RBTS Blog What's in a name? How to compare Travertine Tile and Pavers

If you're not familiar with Travertine names then you don't know which are more universal names in the industry and what names are more or less just made up. Without this knowledge how can you do your best to compare Travertines to find the right one for your project?Lets first start by looking at why a local distributor or flooring store might change the name or create a unique name for a Travertine. The best answer to this is that they do not want you to easily be able to shop around. By changing the name on what they sell it makes it difficult for you to check with other suppliers to see who else also sells that particular stone to compare pricing and quality. Without the ability to do that on your end it's essentially cutting down the amount of information you're able to collect in order to make the best decision for your project and budget. This can be called private labeling which your retailer might use as protection to shopping around. We will discuss further down why this makes it important to us to use universal names.One other reason to change stone names is simple, make it sound fancy! Ooh la la....it sounds high class so it must be and I want it. We all want to say something exotic when friends and family ask what type of stone it is but to be honest the look should say everything about it. This is really something used to wow and help justify higher pricing.So what are some universal Travertine names? For this we're going to focus on Turkish Travertine which provides a really wide assortment of beautiful high quality colors.Names you'll hear are Noce, Ivory, Silver, Philadelphia, Scabos, Golden Sienna (or Gold), Leonardo, Walnut, and Hazelnut. These names correspond with a specific color tone/color scheme. They are more than just a label, they carry specific meaning that tells you information about what the stone is and what the stone is supposed to be.For example, Noce Travertine is your more solid brown tone Travertine. It's a really popular tone because of it's versatility in working with a variety of color pallets. The Noce is also on the darker end of the brown Travertine spectrum. As you get a little lighter in shade you're now looking at Walnut Travertine which is generally considered a medium tone. After Walnut as you keep going lighter you run into Cream tone Travertines and names for this can vary a little more like Cafe Light, Crema Country, Crema Turco, Cordoba Cream and others. Even though these different travertines are in the same color family the names still carry meaning. We differentiate these stones based on the quarries that produce them as each has its own set of unique characteristics. The lightest end of the Travertine color spectrum is usually an Ivory or Ivoria.Because Travertine is a product of nature each color tone has its own spectrum and range. Some colors can have overlap with others - for example, the darker pieces of Hazelnut and the lighter pieces of Walnut may be very similar. The same can be true for Walnut and Noce. Overall though, a Noce project will be darker than a Walnut project which will be darker than a Hazelnut project which will be darker than an Ivory project. Being true to the names, and having integrity in maintaining that nomenclature, ensures that our clients and customers will be granted a higher level of understanding in what they are considering for any given project.Broadly speaking, travertine colors can be grouped into three categories: the Earth-tone spectrum (Ivory, Creams, Hazelnut, Walnut, Noce), the Greys (Silver, Philadelphia), and the Colorful (Scabos, Golden Sienna, Leonardo, etc...).Even more so than the neutral Earth-tones where the names describe color families, the Grey and Colorful Travertine names are even more specific to their look. Philadelphia and Silver both really provide a luxury look, with Silver being an elegant white/grey color scheme that can have hints of warmth, while the Philadelphia is much heavier on the warm cream tones while still being predominately grey. The Leonardo provides unique colors and characteristic veining/movement, Scabos is more of a wild, bold, high-variation look centered primarily in yellows and golds, and Golden Sienna is more of the solid gold/orange travertine tone.The big thing with all of these Travertines is that you can take their names and compare where you are going to get the best pricing and quality for them. That comes back to why Rock Bottom Tile and Stone wants to make that easy for our customers. First, of course we want you to find us while searching this vast world wide web and that's not something we can do well with obscure product names. The other reason is because we want to make this process easier for you and that includes being able to compare all your options. We want to know we're working with you because we provide the best quality, price and customer service you were able to find.