Hi, I just read the thread on lippage, so this is somewhat of a twist on that. I have a potential client who recently had 380 sf of matte finished travertine installed. The installation was abysmal and there is lippage all over (floor really needs to be honed all the way across). In addition, a combination of sanded and sandless colored grout was applied, but the level of the grout is well below the face of the tile, so it would need extra grout. The travertine is fairly dense and there are not a lot of holes in the surface, but what there were were just filled with additional grout. Anyway the client wants all the lippage removed and finished to a satin finish. My approach might be to 1. apply additional sandless grout to fill in the grout lines, 2. grind/hone with 50+100 metals then 50, 100 and 200 resin to leave an unpolished flat floor (perhaps finish off with a low grit white dot twister pad). A couple of questions: 1. Is it better to grind/hone without the extra grout and then, when I get past 100 grit, apply the grout to the groutlines surface (so it doesn't pop out in the beginning of the process), and then hone off the excess at 200? -OR- fill at the beginning of the job (which would help avoid chipping)? 2. Will a new layer of grout bond to the old layer? 3. How many minutes should I put in to grinding a 10 sf area (I am using John's formula of 4 minutes usually, but should I go higher for the grinding)? 4. How long should the grout cure before honing/ is there a sealer that can be added to the grout to cure it faster? Any insights are much appreciated. thanks

Baird

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________________________________________
From the desk of
Baird Standish
Managing Partner
Facility Specialists, LLC
1616 Walnut St.
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Phone: 215-732-7505
Fax: 215-546-9160