So we picked travertine tile for our new pool coping. After it was installed yesterday I noticed that it has filler in all the cracks. The products we looked at when choosing did not have any fillers. Google shows several different qualities of the travertine. I plan on getting the company to inspect ASAP but is this coping with filler ok, normal on new construction? Any long term issues because of the filler?

The travertine was like that when delivered, not added by the installation crew.

You can buy filled or unfilled travertine. They may have simply shipped you the wrong product.

The filler is just grout so there is no negative to that.

Thanks for the reply. I realize the travertine has pits and some cracks but the ones installed have a lot of cracks and I don't want to have to replace any time soon after installation. Not too concerned with the color variance of the filler but it just wasn't what we had selected and picked out. The samples had no filler.

Mas89 said:

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Thanks for the reply. I realize the travertine has pits and some cracks but the ones installed have a lot of cracks and I don't want to have to replace any time soon after installation. Not too concerned with the color variance of the filler but it just wasn't what we had selected and picked out. The samples had no filler.

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Got it.. I have unfilled travertine floors that we filled with grout and they have had no issues. I would think that the grout would add to the integrity and strength of the tile. I could be wrong on that.

I would imagine the unfilled travertine would be more of a maintenance issue on a pool coping, even if sealed, but I would have preferred for it to be filled with the same grout used at the joints.

If you don't have an issue with the looks, I don't see any problems.

We just had a pool built with travertine coping. The travertine they installed did not have filler originally, but they came back and filled the travertine when they grouted everything in. I think my preference is the filled over unfilled travertine, both from a maintenance and durability standpoint.

Our pool deck and patio is travertine, coping is flagstone. (pool built by previous owners) We love it but I can see why filling in on a coping application would be appropriate.

Any pics guys? We need to do this sometime soon.

Is it salt cell? If so, you definitely wanted filled and want to keep it sealed.

When we redid our pool we looked at samples and filled and unfilled. We went with a 3"(?) cut instead of larger stones (think the old brick or tile coping, but travertine). Turned out great.