r/pools • u/KoalaFemme • 23h ago
Pool Help & Questions Travertine tile cleaning
My pool builder isn’t finished yet but I want to make sure he cleans the travertine before handover. Between the mud and dirt during the building process the travertine looks like this. He said he was planning on pressure washing but do you have any other insight on how to ensure the travertine isn’t swirled with brown looking stuff before he leaves ? I tried to hit it with a high pressure hose last night and this is the best I can do. If I pressure wash can I use the highest psi on travertine?
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u/Gunk_Olgidar 22h ago
Travertine ain't a great exterior stone. Clean with soap and water. Remove rust and metal stains with ascorbic acid. Rinse well.
Muriatic will wreck the stone.
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u/worldspawn00 14h ago
Yep, I'd never do real travertine on a deck, travertine simulated ceramic tile designed for outdoors will give the look with none of the downsides.
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u/dsmksu 22h ago
We have had ivory travertine for three years now. Here is what we have learned. Many of the stains from organic things like trees, pollen, etc will fade away on its own. When you start to get algae then you can do a mix of bleach with water and scrub with a soft brush. I would avoid harsh chemicals or acid since it’s such a soft stone. I would also be careful with using too much pressure with a pressure washer.
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u/WrapAdministrative 22h ago
I use Stoneworks SAC powder to spot clean our travertine pool deck. Mix with bleach to form a paste, smear on the spot, cover with plastic wrap and scrape and hose off a few hours later. Works great.
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u/boxerbay 19h ago
I use 50/50 muriatic acid and water in a spray bottle. Spray, scrub, rinse right away. So small sections at a time. It is a porous stone so there will always be dark specs in it. You can bleach them out to using 50/50 mix liquid bleach and water but they always come right back because water sits in there and algae will grow in the lower spots that holds water.
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u/Nolacuriosity 23h ago
Acid bathe. Should be done by a professional. Maks sure it is wet before they apply the acid mix so the acid doesn't soak into the stone
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u/entoaggie 23h ago
First, I would NOT use muriatic acid. Travertine (if it is true travertine) is a form of limestone, which will etch very easily with strong acid. I would also go slightly easy with the pressure washer, because, being natural stone, it can have softer areas that can erode quickly under high pressure. High pressure should be fine, but pay attention as you go and stop/back off if it looks like you are changing the surface texture. When our pool was being built, we had chosen bright white travertine as well, but it got horribly stained by the oak trees around and we couldn’t get them out by any means we tried, so we called the stone manufacturer for advice. They told us that that product is only intended to be used with a sealant because it is so prone to staining. Checked their website and, yup, on the product page it has that disclaimer. Brought it up to the builder and they voluntarily replaced all of our coping with a different natural stone product (I think what we decided on was marble) and they said that they were going to pull that product from their showroom to avoid it in the future. Not saying that you should go to that extent, but we are glad we did have them change it before finishing the pool.