Travertine pavers restored

Outside travertine pavers topical seal and efflorescence removal.

Was your outside travertine or natural stone “sealed”?

A customer had new travertine tumblers installed outside.  The installer asked if he wanted the travertine sealed.  The customer said yes.  (There are 2 types of seal. 1. A topical seal or “wax”, this should never be put on any outside travertine, natural stone, concrete, or ceramic tile.  It will flake off or catch moisture which will cause efflorescence trapped under.  2. A penetrating water based, Solvent based, or fluoropolymer-based sealer.  3. A enhance sealer, which is solvent based but darkens the natural stone as if it is wet but not high gloss.)

The seal the installer put on what a topical seal and in just a few weeks the travertine turned white in a lot of areas.  The travertine had to be applied with an emulsifier which loosens the topical seal, then agitated with a low grit pad, then rinsed.  After this process the customer wanted a shinier appearance, so it was diamond polished and then a penetrating solvent-based sealer was applied.  The picture speaks volumes of how it looked before and after demonstration.