Terrazzo Making

Terrazzo

Perhaps the most bespoke way of laying a floor that has unlimited colour, grain and pattern possibilities.

Made from waste stone pieces crushed into chips of various sizes, bound with cement or polymers, coloured with pigments, various coloured patterns can be made using brass, aluminum, glass, wood or pvc strips.
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The stones. Grey, white, black, ochre, green are easily available. You can also use semi-precious stone waste chips.

The sizes. From size zero – 3 to 5 mm up to 15 to 25mm. Stone pieces can also be part of pattern.

The Cements. White or grey.

The pigments. 50 shades available in Tata pigments alone.

With at least fifty kinds of stones, ten sizes, ten pigment shades, two cement shades – mathematically it is possible to make fifty Thousand shades of Terrazzo flooring.

Recipe. In this technique unpolished stone chips are used, preferably zero sized ones i.e. less than 3 mm.

Step 1. Mix marble powder (dolomite) with white or grey cement in the ratio of 1:3 (one part marble powder three parts cement).

Step 2. Mix dry pigment to the cement in proportion not exceeding 1: 6 (pigment: cement) and mix the cement several times sieving it so that no lumps remain.

Step 3. Add stone chips of desired size in the ratio of 1:1.5 (one cement, one and half chips) for floor and 1:2 for dado (one part cement, two parts chips). Mix everything several times again to ensure an even mix devoid of lumps of cement, pigment, or chips.

Step 4. Add water to form a consistent mixture and pour over the required surface. The mixture should feel like cement mortar. Less water should be added for dado so that the slurry does not slide down. The final surface should be trowel finished and smooth.

The surface should then be cured for four to five days and then machine polished.

To achieve a smooth mirror like look, it should be wax polished at the end. For a project it is advisable to make the dry mix in one go, so that no variation of colour can occur due to human error.

How to calculate your requirement:
For Terrazzo finish: 1-kilo chips for 1 square foot area. We recommend 10% extra for wastage and to be on the safer side.