Retro Renovation» terrazzo

Terrazzo shower pan from Stern Williams

pam kueber — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 08:00:05 +0000

Reader Christina writes with a second supplier for terrazzo shower bases — Stern Williams. These are terrific for mid-century homes, I see them all the time in time capsules. One tip: Think carefully about the size of shower pan you get. The Stern Williams rectangle is 32″ wide, the Crane/Fiats are 36″ wide. 32″ is going to be good if you are tight for space, but that’s not much elbow room for a 5’8″ amazon like me. 36″ would be better, I believe, *if* you have the room for it.

FYI, two of my bathroom have Swanstone shower pans that are 34″ wide — as much as we could squeeze in. Honestly, I am not sure which way I would have gone if I had known of the terrazzo options. In other bathroom, I simply don’t believe there was room for 36″. The other – it would have been tight and meant a narrower enclosure for the toilet. This particular decision would have caused me anguish: More room in the main part of the usually already small postwar bathroom, or more room in the shower? Such is the retro renovator’s life, alas.

Snaps to Christina, who writes:

I have an original 1962 terrazzo shower base downstairs and I love it! I’m turning my upstairs master bath tub into a shower-only and I’ll be getting a new terrazzo base for that shower. After much research, I’m getting one made by Stern Williams, ordered via Ferguson. It’s super-heavy, but even with shipping the cost is comparable to Swanstone. So, the only downside is reinforcing the floor enough to handle its weight. I’ll get photos of each to you at some point. Great site – thanks for doing this!

Here’s the link to the Stern Williams site.

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How to clean terrazzo floors

pam kueber — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 07:59:31 +0000

Kitty Mommy Susan, and others, have asked how to clean terrazzo shower bases and walls. Here is a start: Some pages from a great book, Twentieth-Century Building Materials, done by the National Park Service, edited by Thomas C. Jester. It’s out of print and wicked expensive, so I just got a copy from my library a few weeks ago. I try not to show pages from books – but will make an exception for this conservation reason.

If I get a chance soon — or perhaps a reader can pursue this? — I think another route to get a good answer is to go to Crane. The two big makers of terrazzo bases seem to have been Crane and Fiat. And now, Crane owns Fiat. They still sell these today — and they are a BIG RECOMMENDATION of mine! — so they must have cleaning instructions. If anyone gets to them before I do… can you post the answer here? Many thanks, and good cleaning!

Double click for big, readable image:

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Femme1 discovers a bundle of new retro tiles for our decorating arsenal

Pam Kueber — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 08:00:15 +0000

Femme1 — aka Deb — is right on target with this complete post, that flooring seems to be one of our hottest topics right now. She’s found some great new solutions – and I didn’t have to change a word. I did, however, add some additional pics of more Fritztiles – including a Royal Pink that’s yum yum yummy! Thanks, Deb!

Hi Pam,

Because I’m STILL unable to decide which flooring to put in my kitchen (going on 2½ years now), I’ve been searching again all over the Web for possibilities. I saw a few that could work for a 50s/60s house and thought I’d pass them along because this is always such a hot topic on your blog.

Amtico is a UK company, but they do sell (and manufacture) here in the states. They have one resilient tile pattern (Linear) in several colors that I think might work. It has a little bit of a grasscloth look; it definitely is more modern in design than the striations of the Azrock Cortina, and therefore, perhaps not as “authentic.” See what you think. The U.S. toll-free number for Amtico is 800-370-7324, where you can get a list of U.S. dealers. Some Amtico flooring is available on the discount http://www.fastfloors.com/ site, but not the Linear pattern.

[note: Pam has updated Amtico link, below.]

And now, for my favorite! I recently added a comment about this resilient terrazzo floor tiles under one of the posts from a while back when we were discussing terrazzo. Fritztile (http://www.fritztile.com/ ) makes a commercial tile (also for residential use) that is 1/8” thick and not quite 12” square and can be applied just like VCT tiles (using other adhesives), and can be a DIY project. Their Classic CL 200 series, to me, matches the 50s look of terrazzo more than their other lines, especially those that have a white background matrix (the clear matrix seems too comtemporary to me). So it’s much more practical (and a lot less expensive) than having a real terrazzo floor poured and polished. And it has a 20-year guarantee. Here are the examples I think would go in a 50s house best:

http://www.fritztile.com/cl200/index.htm#

http://www.fritztile.com/cl200/index.htm#

http://www.fritztile.com/cl200/index.htm#

http://www.fritztile.com/cl200/index.htm#

There are more colors available in the other lines, but they have a more modern look to them and include larger pieces of granite in the matrix.

Although this stuff is not cheap, the best thing is that it’s available from http://www.fastfloors.com at a discount (@ $6.00 sq ft, about half the retail prices, although yesterday it was listed in the same place for $5.75!).

I think I’m going to go with the soft gray for my kitchen, that is, unless I change my mind again!

Deb (Femme1)

Update from Pam. Here is the link to the Amtico page in North America; as of Aug. 2009, there seem to be 11 colors of Stardust – go to the Innovations collection: http://regions.amtico.com/en-GB/Home/NorthAmerica/Home?psvsl=1&psvnv=11&fcpm=psv

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