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Flexible Stone Series · MBTRV
Flexible Travertine Stone Panel
Travertine, cut across the bed instead of along it. The pores sit in lines rather than in patches, which is why the wall reads as one sheet of stone rather than a print of one.
Technical data sheet, MBTRV (PDF, 1.0 MB)·Colour card, 106 surfaces in four series (PDF, 10.4 MB)
Vein cut means the block was sawn the other way, so you get the narrow bands and the small elongated holes that run with them. The colour is the pale Roman cream, warm without going yellow, and the surface is filled flat enough to wipe but open enough to still catch a fingernail.
Three millimetres on the 600 module, four on everything larger. A 1200 × 3000 sheet weighs 6.5 kilos, so two people carry a stack of ten up a stairwell without a lift, and the sheet still bends round a 300 mm radius if the wall asks for it. Specified most often as a travertine wall panel for lift lobbies, where the sheet has to look like 30 mm stone and still hang on plasterboard.
The pores are the proof
Hold the texture shot at arm’s length and the holes are the thing a printer cannot fake: they are different sizes, they sit at different depths, and a few of them break the band they sit in. A digital travertine has one dot pattern repeated at 600 mm and you can find the repeat in about four seconds.
Two rooms, one stone
The reception shot is a 4 mm sheet on a plastered wall, butt jointed with a 2 mm shadow gap and no trim. The bathroom is the same sheet behind a basin, sealed at the edge with silicone rather than a stone upstand, which is the cheaper detail and the one that looks intentional.
Installed, travertine
Good for
- Lift lobbies and reception walls where the budget is stone but the structure is plasterboard
- Bathrooms, if the sheet is sealed at the cut edges
- Columns and curved returns, down to a 300 mm radius
- Refurbishment over existing tile, with the grout lines filled flush first
Not for
- Floors. It is a wall product and a chair leg will find the pore.
- Wet rooms with a floor drain and no tanking
- Anywhere the client expects a book-matched pair; the pattern does not mirror
Round a column
The bend shot is a 4 mm sheet wrapped round a 300 mm drum with no heat and no kerfing. It holds the curve because the substrate is mineral and glass fibre, not stone and resin, and it stays there once the adhesive sets.
Bent by hand, no heat
Ten colours, one family
The card runs from Milan, which is almost white, through Roma and Italy Grey to a brown and an Iran Red at the far end. Nine of the ten are some version of cream; the red is there for the project that wants a travertine wall to look like it came out of a quarry in Turkey in 1974.
Specification
Everything below applies to the Travertine as supplied. The PDF above is the same sheet we send out with a quote; ask for a printed copy and it travels with the sample.
| Sheet size | 1200 × 600, 1200 × 2400, 1200 × 2800 and 1200 × 3000 mm |
|---|---|
| Thickness | 3 mm ± 0.3 mm and 4 mm ± 0.5 mm |
| Weight | 6.5 kg/m² ± 0.5 |
| Item code | MBTRV |
| Substrate | Mineral powder, sand and fibreglass, pressed in a steel mould |
| Fire | EN 13501-1 A2-s1,d0, on a non-combustible substrate |
| Fixing | Polymer adhesive, or mechanical fixings on a ventilated frame |
| MOQ | Stocked colours ship from stock, no minimum |
| Lead time | 3–5 days for stock, 20–25 days for production |
Fitting it
Four steps, and the third one is the one that goes wrong.
Questions we get asked
Is this real travertine?
No. It is a mineral composite with a moulded travertine face. The colour and the pore pattern are cast, the weight and the bending are the point.
Can it go in a shower?
On the walls, yes, with the cut edges sealed and a waterproof substrate behind. Not on the shower floor, and not directly onto plasterboard in a steam room.
How does it compare on price?
Roughly a third of a 20 mm travertine slab per square metre, installed, before you count the substrate and the labour that a heavy stone needs.
Will the joints show?
Less than a tile. Set the joints on the band lines and keep them tight; the sheet is 1200 wide, so a 3.6 m wall has three joints and each one lands on a colour change.
What is the difference between vein cut and cross cut?
Vein cut, which is this one, shows the bed as bands running one way. Cross cut shows the bed as clouds. They are the same stone sawn at ninety degrees to each other.
Sample of Travertine
A4 offcut, posted from Ningbo, free. Ask for the colour card too — it covers all thirty-seven surfaces in the series.
Same series