i will just throw this out for your consideration, that terrazzo is a mix, and each mix varies. Some mixes have alot more marble in them than others do, Maurizio used to call this a "hot mix"..some of this older installs have so much marble its hard to even find the cement. Also some of the mixes have granite chips, and now days glass chip. I have done both ways that Baird mentioned and it just depends on the size of the floor and the install..For smaller jobs, I still stick with the powder polish, since the polished concrete world has done their best to dumb down the industry, and it takes more skill to powder polish, and I want to give the homeowner the best floor possible. One reason i have left the polished concrete world!i will tell you , I just sealed a terrazzo floor last night that was put in 1941...took it to 100 resin and put a solvent sealer on it..Absolutely beautiful...beyond beautiful...will put down 3 coats of high solids wax this weekend, this is in a bathroom setting, and I think i am going to go back to more of this. I have been exclusively diamond polishing the terrazzo for the past 10 years or so, ...they just had their lobby "diamond honed" if you could call it that by a jan san company...my floor looks 2 to 3 times better than their does. Lots of ways to treat these floors!
From: Baird Standish <bairdstandish@gmail.com>
To: Restoration and Maintenance <sccpartners@stoneandtilepros.com>
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2012 10:13 AM
Subject: RE: [sccpartners] Terrazzo restoration
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. CrowStone Maintenance Inc.In HIS gripSent form my iPhonepretty 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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