What is the water absorption of terrazzo?

For cement-bound terrazzo it is commonly between 0.3% and 0.6%. For resin-bound terrazzo it is effectively nil, because the binder is the resin rather than a cement matrix. That difference decides whether a material can go in a wet room, which is why the binder is named in every figure this site publishes.

Reference photograph of a terrazzo surface, s56. Not a photograph of our goods. — Cement matrix: porous, and the sealer is what slows water. The colour tells you which binder you are looking at.

Reference photograph of a terrazzo surface, s42. Not a photograph of our goods. — Resin matrix: the binder has no cement in it. The figure changes by an order of magnitude because of that.

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	Published absorption	Consequence
Cement-bound	commonly 0.3-0.6%	needs sealing in wet areas
Poured	commonly 0.3-0.6%	needs sealing in wet areas
Epoxy	near nil	sealed by the binder
Precast (cement)	commonly 0.3-0.6%	needs sealing in wet areas
Porcelain	near zero	no sealing needed at all

Why the processes are not interchangeable

Absorption is the number behind the sealing decision. A cement matrix is porous because it is cement, so it takes water until it is sealed; a resin binder does not have that structure. The two are frequently quoted with one figure between them, which is how a resin floor ends up specified as though it needs a sealer.

What these figures are, and what they are not

⛔ THE RIGHT-HAND SIDE IS EMPTY BECAUSE WE HAVE NOT TESTED IT.
These ranges are published. We hold no absorption figure for a panel we made, and we will not put a number in that column until a test report says so. Published and measured are different claims and this site keeps them apart.

Measured data sheets and test reports

If you are specifying this

We have not published products against this question yet. Send us the process, thickness and quantity and we will quote it against what we can actually form, rather than against a catalogue.

Send a specification Ask for a sample