Ancient Modern Home

There is now slate on the upstairs bathroom floor and travertine tile in the shower upstairs and tub downstairs. There is lots of rock going on in this house! Not much else has happened so I thought I would investigate travertine and slate. You may want to skip the rest of this but some may find it interesting. It made me think about where materials come from and how a modern home can have some very ancient items! On another front we were supposed to close on this house in about one month. I somehow think it will be longer than that!

Now for your rock education:
Travertine is a sedimentary rock that began as limestone (calcium carbonate), which over time was heated by the Earth's core, releasing pressurized water and steam to form hot springs. The rising hot water would dissolve the limestone and bring with it granules of stone from below the surface that collected into mud baths. When this mud cooled, it would crystallize into solid stone, now called travertine. The stone is often light in color and beautifully banded as a result of the presence of iron compounds or other organic impurities.

The rock derives its name from Tivoli, Italy, which in ancient Roman times was known as Tibur. The ancient name for the stone — which was used extensively as a building material — was lapis tiburtinus meaning tibur stone, which has evolved today to travertine. Perhaps the most well-known symbol of that civilization — Ancient Rome — and the largest known building constructed with travertine is the Coliseum in Rome.

Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering. Slate is frequently grey in color especially when seen covering roofs. However, slate occurs in a variety of colors even from a single locality. For example slate from North Wales can be found in many shades of grey from pale to dark and may also be purple, green or cyan.