Should I order a physical sample before specifying terrazzo?

Always. A photograph cannot show you the depth of a ground surface, the way a chip catches light, or whether the colour you chose reads warm or cold against your own wall — and those three are the whole of the decision. Specify against a physical sample, in daylight, and keep it.

Reference photograph of a terrazzo surface, s04. Not a photograph of our goods. — Four mixes side by side, from pale to rust

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

Look at	On a sample, not on a screen
Depth	whether the surface is graded or flat
Chip	how a chip catches light at an angle
Colour	against your own wall, in north light
Sealing	how the surface looks before and after a sealer
Grinding reserve	⛔ cannot be seen on a sample, ask for it

Why the processes are not interchangeable

The reason a sample is not optional is that terrazzo is a ground surface, and grinding changes how light behaves on it. A photograph is a photograph of a finished floor under studio light; a chip in a ground terrazzo floor reads differently from a chip in a polished photograph because the stone has an edge at a shallow angle and the light catches it. Colour has the same problem: a cement floor is warm or cool according to the binder, and the only way to know which is to hold it against the wall it will live with. The one thing a sample cannot show is how much material is left to be re-ground, and that has to be asked for.

What these figures are, and what they are not

⛔ Nothing on this page is a measurement and no figure is offered. ⛔ We supply samples and we say plainly when a sample and a delivered floor will differ: a batch is a batch, and a second order is not automatically the same batch, which is why the next page exists.

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