What are the six types of terrazzo?

Terrazzo is a method, not a stone. Six processes share the name: precast panels pressed and cured, epoxy floors laid thin, cement-bound floors laid on site, poured terrazzo ground back to the slab, liquid terrazzo trowelled as a coating, and porcelain with a printed surface. Only the first five are terrazzo in the material sense: porcelain prints the look without being it.

The six processes drawn to one scale. Layer thicknesses are published ranges.

Reference photograph of a terrazzo surface, s05. Not a photograph of our goods. — Four mixes side by side. The binder and the chip ratio both change what a terrazzo is.

Reference photograph of a terrazzo surface, s04. Not a photograph of our goods. — Palladiana through to dense cement. Four recipes, one name.

Reference photograph of a terrazzo surface, s21. Not a photograph of our goods. — The same process in a warm palette. A colour in terrazzo is a recipe, not a swatch.

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	What binds it	Typical thickness	Repaired in place?
Precast	Cement or resin pressed in a factory	20-30 mm body	tile by tile
Cement-bound	Portland cement laid on site	10-15 mm over substrate	yes
Epoxy	Resin, laid thin	3-6 mm	no, not the way cement is
Poured	Cement placed wet over the substrate	8-12 mm	yes
Liquid	Water-based resin coating	1-3 mm	no, it is a coating
Porcelain	Fired clay body, printed surface	8-10 mm	no, it is a tile

Why the processes are not interchangeable

The five real processes differ in what happens when the floor fails. Cement-bound and poured are ground together with the slab, so a damaged area can be patched and re-ground in place. Resin-bound is thin and chemically hard but it is a coating, so lifting it takes the substrate with it. Porcelain is not terrazzo at all — it is a tile that prints the look of terrazzo, and calling it terrazzo is how a specification acquires a figure it cannot support.

What these figures are, and what they are not

The thickness figures on this page are published ranges, drawn from how the processes are described in the technical literature. They are not measurements of anything we have made. Every figure we have measured ourselves is published on /download/ and labelled as ours; we hold none yet.

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