Laying Terrazzo Flooring

This is a flooring technique that gives you a durable and attractive floor that is very easy to maintain. Terrazzo flooring is created by using pieces of stone or marble chips and is a great option to choose to create various decorating schemes. The medium is a cement binder that is used to arrange the marble or stone chips in unique design and color compositions.

A traditional terrazzo flooring is installed onsite in your home by a flooring company instead of being prepared somewhere else and then installed. Before you can have your terrazzo flooring created, you need to make sure that any existing flooring is removed. If there is no existing flooring to remove, you need to prepare your floor to receive a layer of concrete. This is what forms the basis for your terrazzo flooring. Once the wet cement is smoothed into place the flooring company will embed the surface with colorful marble or stone chips. When placing the stone or marble chips into the concrete you can have a plan to form a specific design or have them laid in free form. Whichever way you decide to design your flooring you can use as many pieces of marble or stone chips as you want.

After all the chips are in place the flooring company will use tools such as a trowel to make sure that the surface of your new terrazzo flooring is as smooth as it can possibly be. At this point the smoothing does not have to be exact. The real goal of smoothing is to make sure that the marble or stone chips are firmly in place before the concrete sets up. Once the concrete is completely dried the floor company will bring in a grinding machine so they can give your flooring a surface that is more even along with adding the element of polishing your new terrazzo flooring.

At this point the flooring company is ready to clean and seal the surface of your new flooring. Once they have finished polishing your floor they will remove any residue from the surface. They will apply a thin layer of sealant after the surface is cleaned. You will now have colorful terrazzo flooring that will stand up to a lot of foot traffic. It will also be easy to keep clean and last for many years.

In today’s market there are also specialized terrazzo times that you can affix to an existing floor but the designs are limited. The process of doing this is similar to installing linoleum tiles.