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Answers

How thick is terrazzo flooring?

There is no single answer, because terrazzo covers a 2 mm coating and a 30 mm pressed panel. Cement-bound and poured floors are usually 10-15 mm, precast panels 20-30 mm, epoxy 3-6 mm and liquid terrazzo under 3 mm. Which one you need is decided by the span and the substrate, not by preference.
Six terrazzo processes, drawn to one scaleEach column shows the layers of one terrazzo process. Precast and cement-bound are thick; epoxy is thin; porcelain is a fired body. Dimensions are published ranges, not our measured figures.substratePrecast20 mmsubstrateCement-based12 mmsubstrateEpoxy5 mmsubstratePoured10 mmsubstrateLiquid3 mmsubstratePorcelain9 mmSections drawn to one scale from published ranges. Our measured figures are listed separately.
The six processes drawn to one scale. Layer thicknesses are published ranges.
Reference photograph of a terrazzo surface, s39. Not a photograph of our goods.
Thickness read against a chip size. A 10 mm floor shows its aggregate differently from a 30 mm panel.
Reference photograph of a terrazzo surface, s55. Not a photograph of our goods.
The same recipe at two thicknesses gives two surfaces: one you grind, one you lay.

Reference photographs. They show the material and the finish; they are not photographs of goods we made, and the colour on screen is not a colour-match.

The figures, and where each one comes from

Process Typical thickness What decides it
Precast panel 20-30 mm span between supports; fire rating
Cement-bound 10-15 mm over substrate substrate condition, not span
Poured 8-12 mm room size; needs movement joints
Epoxy 3-6 mm coating over a sound substrate
Porcelain tile 8-10 mm none — it is a tile

Why the processes are not interchangeable

The number people quote for "terrazzo thickness" is usually the cement-bound figure, because that is the most common process by volume. Quoting it for a project that is actually precast over a wide span understates the requirement by a factor of two. The process has to be named before the thickness means anything.

What these figures are, and what they are not

These are published ranges. We have not measured any of them ourselves and we do not publish our own thickness figure until we have cut and measured a panel of each process we supply. The drawing above is to one scale so the difference between a 4 mm floor and a 30 mm panel is visible rather than asserted.

Measured data sheets and test reports

If you are specifying this

These are the forms we actually supply for this question, with production photographs where we have them:

Send a specification Ask for a sample