Terrazzo: Green In Any Color

Terrazzo doesn’t have quite the history of natural stone as a building material. But, with marble playing an important role in many terrazzo mixes, it shares many similarities – right down to a high initial cost, the need for skilled installers, some care in cleaning, and the recommended use of a sealer to keep its shine.

The early version of terrazzo – placing marble chips in a clay (later cement) substrate for added durability – dates back several centuries and was brought to this country by Italian craftsmen who also worked in the stone trade.

Although it’s mainly associated with flooring, terrazzo can have other uses. Today, though, its best market is large commercial and institution jobs where value is an issue. And, thanks to its green attributes, those who install terrazzo think the demand will only continue to grow.

LOOKING GOOD

In the days before marble tiles were readily available, terrazzo provided a marble look for high-end projects, such as bank and hotel lobbies. It’s a look that’s still popular today, although – as with other products — the market has changed over time.

“The market is pretty good right now,” says Matt Smith, secretary/treasurer of family-owned Carolina Marble and Tile Co., in Winston-Salem, N.C. “We seem to be doing work in all the area school systems.”

“The current market is actually strong,” agrees Bill Zonca, vice president of the terrazzo division of Bronx, N.Y.-based Port Morris Tile and Marble Corp. “It was very strong in the 1960s and ‘70s and then went down a little bit, but right now it’s on a pretty good comeback.”

Terry Isaminger, president of Birmingham, Ala.-based DMI Tile and Marble, is even more-enthusiastic. He says the demand for interior terrazzo is at an all-time high in his market, which spreads over much of the southeastern United States.

“For the first time in a long time, terrazzo makes up close to 20 percent of our backlog,” he adds. “The interest is very, very strong.”

Smith isn’t the only one to mention schools as a top market for terrazzo. The largest percentage of interior terrazzo work – by a huge margin – is done in the commercial and institutional markets.

“One-hundred percent of my current terrazzo work is commercial,” says Isaminger. “We’re currently doing a renovation and expansion of the Huntsville (Ala.) Airport, we’re doing a couple hospitals, we’re doing the Tennessee School of Nursing, and we’ve got several projects at the University of Alabama-Birmingham.

“That’s pretty typical of the types of projects we do terrazzo for,” he adds.

“Where we’re seeing the uptick is with institutional projects,” agrees Art Malisani of Great Falls, Mont.-based Malisani Inc. “We’ve done some technology buildings, a few hospitals and a few courthouses, including the new federal courthouse here.”

As with Isaminger, Malisani says his market for residential terrazzo is almost non-existent, although that’s not the case everywhere. Vicente Campillo, president of Miami-based Dr. Marble Inc., says his residential work is down some when it comes to new installations, although his company is doing a lot of residential terrazzo-restoration work in a market where terrazzo isn’t viewed exclusively as a commercial product.

When he’s doing new residential construction, it isn’t always flooring.

“We do columns, although they’re hard to do and very pricy,” Campillo says. “There’s a lot of handwork involved and people don’t want to pay for it. However, we’re finding a lot of people like to do countertops in terrazzo.”

As an example, he mentions a home his company is currently doing in Miami Beach where the ground floor is being done in natural stone, but the second floor is a combination of cementitious terrazzo floors and epoxy terrazzo vanities all in mother-of-pearl.

Port Morris’ Zonca says his company also does terrazzo work in the residential market, although describing it as high-end may not do it justice.

“We just finished doing the apartment of a well-known fashion designer,” he says. “The terrazzo in the kitchen floor is done with white glass and cost in the neighborhood of $60,000. She just requested the same color samples for her corporate offices, so I guess it worked out for her.”

DOIN’ IT (ONSITE)

With a price tag like that, it’s no wonder the residential market for interior terrazzo may be a little weak. However, there are several reasons for those high numbers.

Some of the issues are inherent in the nature of the terrazzo process itself.

The construction of a cementitious terrazzo floor requires three layers of materials. First, a solid concrete foundation up to 4” thick is installed. After the forms are removed, workers add a 1” layer of sandy concrete.

Before that layer fully sets, metal divider strips are embedded wherever a joint or color change is called for. The final layer is then placed by hand as each of the panels is filled with a fine aggregate mixture – often marble chips. Sometimes the mixture is color-pigmented.

Once the appropriate amount of aggregate chips has been placed in each panel, a lightweight roller is applied to the entire surface. After the floor dries, it is then ground using a special terrazzo grinder, cleaned, polished and – like natural stone – sealed.

“Terrazzo is a manufactured product, and it’s the only one that’s done onsite,” says Zonca. “When you have a small amount of footage, all the steps need to be taken, but you’re not necessarily getting the production.

Dr. Marble’s Campillo says there’s another reason it can be costly to work in smaller spaces: handling the waste the process generates.

“If you’re working in a small unit, you may not have access to different containers to dump things like your slurry from grinding, and the dust,” he says. “It can be very hard to work, so it gets very pricy.”

Regardless of the size of the project, the thickness of the cementitious product can make it difficult to do retrofits and remodels with it.

“With remodels they just don’t have the depression that allows us to put traditional cement terrazzo in,” says Zonca. “Fortunately, the epoxy terrazzo is only 3/8” thick, so we’re able to do a remodel by putting epoxy terrazzo in, sometimes over an old terrazzo floor, without any demolition.”

Also known as thin-set terrazzo, the chip mixture is placed in an epoxy resin rather than cement, creating an end result that’s not only thinner, but lighter in weight, faster to install, less-permeable, and less-susceptible to cracking.

Today, much of the terrazzo installed is epoxy terrazzo, although it varies by market. Zonca says Port Morris does quite a bit of both, but both Malisani and DMI’s Isaminger say their epoxy work is at least double the amount of cementitious terrazzo they’re installing.

And, Carolina Marble’s Smith says it can vary by year.

“Cementitious has been our main thing for the past two years,” he says. “Four years ago, everything we were doing was epoxy. It’s been up and down with both of them. It really depends on what the owner or architect is wanting. And, color has a lot to do with it.”

GREEN SHEEN

Color is a big thing with terrazzo, but it’s certainly not the only feature that keeps the product selling. A great deal of it has to do with the material’s durability.

“Both designers and clients are driving the demand,” says Zonca. “Designers know the design possibilities are pretty much unlimited, and the owners know it’s durable. They love that it’s basically seamless and has no grout joints.”

DMI’s Isaminger agrees.

“The architects and designers are specifying it, but a lot of owners are requesting it because they’re looking for added value for their projects,” he says. “The maintenance on it is so low.”

As with natural-stone tiles, maintenance generally centers on daily dust-mopping, the use of pH-neutral cleaners, and – for cementitious terrazzo – an annual sealing using an acrylic-based sealer.

“You’re going to have a floor that will last over any other type of flooring,” says Dr. Marble’s Campillo. “We have buildings here in Miami Beach that have had terrazzo for 60-70 years and we’ve restored it to its original look.”

And, then there is the color, a quality closely tied with terrazzo’s growing reputation as a green product that can earn LEED® (the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design®) points for its users in areas such as building re-use, recycled materials, innovative design and regional materials.

Terrazzo also emits no volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

“I was in a meeting just yesterday with an architect who’s very interested in using recycled glass,” says Campillo. “Today, everybody wants to use all kinds of materials that give you points in the LEED program. We’re getting more and more requests for information on how many points would be available if they use this or that. The larger the percentage of recycled materials, the more points you get.”

That’s where natural stone plays a strong role in the terrazzo process. Campillo estimates that as much as 80 percent of his cementitious terrazzo is done with marble aggregate. Other items in cementitious terrazzo can include plastic, mother-of-pearl and glass, although he says adding glass to cement requires just the right mix for good bonding and strength.

“It’s my understanding that all the aggregates are recycled,” he says. “A lot of it is material that’s left over when they cut blocks into slabs, and it’s just discarded. And, some of it is left from cutting countertops and tiles.”

Crushed marble aggregate also plays a role in some epoxy terrazzo jobs, although not as much. The big thing there is the use of industrial waste glass, which provides a wide range of colors for just about any design a client might want while creating an impermeable surface without sealing.

That glass is available in a wide array of colors, and Campillo says it’s there that design work can really take off.

“Commercial places may try to minimize design work because they know it’s more expensive, but clients like universities are almost always trying for some design,” he says. “And, with epoxy terrazzo you can get the very dark colors that you can’t get with a cement terrazzo.”

How ever simple or complex the design, it’s a sure bet that the person doing the installation is highly skilled. Some companies are giving up on terrazzo because of the difficulty in finding craftsmen to do the work, while others – such as DMI – train their people in-house.

“Terrazzo takes very skilled labor,” says Isaminger. “Installers should also be licensed by the NTMA (National Terrazzo and Mosaic Association). We have a full-time training program certified by the U.S. Department of Labor, so we’re constantly teaching it.”

Despite the need for installers, those selling terrazzo believe demand should continue to grow, whether they’re in markets where it’s already strong, or they’re waiting for the economy to pick up.

“Once the economy gets going, there should be growth,” says Malisani. “Right now, everybody’s just waiting to see where everything’s going.”

“It’s definitely going to continue to grow,” says Smith. “I’ve seen more people using it recently, and in some odd areas, too, like churches. People are finally starting to realize the cost-efficiencies over the long run with terrazzo.”

©2010 Western Business Media Inc.