Tired of stuff growing in between my travertine pavers

[Katodude]

Well, I finally hit the limit. Done with “wet and forget” and done with Roundup (probably have a bunch of health issues having to spray that stuff almost weekly).

I have the pressure washing guy coming on Monday to completely clean the deck. Then my floor guy is coming on Friday and has suggested that he grouts the whole deck instead of polymeric sand. He says some of my joints are way to tight for the polymeric sand and the grout will last longer.

If we have to pull up the pavers for anything we can always break the grout. Besides the grout will also fill in the big holes that I have in the pavers.

Ok, tell me why I am doing a bad thing, or make me feel really good about this.

These guys did a great job on the interior of my house wet grinding the travertine and filling in big holes with matching grout, so I trust them.

 

[Pool_Medic]

I’m curious to see how the grout holds up, plus how messy it will be.

 

[Katodude]

I will take pictures during the process and report back.

 

[AUSpool]

I had the travertine conversation at the tile shop a just few days ago. When shown the travertine I said I was worried about ‘stuff’ growing in the holes and she said it is not uncommon for the holes to be filled with grout when installed. We are staying with the sandstone look porcelain.

 

[duraleigh]

Do the pavers have a poured concrete sub base?

 

[Katodude]

75% of the deck has a poured concrete sub base and then has a sand set on top of that. The deck was expanded and the new area has only a sand base. But I see your point if the tiles move a lot the grout will break.

BTW. The coping is grouted and has been for 2.5 years and looks amazing.

 

[duraleigh]

The coping sits on solid, inert concrete and is stable......the sand on top of your poured concrete is not and it will allow the pavers to move and the grout to crack and crumble.

I would consider it an absolute rule to never grout any movable (even a 10,000 of an inch) pavers or tile and I am surprised your floor guy thinks otherwise.

 

[Katodude]

Well I guess I will find out the hard way. It may end up being a two step process. Grout everything including the holes where stuff grows. Wait until the grout cracks and breaks and then redo those sections with polymeric sand.

I am just done with this problem and am willing to throw a bunch of stuff at it.

 

[Katodude]

Deck was pressure washed on Monday. Looks amazing after just that. I am almost thinking it would easier and cheaper just to have it professionally pressure washed every 2 months.

But in any case the tile guy is coming tomorrow so I will quiz him on why grout, and we will see what happens.

 

[Ttonkavich]

What has worked so well for me with brick pavers is white vinegar and plain old table salt. One gallon of vinegar and one cup of salt in a two gallon sprayer. Soak the weeds on a sunny day. Two days later and their all gone. Treated twice this year. Pavers look brand new and my deck has been weed free since spring. No worries about any of it getting in the water. One note of caution. Don't get it on anything growing that you want to keep. My theory is it has made the sand so acidic nothing grows. Hope it helps.

 

[Katodude]

Not sure that vinegar or anything acidic is good to put on travertine.

 

[Katodude]

Well they have started and it looks pretty good so far. We will see how it holds up. The have spread the grout over everything so all the big and most of the little holes in the travertine are getting filled as well as the joints. They seem pretty confident that it will be pretty stable. Some of the joints will eventually crack over time, but so far so good.

 

[borjis]

Vinegar is a great cheap / better for environment weed killer and I use about 2-3 gallons a year. Never heard of adding salt. The acidity alone will kill whatever is sprayed.
But ya do be careful and do a small un noticed test area first where stone is a consideration.

 

[Pool_Medic]

Did they use sanded, non sanded or epoxy grout?

 

[Katodude]

Non sanded.

 

[Pool_Medic]

Keep us posted on how this works versus traditional polymeric sand.

 

[Katodude]

Well they got about half the deck done yesterday. What they did so far looks amazing. There were even a few tiles that I remember were loose and wobbled a little (it drove me crazy) and those are rock solid now. All the holes in the travertine are filled, and frankly it looks like a very nice indoor floor. They even buffed it to make sure they got rid of any haze.

Unfortunately it rained over night and is still raining now. Which mean the grout has probably not fully cured. Not sure what that is going to mean to the longevity. It is supposed to stop in the next couple of hours and we will see.

I have the robot running full time pulling stuff that splashed into the pool out.

 

[Newdude]

Ortho makes a spray called ground clear. They Aint kidding. Nothing will grow for a few months. I could spray every inch of seem in the patio but i just spot spray what comes up at the beginning of spring. A few weeks later weeds will have grown in different spots so i will go back and spot spray those. After that if ANYTHING grows its one little weed in the whole patio at any given time. And even that one weed is rare. They make 2 varieties. One is pre-mixed and one is concentrated. They are pretty much the same price so make sure to get the concentrated that comes in a gallon but dillutes to 4 gallons

 

[setsailsoon]

I have pavers and deal with this all the time. I find a solution of about 5% chlorine is way longer lasting. I've heard others use a little pool salt. If you have very little movement grout may work but it's unlikely since there's little to no flexibility for normal expansion and contraction of the underlying soil. A concrete base will help. Concrete slabs work because they are structurally sound with the wire embedded that provides tensile strength and they are installed with expansion joints that allow the slabs to move independently. When you grout pavers with no expansion joint you end up with a solid slab that lack's the tensile strength to deal with the small movements in normal operating cycles of rain, and heat. So cracks appear.

The disadvantage of pavers are the problem you're having plus movement over time that requires re-bedding areas that were not adequately compacted during installation. Very few installers do this right because home owners don't want to pay for the significant extra labor required. The advantage of pavers is they are easy to remove if there's ever leaking fittings, pipe or addition of features that need underground access. They can be removed and reinstalled with a perfect match every time. Net, net I prefer pavers but neither solution is perfect.

I hope this helps.

Chris

 

[Pool_Medic]

I’m willing to bet that ground clear is round up. Glyphosate has major health implications.

Pool salt will kill those stubborn weeds too.