QUESTION

Travertine Cracks in Shower Floor - Our shower floor is set with Travertine. The house is about 5 years old and now we have noticed, what appears to be, long cracks across the tiles (not in the grout). The cracks are filled with what looks like to be hard water deposits. What could make this happen?

ANSWER

ANSWER - It is difficult to fully understand your situation without investigating it first. I assume that these cracks are new, and were not there when it was installed. Some stones do have veining that looks like cracks and is naturally filled with minerals that can give a calcium look. Travertine normally doesn't have that type of veining.

Some stones can be subjected to shrinkage during its installation causing the stone to compress that result in what we can indent fractures. You normally can only see them at a certain angle as light shines on them and you can't feel them when you rub your finger over them. These intent fractures can turn into actual cracks if there is excessive movement in the floor. If there are cracks in the floor and you have moisture trapped in the shower pan because maybe the weep holes are plugged that would result in high vapor moisture passing through the cracks that could lead to a calcium type of build up in the cracks.

We would need to perform an intrusive inspection to determine what has caused those conditions. Good Luck.