Can you use a plate compactor on travertine pavers?
Running a plate compactor on travertine carries a high risk of splitting the stone, even when using blankets or cardboard for cushioning. Instead of compacting, you should simply sweep the polymeric sand into the joints and mist it with water.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1sweeping the polymeric sand in and misting it with water instead of using a compactorDid this help you?
- 2putting down moving blankets or cartons for cushion under a compactorDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“after spreading polymeric sand, should I run compactor over travertine pavers? it's 1.25 thick, thinking to put down couple of moving blankets or cartoons for cushion”source ↗
“i would not risk it travertine cracks easy and a compactor hit wrong spot can split it even with blankets better to just sweep the sand in and mist it with water”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 2Can a plate compactor fix a shifting gravel driveway?
- 2Why won't sand compact as a sub-base?