“I am sure we are biased,
but it is the best looking terrazzo we have ever seen” — Mike
From the day they closed on their ‘House of Good Taste‘, Mike and Lindsey dreamed of restoring the home’s original terrazzo flooring. For a job of this magnitude, the couple called in the professionals — and now after much hard work — they have brought their terrazzo back to gorgeous life.
Before being carpeted — a job that left the floor covered with divots from tack strips and carpet glue — the terrazzo also had been used as a paint ‘drop cloth’, making it desperately in need of refinishing and repair.
Mike writes:
Demo: Check!
Electrical: Check!
Walls and ceilings: Check!
Secondary floors: Check!Now onto what we have been waiting months for: To bring the original terrazzo floors back to life.
This is something we have anxiously waited for since the day we bought the house and rushed straight over pull the carpet back. We did a lot of research, reading, and talking about how to tackle the job. Initially we could not find a company that specialized in terrazzo that we felt comfortable with and was reasonably priced. At one point we had decided to just do a hard core DIY clean job and then later look at getting them professionally refinished.
But once we dealt with Greg at Pro Surface Solutions on the polished concrete we got a better understanding of what it takes to do these jobs right and felt we could trust them with the terrazzo as well. We also liked that one company would be handling the floors in the entire house. We knew the terrazzo was structurally sound, but it was just so yellowed and covered in carpet glue that we were not completely sold that it could ever look like new again.
The process to bring them back to life that Greg laid out for us is as below. We are going with a final finish more on the matte side instead of high gloss. We will bring both the concrete and terrazzo to about a 800 grit and see how that looks.
Sanding the terrazzo floors
NOTE: There were a number of steps in the entire process, Mike told me. Readers, get with your own professionals to determine your course of action.
Precautionary Pam reminds: Remember, readers, that vintage nastiness may be found in the layers of old houses. Be sure to consult with a properly licensed professional to determine what you are working with so that you can make informed decisions about how to handle any potential environmental and safety issues. More info and links on our Be Safe / Renovate Safe page.
Our fears of being able to bring the terrazzo back to life were put to rest after just the first couple of diamond grind passes, they looked absolutely amazing. The bright white base with the different shades of green are just stunning, I am sure we are biased, but it is the best looking terrazzo we have ever seen. Going to see the progress on them each day is about the closest thing an adult can get to being a kid on Christmas day.
Handling the nail holes in the terrazzo floor
We do also have the issue of the divots left behind by the carpet tacks around the entire perimeter. We were given two choices in dealing with those. 1) They could fill them in with a white epoxy that matches (as best they can) the base color of the terrazzo and then they would paint on speckles to mimic the aggregate. This would not cost anything extra and would just be part of the overall refinishing job, but it won’t look perfect. 2) We could have a outside company make us an exact match to our terrazzo and then fill in those divots with new material. This option was presented to us as between $500-$1,000 to just get the match done and then extra for the install.
We went with the 1st option, and no, it is not perfect, but we are ok with it, and in the grand scheme of things you really don’t notice at all.
The only disappointment in the whole process was that as soon as they were finished they had to be completely covered for the next stages of construction. We literally won’t see them again until the very end, when everything else is done. Just like with the polished concrete, they will come back and do a final polish pass right before we move in.
In some ways it feels like things are flying by so fast, and in other ways it feels like we are moving at a snail’s pace. We are roughly half way done in terms of time line and are already about 4 weeks behind. Looks like we will have to ask the buyers of our current house to push back the closing date by a month.
Next up is the build out by the carpenters…. and oh boy do we have a few things planned 🙂
WOW — those refinished terrazzo floors are spectacular. Mike and Lindsey, we are so glad that the refinishing process was so successful, as we know you will enjoy these floors for many, many years to come. The newly refinished terrazzo looks great with the polished concrete. We can hardly wait to see how the whole house comes together. Mega thanks for sharing this whole process so far with all of us retrophiles.
neal borasch says
we spent $6000 dollars to refinish our home’s terrazzo floors, we were concerned that we would see discolorations in traffic areas and we brought this up with the Refinisher and what he or what could be done. I was told that we should not have any issues for maybe 10 years but now after just 2 years and we used only non abrasive cleaners we are seeing discoloration of the entire floors. Where the floor matts were there are rectangular differences in color, whitish underneath the matt and more tea color outside it. Could you help us on what can be done without having to do the whole house again and spend another $6000.
thank you
Phil says
Looks great! And thanks for including the straight forward tips on what grits to use.
Joe Felice says
What a process! Glad you could afford it! It would have been a shame to lose the floor.
mike says
Fantastic!
I can no longer walk over terrazzo in a bank or office building without stopping to admire it. I spent some time in Los Angeles. I was walking the Miracle Mile one day and found ancient terrazzo sidewalks where the department stores used to be. They still look great after decades of exposure to the weather.
Charity says
That looks fantastic! I really love that you took the house back to its “roots.”
I did the same thing in my mid century mod house – pulled back the carpet to find gorgeous white terrazzo – white cement with light grey & white marble chips.
After having it redone several years ago, I decided to tackle the job of cleaning, polishing and resealing myself this year. I rented a buffer from Home Depot and bought marble polishing powder on Amazon. It came out gorgeous…again.
Brenda says
The floors look great! I have terrazzo flooring throughout my entire 1959 Florida ranch home (even in the shower stall!). The first ‘experts’ I had in to restore/repair the flooring were crooks. I won’t go into detail…but I was never happier to have paid via a credit card. I was able to dispute the job and not have to pay them a dime! I did have another company come in to fix the first disaster. They are not ‘perfect’…but look much better than they did. 🙂
CB says
I have terrazzo floors in part of our 1958 Sarasota house. Our refinishers did not do as good a job as yours. I wish I could fly them in. We even refinished the terrazzo in the garage.
You want to do the floors before anything else is in the house, what a mess they make.
Good job, Guys!
pnutlaf says
How refreshing to find a specialty contractor who really knows what they are doing, aren’t con artists, and do what they say they are going to do when they say they are going to do it.
That is far more rare than your beautiful floors.
Paige says
Absolutely outstanding & fabulous!! The terrazzo turned out gorgeous!
Seeing the repairs to the tack strips gives me a HUGE sense of relief as that is the majority of what is wrong with the terrazzo flooring on the house we’ve bought.
Thank you so much for sharing this process, so helpful!!
Douglas Camin @ House on Rynkus Hill says
Looking great – excited to see the finished product!