Terrazzo is a man-made material invented in the 15th century by Venetian mosaic workers. It’s a mixture of marble, glass, quartz, glass or other suitable material and a binder, which could be cementitious, more popular in the past, or polymeric, used more in the present. It is used mainly for flooring and areas on where there is a high pedestrian traffic, such as lobbies or hallways. The reason behind this is that Terrazzo is a long lasting material, which can be re-polished easily at any time and it’s also cost-effective and light weight compared to other stone used for flooring.
The colour palette of Terrazzo is very vast, practically any colour can be used to create it, and any natural stone chips can be added to it to make it stronger, aesthetically nicer and resembling natural stone. This composite doesn’t need any type of sealing, neither grouting, reducing drastically installation costs and environmental impact thanks to the absence of chemicals during the process of polishing. Terrazzo is a very durable material, with an extremely low porosity level, therefore low chance of staining, and so resistant it won’t chip like other tiles would do.
This material was widely in use in mid 20th century, to then slowly come back in fashion around 1980’s, when there was a high need of a cost effective solution easy to maintain. Another benefit of Terrazzo is that it can be created on site inside molds and shaped into any desired pattern.
The Stone Wiz 