Who does Travertine sell to?

We supply importers, stone distributors, fabricators, quarries and project developers who buy Travertine in slabs, tiles or cut-to-size pieces. We work on the China side: the stone is bought from the mine, processed in Shuitou or Yunfu, inspected before loading and shipped FOB.

What is the minimum order quantity?

One mixed container for a first order. There is no per-piece minimum, and slab quantities can be split across a book-matched pair or an offcut depending on the job.

What thickness and finish are available?

Slabs are typically 18 mm and 20 mm, with 15 mm and 30 mm available. Common finishes are honed, polished, flamed, brushed, sandblasted and leathered. Tiles are produced in standard and large formats.

How long does production take?

Seven to fifteen working days after the deposit, depending on the form and finish. Cutting, edge profiling and surface treatment are the steps that set the pace, not the stone itself.

Which ports do you ship from?

Xiamen, Quanzhou, Ningbo and Shanghai. We quote FOB to the port you nominate and compare forwarders before booking.

Do you publish a price list?

No. Natural stone moves with the block, the grade, the finish and the market, so a number printed on a website is out of date by the time it is read. Send us the form, thickness, finish, size and quantity and we quote FOB in writing against that specification.

Can we get a sample before ordering?

Yes. We cut a sample from the same block as your order - an A4 hand sample, a book-matched pair or an offcut - and ship it by courier. There is no obligation to order afterwards.

‹ All articles

Projects & Applications

Travertine Around Water: What the Position Actually Requires

Pool surrounds, spa decks and shower floors are the positions where travertine is at its best and where a specification goes wrong most often. The material is not the hard part — the fill, the finish and the detailing are.

October 12, 2026 · 4 min read

Travertine is the most specified natural stone for pool surrounds and spa decks, and for good physical reasons: it stays noticeably cooler underfoot in sun than most alternatives, its open texture gives measurable grip when wet, and it takes a honed or brushed finish that looks like a surface rather than a floor. The specification that fails is almost never about the material. It is about fill, finish and the two details nobody agrees on at the drawing stage.

Fill state is not a preference here

Unfilled travertine is published at roughly 3-8% water absorption by weight. A pool surround is a position where water sits against the stone indefinitely, in sun, with chemicals in the water and a maintenance regime nobody perfects. Unfilled material in that position is a maintenance liability that transfers itself to whoever installed it.

Every piece in this position should be resin filled and sealed. This is not a price decision so much as a durability one, and it is why a filled, honed travertine pool deck and an unfilled one are not comparable products despite being sold under the same trade name.

Finish: never polished

Polished travertine outdoors is a slip hazard when wet. Trade guidance is unambiguous and does not vary by region: pool decks, patios and walkways take honed, brushed or tumbled travertine. Beyond safety, polished surfaces degrade faster through freeze-thaw cycling, and a deck in a climate that freezes will show it within a few seasons.

The same applies to shower floors and any spa or wet-room surface within reach of water. Honed and filled is the standard answer.

Coping is a structural conversation, not a profile choice

Pool coping is the piece that decides whether the surround works, and it is where most of the arguments happen late. Three things have to be settled before the coping is cut:

Weight. A stone coping is heavy. The estimate for a 1700 x 800 x 600 mm solid bathtub is over a tonne filled, and coping sections of that class need a section that can actually carry it — cantilever, substrate and fixing, not just profile shape.
The overhang and the drip line. The top edge profile and how water leaves the stone. Water that runs back under the coping goes into the joint behind it.
Movement. Stone around a pool moves with the structure. Coping has to be set so it can move, and the joint has to accommodate that, or the coping is the first piece to crack.

Buyers should note that a coping order is often where a supplier first has to talk about installation rather than material, and that is the correct conversation to have before the order rather than after.

Chemistry matters more than it sounds

Travertine is calcium carbonate. Pool chemistry is aggressive: chlorine systems and salt systems are both alkaline, and they will affect the sealer and eventually the stone. Trade and installer guidance generally points to the same conclusion: use an outdoor-rated penetrating sealer, keep the water chemistry in range, and plan on more frequent resealing outdoors than in — annually rather than every few years, because UV and weather break the sealer down faster than foot traffic does.

What to specify, in order

Resin filled, honed or brushed. Not polished, not unfilled.
Grade selected for exterior use, with voids closed within the block.
Outdoor-rated penetrating sealer, applied before setting and renewed annually.
Open, non-sanded grout joints. Movement accommodated in the joint, not locked in the stone.
Coping decided on weight, drip line and movement — not on profile alone.

A travertine counter seen at an angle, showing the stone wrapping the end of the counter — A travertine counter seen at an angle, showing the stone wrapping a return. Coping and wet-area work is exactly this kind of detail — the return, the edge, the way one piece meets the next — and it is the part of a pool surround that gets drawn last and noticed first.

Sources: absorption figures as published in stone product literature; exterior finish, sealing interval and grout guidance consistent with tile and stone installer documentation and trade association recommendations. Weight estimates are computed from stated volume and published density range and are estimates, not measured figures.

Questions this article answers

Which country does my travertine come from?

We buy from seven: Turkey, Iran, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Pakistan and China, and they are not variants of one product. Turkish and Iranian material is strongly bedded and openly porous, which is what takes the classic vein-cut face. Italian and Spanish material is pale and fine-pored enough to take a high polish. Pakistani material is widely traded under this name and is mostly reef limestone, a different rock entirely. Chinese material covers several provinces that differ from each other as much as the countries do. They saw at different rates and take different fillers, so a quote that names no origin cannot be compared with another quote. We state the origin before we state a price, and we cut and finish all of it at our own base.

How is your travertine graded?

On what actually varies in the material rather than on a colour name. The grading question for travertine is how open the voids are, how deep they run, how regular they are, and whether the tone holds across the lot -- plus, where it matters, which producing region it came from and whether it is filled. A colour name carries none of that information, which is why two lots sold under the same name can arrive as visibly different stone.

Filed under Projects & Applications