Hi C J.  As Terrazzo is really a concrete/marble combo, I have treated terrazzo alternatively as concrete or marble for the last few stages and get different results, although one is not necessarily better than the other.  If treated like marble, honing up to 800 grit and then polishing with 5x (and maybe crystallizing after that) I get somewhat of a subtle oatmeal or orange peel effect (not in a bad way) where the stone aggregate is subtly higher than the concrete and the whole thing has a nice texture with still a fair amount of clarity, and the concrete matrix will not shine up as well as the aggregate.  Alternatively, I might hone to 800 grit and then hone higher to 1500 either with diamonds or a twister type pad on a burnisher.  Then, I would put down two thin coats of a concrete sealer like Ameripolish surelock stain protector and then burnish with a 3000 grit pad.  This will give the surface a glassier look.  I don't think one way really takes much longer than another because, although the concrete process is perhaps one more step, the burnisher goes very quickly.  
Also, I have adopted running my machines over terrazzo in the fashion of concrete polishing, which means that, instead of working in a side by side motion, I walk straight ahead like a lawn mower, overlapping by a few inches on each successive cut.  I typically go up and back twice on lower grit metal diamonds and once up and back on resins and higher grits. Once up, no back may even work on the very high grits.  Ameripolish training even suggests skipping from 200-800 on concrete (with the floor well ground and honed with metals and lower resins.)  I am not necessarily recommending this and it is, no doubt, done to avoid pulling out fereshly applied stain to concrete.  But the long and short of it is that I have found that much less time honing terrazzo vs marble -per stage- will achieve a great result, BUT you have to hone up to 800 to get good results.

On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 10:31 AM, CJ Crow <cjcrow@stonemaintenanceinc.com> wrote:
Thanks guys! Do you 5x terrazzo or treat it more like granite with the powder and crystalizer?

Thanks again, 


C.J. Crow
Stone Maintenance Inc.
In HIS grip
Sent form my iPhone

On Apr 20, 2012, at 6:25 AM, john jackson <kcstoneguy@yahoo.com> wrote:

pretty much the same as marble ,,do it wet of course. We do densify our terrazzo after 200 grit with a  lithium silicate, but plenty of people dont. You dont have to densify. I like to stop around 800 grit..Then you can powder polish, crystalize if you do that, (we dont), or run an 1800 grit floor pad..Kind of the real sticking point is where do you start...if it is fairly new, I would just start with 200 resins..Most of my floors are 100 years old, so we start with 70 metals or lower..But to be safe i  would just stick to resins.



From: Randy Frye <rfrye@comcast.net>
To: Restoration and Maintenance <sccpartners@stoneandtilepros.com>
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2012 4:14 AM
Subject: RE: [sccpartners] Terrazzo restoration

I treat the terrazzo you described like natural stone, I use the same process. I know some contract use a densifier at a certain point.
On Apr 20, 2012, at 2:39 AM, CJ Crow wrote:

> I have been working on marble and travertine a lot, but I'm running into my first few terrazzo jobs. I was hoping someone would have time to remind me of the best process for honing and polishing terrazzo that has been honed before. I know at least one of these jobs was installed prior to1992 so prob concrete based, but I would appreciate both methods if they differ.
>
> Sorry for the obvious fairly new guy question. Thanks and I hope business is going well for everyone!
>
> C.J. Crow
> Stone Maintenance Inc.
> In HIS grip
> Sent form my iPhone
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