Wife has wanted to do something for front porch since we bought this house and I found this travertine for $0.75/sq ft and couldn't pass it up.

I am trying to decide if I want to space it for grout or just put them directly next to each other. There are obviously pros and cons to each.
Has anyone done something like this and can tell me how it fared with/without grout? I am leaning towards grout but that adds so much labor to the project.

For preparation I am going to wash the concrete and fill the couple of small cracks on the slab. I asked grok about the whole process and it kept telling me that I should put a moisture barrier on the slab, which I am.not sure is necessary.

I am going to seal the travertine completely on all sides before installation and then seal the surface again after laying it down.

The thinset I have is supposed to be able to handle cracking up to 1/8th of an inch which should be good for an exposed area. The porch is covered but does get splashed occasionally in prolonged raining.

Anyone have any input or insight from a similar project?

Additionally we may end up doing our walkway as well, but that's a whole nother story since it has an aggregate surface so will take much more prep.

Did this with glazed tile as a high school project for kid now in her 40s and expect no problems for you as well.
That said, that material is known for being slip& fall although your photos suggest NOT.
So if slippery, then one possible solution later might be something liken this TSSPRO 450 Travertine Anti-Slip

Travertine is used around pool decks all the time so I think slippage should be ok.

Sorry no advice but that looks really nice!!!

This is probably the pattern we go with.

Soni am still 50/50 on the waterproof membrane but not opposed to it, it just seems counterintuitive to me.

On the subject of grout, how on earth do I keep it from covering every single hole in the tile, or is that a good thing? I don't want grout texture sporadically thought the floor. Could put painters tape over the tiles but damn that's a lot of extra work.

Probably going to have to take of the trim from the posts so you can pave under it in order to get enough paver there not to show concrete.

We've use that or similar in outdoor commercial applications and it was just fine. As somewhat mentioned they make different finishes (fine, polished, etc.). So make sure you get one that is rougher, but not with big pores to hold dirt.

Yea the trim is coming off those and we are going to clad them with something else that will sit above the tile.

The one we got is tumbled. Id say one out of every 30+ has a hole in it but I expect thinset or grout to fill it. Our porch stays pretty clean as we don't have dirt/mulch landscaping.

Sea Speed said:

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Travertine is used around pool decks all the time so I think slippage should be ok.

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Yes and I've slipped on mine many times. But around a pool you expect it to be slippery. A front porch you do not.

That's fair. Porch is covered and rarely gets wet. Maybe the leading 6" in heavy heavy downpours. I'm not sure it will be much more slippery than the smooth concrete slab it is now. Will take it under advisement.

I think this is the pattern we are going to go with.

Any larger dimension pieces available?

You've got a pattern of brick on the house already. From a design aspect I would typically spec a larger travertine so it doesn't look so busy.

tile porches look tacky to me. I would rather refinish with some sort of coating if you're wanting to change the look

Coating is hideous to me.

Gotta love texags though. Ask some specific questions about the process and get input on other things.

I get that, but we are past that point. Wife and I both love the style and color of this one and with the porch only being 5 feet deep much larger wouldn't look good imo. It was between this and some 12x or 18x iirc.

Also at 75 cents per square ft my dad mode kicked in and I couldn't pass up the deal

I like the idea of the edge being laid as a rowlock to the field. Either rotate the field or the parquet pattern above.

Gives it a finished look to the edge.

Some other patterns you could consider:

So we thought about doing a border with heringbone but I decided I didn't want that complication. The 2x2 layout I think I am over and probably going to do the offset vertical to kind of make the porch feel deeper. I will probably lay out a couple more styles to get a feel.

What seems weird to me though is waterproofing the slab. That was a step I wasn't anticipating. My thinset is a crack isolation thinset and putting down redgard or aquagaurd would add another layer of protection I reckon but don't see the benefits of the waterproof outside of that but I've been reading a lot of people do it.

There are 2 or 3 cracks in the slab but they are very trivial and do not have gaps in them. I will still hit them with concrete repair before I start but the slab is 30ish so I don't think I'll see a lot of additional cracking.

It will sweat in humid weather.

And I mean SWEAT. My parents have a big tiled porch, and around holidays it can get extremely slippery (not travertine though) due to the moisture.

Sea Speed said:

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Coating is hideous to me.

Gotta love texags though. Ask some specific questions about the process and get input on other things.

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TA is fine with you using the tile (that was a good deal) and even the pattern you picked, but you're going to need to remove all the brick on your house and replace it with Hardie-siding.

I think we can agree that makes the most sense.

The OP reminded me I have weed barrier to put down and 20 bags of mulch to spread today. UGH!

I laid so much weed barrier and rock over the last week it's absurd. Just wrapping that project up now.

Have you put any thought into an uncloupling membrane? I can tell you're worried about movement since you keep saying your thinset is good for 1/8'' of movement. Schluter makes an uncoupling membrane that would essentially act as a waterproofing membrane, moisture barrier, and would eliminate your movement concern (that's what uncoupling membranes do).

https://www.schluter.com/schluter-us/en_US/Membranes/Uncoupling-%28DITRA%29/Schluter%C2%AE-DITRA-%26-DITRA-XL/p/DITRA?facets=false

I don't personally have much movement concern, but that's the general consensus of potential issues I have been reading. Aquagaurd helps with movement as does the specialized thinset I bought. I did look at uncoupling membrane but good lawd it's pricey.

House is 30 or so and there aren't too many signs of shifting outside of the cracks in the porch but those aren't serious and I've read many times that all concrete will crack. Not if but when.