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Answers

How heavy is a terrazzo floor?

It depends entirely on which system, and the range is enormous: a sand-cushion cement floor runs 25 to 30 pounds per square foot, an epoxy floor 3 to 4. That is the difference between a floor that has to sit on grade and one that goes anywhere in the building.
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

System Weight, lbs per sq ft Rough equivalent, kg per m2
Sand cushion cement 25 to 30 122 to 146
Bonded cement 18 to 22 88 to 107
Monolithic cement 5 to 7 24 to 34
Polyacrylate 4-1/2 22
Epoxy 3 to 4 15 to 20

Why the processes are not interchangeable

The weight is not a property of the material, it is a property of the assembly. Sand-cushion and bonded terrazzo carry a reinforced underbed, an isolation sheet and a sand layer under the topping, and most of those pounds are sand. Epoxy carries none of that: a three-eighths inch resin topping on a prepared slab is the whole construction. That is why an epoxy floor goes into a building where a cement one would not, and why a suspended floor in a hotel or an apartment block is usually epoxy or tile rather than a poured system.

What these figures are, and what they are not

The pounds-per-square-foot figures are from the NTMA Terrazzo Systems Reference Guide. ⛔ THE KILOGRAM COLUMN IS OUR OWN CONVERSION at 4.88 kg per square metre per pound, rounded to the nearest whole number, and the guide prints only in imperial units. ⛔ We have not published a dead-load figure for any floor we have supplied and we do not quote one here.

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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