by Bill Thornton

Welcome to my first entry on the terrazzo restoration blog. I will be talking about all aspects of terrazzo polishing and terrazzo restoration. I do a bit of traveling so I will be sharing photos of different types of marble chip floors I see. I will focus on marble and glass chips that are held together with cement.

Let’s start our conversation about terrazzo, Terrazzo floors were very popular here in Florida from the 30’s to the early 70’s. Henry Flagler used terrazzo flooring in part of his Palm beach house Whitehall, that he built in 1902.

Terrazzo flooring was very popular in South Florida for many reasons. One reason was that carpet wasn’t popular. When Florida was being developed, there wasn’t any air conditioning. If you had a concrete floor your house would be cooler. If you mixed marble chip with Portland cement and ground it down, you would have a terrazzo floor, and that would remain even cooler. Ah cool, yes that is the second reason. In the 1950s, most of the old homes had white flat concrete tile roofs, and of course jalousie windows. This made for a cooler home. I have talked to old timers down here who said they remember that when they were kids, they sleep on the part of the terrazzo floor that didn’t get hit by sunlight during the day. This was because the part that stayed shaded was cooler. Think about it, these old homes are really great examples of using green technology. For instance, concrete flat tiles do not go through a baking process, saving enormous amounts of energy. Jalousie windows allow for electricity-free air passage throughout the house. Finally those wonderful terrazzo floors that use marble chips and Portland cement save energy in manufacturing, and act as natural, energy free coolants for the home.

I will write soon about why the floor lost it’s popularity.