Travertine Driveways
We’ve been getting a lot of inquiries lately about travertine driveways. We understand the
reason for the trend. A natural stone paver driveway adds curb appeal and value to any home.
Who wouldn’t want to have a driveway that looks high end and elegant and uses an uncommon
material in a practical installation. Sign me up! However, before you commit, there are some
very good reasons why you don’t see these kinds of driveways often.
Most standard driveway pavers are 2-3/8” thick. Travertine is actually 1-1/4” thick. Therefore,
under the right conditions travertine is much more likely to crack. Also, standard pavers have a
spacer bar down the side to aid them in interlocking. They are engineered to fit together to
allow for very little movement. Travertine has smooth ends and although they do fit together,
they do not interlock as well as a concrete interlocking paver system. Concrete pavers have
spacer bars that provide a space in between the pavers for sand to fit in, allowing for a secure
lock. This is not possible with Travertine. You have almost no spacing and as a result, no place
for the sand to sit.
Please be mindful that a circular driveway of travertine pavers can cause even more installation
issues. The travertine wants to slide and will not hold its place well at all. With concrete pavers
we install a troweled edge restraint on the ends of the installation to hold everything in place.
Because of the reduced thickness of the travertine this type of installation is not possible. We
can however secure the underside of the travertine pavers with some concrete to hold them in
place. This is one way to overcome the edge restraint issue and still allow for a beautiful and
secure travertine driveway installation.
Interestingly enough there is only one size of travertine that is recommended for a driveway.
6”x12” is the very best size. With many manufacturers it is the only size they will sell for
driveways. This size seems to distribute the weight of the vehicles best and has also been
proven to be the best paver size to hold up against vehicular traffic.
One last consideration is that travertine is a natural stone. It is actually cut right out of the
mountain at quarries. Therefore, the size and thickness of the pieces vary. They are not
uniform pieces as with concrete pavers. This can also make installation troublesome. Different
sizes will cause the pavers to not fit together well. Changes in thicknesses can make pavers rock
and destabilize.
At Standard Brick Pavers we can install a beautiful travertine driveway and understand that this
look might be the most desirable. We offer a full warranty for our labor. However, we are not
able to warranty the material. It has too many variables which we cannot control. We want our
customers to be happy and informed about the pros and cons of installing a product so that
they can select the best paver for their project.