Travertine Cleaning and Restoration in Alton, Hampshire GU34

Last Updated on March 3, 2026 by David

This travertine cleaning Alton project was in a lovely cottage in the beautiful village of Upper Farrington near Alton in Hampshire.

Our client called for travertine restoration services because she could not keep her travertine floor clean. There were three particular problems: ingrained soil in the tiles, black holes that had filled with dirt, and soiled grout lines.

Ingrained Soil Problems With The Travertine Tiles

The floor was around 10 years old. While our client had done her best to look after the floor, she could not prevent abrasion wearing the surface. When travertine is worn, the surface becomes more open and it is difficult to remove cleaning slurry from the surface.

Holes Appearing in the Travertine Tiles

Dirty holes are a common problem with honed and filled travertine.

Travertine has a natural void structure beneath the surface. In some places the surface cap can be quite thin. As the surface starts to wear, the thin areas become thinner and eventually collapse to reveal the underlying hole. The holes can vary from small pores to larger craters, and they fill quickly with soil. Eventually there are dirty holes across the whole floor.

Why the Grout Lines Were Soiling So Quickly

The grout lines on this floor were quite wide, which made the dirty grout make the whole floor look dull. Sand-based grout has a rough surface that is tough to clean. Mopping with a cotton mop makes this worse because the mop pushes dirty slurry into the grout lines rather than lifting it away. This sludge damages the grout surface, making it progressively more porous so the dirty slurry soaks deeper with each clean.

Filling The Large Holes In The Travertine Tiles

We started by cleaning the larger holes with diamond burrs. As we worked, we also cleaned out any damaged filler.

The large holes were then filled with hard two-part travertine filler. This uses a chemical hardener to set rigid. Once the filler had solidified, it was ground smooth to the level of the surrounding stone.

Grout Filling Small Holes In Travertine

Small holes are too small and too numerous to fill with hard resin filler. So we used a fine jasmine-coloured grout. Before grouting the small holes we scrubbed the floor with a strong cleaner to emulsify the ingrained soil, then used high-pressure hot rinse equipment to lift the emulsified soil away from the floor. This cleaning also removed any loose filler that was likely to fall away in the coming months.

We filled the remaining holes with a fine jasmine-coloured grout.

Once the grout had dried, we removed any grout haze from the tiles ready for sealing.

Sealing The Travertine Tiles

The floor was sealed with a water-based acrylic mid-sheen sealer. This sealer sits on top of the stone as a sacrificial wear layer, protecting remaining areas of thin tile against premature collapse. It also makes the grout lines and grout filler significantly easier to clean.

How to Maintain This Floor After Restoration

Sweeping or dry microfibre mopping once or twice a day removes the grit that would otherwise abrade the sealer. The floor can then be damp mopped with a specialist maintainer cleaner that contains a small amount of sealer to help sustain the finish. With correct maintenance the finish can last around four years. Topping up with a fresh coat of sealer every six to twelve months in high-traffic areas will extend the overall life of the protection.

This project is one of many examples referenced in our Travertine flooring care and restoration guide, which explains how travertine behaves in real homes and why these problems develop over time. If you need your travertine to look clean and easy to maintain again, please contact us for a free no-obligation quotation.