terrazo flooring

Alex, I have dealt with terrazo fooring subcontractors in the past. Right now a very loose figure is $40.00 a square foot. Most terrazo contractors will have a varity of products to use for different situations i.e. indoors verses outdoors. About 10 to 15% of the cost is material as this is a very labor intensive installation.
Scott.

terrazo in an Eichler courtyard? Please, you live in a tract home, not a Neutra. Your money would be better spent installing new concrete patios with expossed aggragate.

Alex,
If you can swing the Terrazo for the courtyard - Great !! I say Go For It.
Would think about a Nuetral palette in color and am sure it would look awesome. Just because it is an "Atrium" does not mean you can't make it Fun and creative. We used a Green Brazilian Slate in 16" squares for ours and it looks fabulous.
Use whatever materials you want

To all; terrazo is not a tile but it does look somewhat like exposed concrete without the rough surface. Once the concrete mix with the colored rock is hard it gets ground down and polished so the surface is smooth.
Scott.

I love terrazzo--especially when it is used for the inside as well as the outside thus bringing the outdoors inside visually.
Are you planning to continue the terrazzo throughout your house?

We live in a courtyard in the Willow Glen area. In our courtyard area we have exposed aggregate with a multi colored slate walkway up to our front door. We then carried the same flooring through the house and plan to someday put the same slate in the backyard.

Just another idea!

Dana

You can actually buy terrazzo tiles. They are much cheaper than having them pour the concrete and lay out the stones.

I had terrazo in my entry and kitchen when we bought the house. It was an absolute nightmare to maintain. We had to have a professional buffer device to keep the polish. After a short time we covered the terrazo with linoleum. Even with the semi-annual waxing it is MUCH easier to maintain than the terrazo.

I say avoid.

Dan

Putting true terrazo outside would worry me from a safety perspective, since it is so smooth and very slippery when wet. I love it - really beautiful and really expensive. I would do it inside, but not outside.

Another idea would be stamped concrete, where it is poured and then stamped to look like any size tile you want it to. 'They can also add texture to the surface. Almaden Valley Athletic club did this outside next to their indoor swimming pool where they teach the kids' classes. Even when wet, it has good traction, and it looks nice. You can use any color you want - standard grey or tan, or whatever.

I have seen other Eichler owners who have used slate tile on their patios and then continued it inside. Also beautiful and while it can be slippery, it is no where as slippery as traditional glazed tile. With slate, you just need to do your research, since some varities chip easily and the thickness can vary widely, so most recommend that it be honed even after installation - for safety reasons.

For other suggestions, you may want to check out the tile setting forum over at http://www.johnbridge.com - the professionals over there have lots of experience in laying tile and stone and may have other ideas.

Good luck.

Cathye

We're thinking about a terrazzo look alike called Fritztile. It's intended for commercial use, but I don't know if it's suitable for outdoor use. The price is a fraction of the real thing and it's installed just like vinyl tile.

http://www.fritztile.com

Covering terrazzo ($40 sq. foot) with vinyl ($2 sq foot) doesn't seem to make sense from a resale perspective or an aesthetic one. There are numerous commercial products that would cut down maintenance significantly.

As far as new terrazzo, Bisazza has great tile for about $20 a foot, uninstalled.

I also question using it outside though as it would be slippery.

Terrazzo is used all over san francisco, especially in entrance ways to buildings. In fact, the entrance way to my former residence of 12 years had terrazzo steps, the entry way stoop was also terrazzo. I never slipped, and the only time it got cleaned is when it rained. Maybe today's quality is not as good.

Does anyone know the estimated costs of installing the fritz tile? Maintenance? We looked into it a few years back but thought that a terrazzo look in a rustic tract house like ours would be a little over the top. However, as our 2 year old concrete poured floor has decided to come up right and left, anything at this point would look better than the concrete, including the office carpeting that was installed in the kitchen when we first bought the place.

TIA

Has anyone thought of polishing conrete in their atrium? Terrazo is quite nice and it is all over the city (on steps, and landings) that are rain exposed so I am not concerned about it being slick although personal experience tells me that certain shoes will slide easily and it is a bit expensive (I've seen prices between 50-80 per square foot).

I have been thinking of what to do everytime our atrium needs sweeping since the concrete is so rough that sweeping with a broom isnt very effective and practically anything will look better than the standard rough finish concrete.

I like the idea of polished concrete since there is no change other than to cleen up and smoothen what is already there (standard concrete color). I do not have estimates for polishing and cannot imagine it being more than a quarter the cost of terrazo (comments welcome).

I've seen enough atriums with cracked and/or loose tile. However, I am not criticizing tile in atriums. I prefer a more "monolythic" look since I have square tile everywhere inside and this approach provides a good contrast and transition between outside atrium and inside loggia.

For those interested in seeing examples, I included a link:

http://www.concretenetwork.com/concrete/polishing/slideshow/index.html

Any thoughts?

You can rent a machine to polish your floor for under a hundred dollars a day. It would take you about 4 hours to do the atrium. The machine is pretty easy to use as well.

Hi all,

There's a pretty good (and sometimes heated) conversation about terrazzo and FritzTile at the LottaLiving discussion forum. http://www.lottaliving.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=3821

Trudie