Within the first 12 – 18 months of installation of a stone floor, especially filled and honed travertine, you can expect 5 – 10% of the floor, especially in high traffic areas, to experience exposure of new holes. This occurs due to the nature of travertine itself; a capillary filled stone. When the tiles go along the filling line, the machine can only fill the holes that are visible at that time. However, there are other holes/pores lurking just below a razor thin surface of stone just waiting for that first rubber heel, chair, etc. to expose them. As mentioned prior, you will notice this most frequently and visibly in high traffic areas. This is not a defect of the stone. It is a normal and expected occurrence with travertine.
To remedy this issue, it is best to wait at least 12 months, for most of the shallow pores to expose themselves and begin to fill the exposed holes/pores. At this time, clean out any loose debris in the exposed area – do not dig or stick sharp instruments into the hole as that would exaggerate the problem and could possibly open up more holes than would not occur normally with natural foot traffic. Make sure the area around the void to be repaired is sealed well as to not allow any new grout to adhere to the stone’s surface. Fill the holes with regular sanded or epoxy grout (whatever color is deemed appropriate to match the stone). After this application is fully completed, make sure these newly grouted areas are sealed with any regular non-solvent based stone sealer.