If you want your travertine walkway pavers to last long, you should follow some of these tips that can help you during the season of heavy rains or consistent rain showers that can result in one to two inches of water flooding per day.

The most significant part of a walkway is its base material. You should exert more attention to it when you are dealing with heavy downpours and increasing level of ground water. It is important that you create a base for the walkway that can drain away the water and not allow it to build up under the installed pavers so they shift when walked on. The best material for a base is stone or crushed rock since it permits the water to seep through and it also packs well such that the "squishy" feeling when you are over a saturated soil is eliminated. Crushed rocks are more recommended than pea gravel or river rocks because these two latter base materials cannot pack well and they allow the pavers to settle after a while. You will need at least four inches of crushed rock for the base but you might need six to eight inches of the material if there's a high level of precipitation and the soil cannot drain as fast as it should.

Since draining is just mentioned, if the soil in your area is actually hard clay where it does not let water to get through, make sure that you create a drainage area for your walkway. If you didn't do this, your travertine pavers might "float" and this can be very messy. These pavers don't settle on top of water but the "floating" term is used to refer to the fact that there's too much water under the stone and it can slip easily if there's side pressure applied. They actually slip rather than float and the result is the tiles are misplaced.

You can build your walkway in a way that it can last for many years if only you pay attention to the water issue. Travertine pavers are over one and a half inches thick so they can stand up to a lot of wear and tear as long as they have a good base under them. If you live in a place where the climate is wet, installing pavers in the walkway of your garden can be more difficult than a regular installation. The problem that must be defeated is the water that can cause flooding to the bottom of the walkway when there's a heavy rain shower.