Is terrazzo a good kitchen floor?

It survives kitchens better than most floors, with one condition: the aggregate has to be chosen for impact rather than for looks. A dropped pan on terrazzo is dispersed through the matrix, but a large glass chip is brittle and will micro-fracture under a sharp point load. Fine marble and quartz aggregate is the right choice in a working kitchen.

Reference photograph of a terrazzo surface, s86. Not a photograph of our goods. — Bar top in the same offcut mix

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

In a kitchen	What to specify
Under a sink and a hob	fine marble or quartz aggregate, not large glass
Spills and oils	sealed, and the sealer kept up to date
Dropped objects	fine aggregate disperses; large glass chips micro-fracture
Cleaning	neutral pH only; acid dulls the matrix and etches the marble chip

Why the processes are not interchangeable

The impact behaviour is the interesting part, and it is the one place where chip size is a performance decision rather than an appearance decision. Terrazzo is a composite: a dropped load is carried by the whole matrix rather than by one point, which is why a cast-iron pot leaves no dent where it would mark timber. But the matrix only spreads the load if the aggregate in it is not the brittle component. Large glass chips are the exception, and they are chosen for how they look in the light. In a kitchen where things get dropped, they are the wrong trade.

What these figures are, and what they are not

The advice on aggregate choice is general: ⛔ no test report supports a number on this page and none is offered. The cleaning boundary — no acid — applies to a cement matrix because acid attacks it and dulls a resin one; it is a material behaviour, not a measurement. ⛔ We have not tested a floor we supplied.

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:

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