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How to Restore Terrazzo Floors | Ask This Old House

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This Old House host Kevin O’Connor heads to Del Ray Beach, Florida, to restore terrazzo floors. (See below for a shopping list, tools, and steps.)
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Shopping List for Restoring Terrazzo Floors:
– Assorted diamond disks, ranging from 30- to 3,500-grit, for use with floor-grinding machine
– Polyester stone adhesive and appropriate-color marble chips, for patching holes
– 40-grit and 120-grit sandpaper
– Acid-based compound polish

Tools List for Restoring Terrazzo Floors:
– Plastic sheeting and masking tape
– Electric floor-grinding machine with steel weights
– Garden hose with nozzle
– Angle grinder with diamond pad
– Electric chipping hammer
– Sponge
– Planetary polishing machine
– Wet polisher

Steps for Restoring Terrazzo Floors:
1. Mask the lower 24 inches of the room’s walls with plastic sheeting.
2. Install 30-grit diamond disks onto an electric floor-grinding machine.
3. Add steel weights to the machine to increase the downward pressure on the floor.
4. Wet the floor with a garden hose, then start grinding.
5. Pass over the floor four times in an east-west direction, and then four times in a north-south direction.
6. Release more water from the reservoir on the machine, as necessary.
7. Use an angle grinder to smooth the floor around the edges of the room and any other places the grinding machine couldn’t reach.
8. Install slightly finer 40-grit disks to the grinding machine.
9. Remove a little weight from the machine, then grind the floor again.
10. Patch any holes in the floor by first enlarging the holes with an electric chipping hammer.
11. Next, mix polyester stone adhesive with the marble chips.
12. Fill each hole in the floor with the adhesive.
13. Allow the adhesive to harden, then grind each patch smooth using an angle grinder fitted with 40-grit sandpaper.
14. Smooth the patches again with 120-grit sandpaper.
15. Wet the floor with a sponge, then polish the patches with an angle grinder and diamond pad.
16. Continue grinding the floor moving through eight more progressively finer grits of diamond disks.
17. Remove a little weight each time you switch abrasives, and grind the final pass with 3,500-grit disks.
18. Polish the floor with a planetary polishing machine.
19. Sprinkle an acid-based compound polish onto the floor, then polish the floor with a wet polisher. Pass back and forth over the floor, making 20 passes over each row.

About Ask This Old House TV:
Homeowners have a virtual truckload of questions for us on smaller projects, and we’re ready to answer. Ask This Old House solves the steady stream of home improvement problems faced by our viewers—and we make house calls! Ask This Old House features some familiar faces from This Old House, including Kevin O’Connor, general contractor Tom Silva, plumbing and heating expert Richard Trethewey, and landscape contractor Roger Cook.

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How to Restore Terrazzo Floors | Ask This Old House
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Ask This Old HouseConstructiondesigndiyDIY IdeasFloorhome improvementHome Repair InstallationHow To BuildHow To FixHow To InstallInterior DesignKevin O'Connorkevin o'connor ask this old housekevin o'connor housekevin o'connor interviewkevin o'connor this old houseMosaic (Visual Art Form)Norm AbramrenovationRenovation IdeasRepairRichard TretheweyTerrazzoThis Old HouseTom Silva

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Comment (0)

  2. Where I live in Fla all the apts had terrazzo installed in the original construction in the 1950's. But it got worn or dirty, or the owners wanted carpet or tile, so it's practically all covered up. IMO it does have a dated look, and mirror shiney tile does look great and bounces the sunlight all over the place. So it really is a personal choice. Terrazzo also seems very expensive to maintain (how much did this contractor charge the owner), and how many times can you perform a grind-down?? Terrazzo isn't that thick.

  4. I installed terazzo when I built my home in 1990. No one was using or even restoring it then. It is nice to se eit as a high end floor today. Just got through restoring mom's old 1959 floors and since the house was old the baseboards all had to come out, as well as the backing boards, many had termite damage and rot. Even using large amounts of water caused no damage to the walls because the rock lath is inches above the floor. New treated wood homemade flush baseboards eliminated the ugly ranch style that interfered with bookcases and will hold up far longer.

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