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Answers

How long does a terrazzo floor last?

Longer than the alternatives it replaces, and for a specific reason: it can be re-ground. A terrazzo floor that has dulled after twenty years is ground back and polished again, which returns it closer to new without replacing anything. That ability is the difference between a floor that lasts forty years and one that lasts fifteen.
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.

The figures, and where each one comes from

Property What it means for the life of the floor
Can be re-ground yes, cement-bound and precast; a printed glaze cannot
Replaceable in part tile yes, poured no
Grinding reserve deepest in a sand-cushion system
Wear figure not less than 1.5 on a floor product, JC/T 507-2022 cl.6.5.1
Sealing a recurring cost, and the reason the surface stays clean

Why the processes are not interchangeable

Life-cycle arguments about terrazzo usually lean on a service-life number, and published service lives for floors are exactly the kind of figure that is worth challenging: they are estimates for a material used in conditions nobody specified. The stronger argument is structural. Terrazzo is the only common floor that carries its aggregate at the surface, so wear does not consume a pattern that cannot be replaced — it removes a millimetre or two of stone, and the floor underneath is the same stone. Sand-cushion is the extreme case, where the build-up exists partly to give the grinder somewhere to go, twice over.

What these figures are, and what they are not

⛔ NO SERVICE LIFE IS QUOTED HERE, because we could not find one published against a standard rather than in vendor copy. The wear index of not less than 1.5 is JC/T 507-2022 clause 6.5.1. ⛔ We have not measured wear on a floor we supplied and we hold no service-life figure of our own. If a buyer needs a number for a specification, we will say that we do not have one rather than quote somebody else's.

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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