cutting travertine

[MICK the Tiler]

Hi Jimmy,

You will need a wet saw for trav, but cut it dry If it is unfilled trav (Lots of little holes and air pockets) the dust will need to be blown out with compressed air before you fix. Same with honed trav it just stayes cleaner. Cutting it dry will lessen water staining and slurry becoming embedded into the pores of the stone.

I use a off white or white floor adhesive even on walls use a 10-12mm notched trowell and trowell the wall no need to back butter but wipe the back of the stone with a damp sponge first to remove excess loose dust.

I always seal stone after i've grouted. [/quot


Hi Aussie Mick can you clear up a couple of quieries for me -
When you say dry cut it do you mean don't put any water in the well of the wet cutter? If so doesn't it create issues with the blade becoming hot?

Also I thought you were supposed to seal filled/ honed trav before you grout to prevent it from staining the stone or can you do it either way round? Which is the best/safest (so as not to damage the trav) way of doing it?
I have seen travertine in topps that looks like it has been filled with resin - looks very beautiful and unusual. Would you seal this kind before or after grouting?
Thanks Mick - any other imput also welcome

Hi sibs,

Sorry about not answering your question last night It was quite late and I needed some ZZZZZ's

As the other guys have said you can buy a dry cut blade that will work on your wet saw, and the reason is it's just cleaner on the stone, there's no slurry to wash off and then you have to allow it to dry before fixing checking for water staining marks as you go. The blade you want should be a turbo pattern the ones with the directional grooves in the rim of the diamond, these grooves allow excess dust to pass and help keep the blade cooler, although it will still get hot.

Just remember to always work clean with stone and remove any marks or excess adhesive straight away so not to mark the finish.

I still seal the resin filled trav but only after grouting.

 

[grumpygrouter]

I got the Marcist blade from trade tiller £ 32.00 inc p&p it will not go straight in a wet Plasplugs cutter I think the blade for the plasplugs plus cutter is 110mm the marcist is 115mm were the wheel fits in if you use a small file and file some of the plastic away it will fit and the wheel works fine so you can cut with a dry wheel on a wet cutter :hurray:

Using a bigger wheel than the motor is designed for may shorten the motor life considerably!

Grumpy

 

[tile]

hey jimmy try scoring the tile first with a 10 mm wheel on dry cutter so when cutting in wet cutter u dont loose the line:yes:

 

[jimmy495]

Very good point grumpy the bigger blade is a lot thinner than the standard one so there is a lot less friction as the surface area is a lot less. Then the standard one I only use it for stone and as I don’t do a lot of stone work yet it is not used that much but it will work till I get my new wet cutter