a quality 2-part polyester filler.

If you want it to turn out good I would not suggest it for a DIY'er, it takes a bit of practice to learn. Not saying it can't be done DIY but there are easier ways to go about this.

 

[bdamico]

a half decent polishing kit is a few hundred bucks plus a grinder. You could chip out and replace a bunch of tile for that price. Travertine is also full of filled holes and grinding down is probably going to open up a number of holes and they will have to be filled with preferably a quality 2-part polyester filler.

If you want it to turn out good I would not suggest it for a DIY'er, it takes a bit of practice to learn. Not saying it can't be done DIY but there are easier ways to go about this.

Sorry to hijack--what filler do you like, Duneslider. I have done some tests with Tenax but is I believe epoxy based and a pain to grind when you have thousands of feet to fill as do I.

 

[duneslider]

I have used tenax, it is polyester based 2-part. I used to just get whatever brand my supplier had. Yes, it is not easy to grind but it lasts. I haven't had great luck with any other products. Some will just use no sanded grout or a product called Traverfill. I didn't ever do large areas, just small repairs and such so I can't make experienced comments on doing large areas like you have. Those floor grinding pros have the right tools to do that stuff.

 

[PugetDude]

The first thought I had was carefully bevelling the edge of the tiles. Is this even a thing? Are there sealers for recut faces like that? I have to assume so, but I don't know anything about it.

Second easiest would be to slightly rocker the legs of the chairs, but either I do all the chairs or the right chairs have to go in the right place.

Removing and resetting the tiles will not be happening. Two little kids, house is destined to be a rental in another 3 years, I already have enough projects. If it's the only way, we can live with it.

I've had really good results with these; very easy to put a bevel/chamfer on travertine. Work your way through the grits, they cut really well and the higher grits remove scratches caused by the lower grits. With a bit of patience, yYou can end up with a nice polished edge. You may want to dig out the top half of the grout to allow you to get down into the joint a bit deeper so you can feather the edge.
Good luck.

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