Replies

1. 
   KenHill3 | Aug 23, 2002 06:01am | #1

   Hi, Flex-

   I was hoping someone else would respond to your question because I really don't have any direct experience with this.

   A tenant in the old office building that I work on built a hair salon in one of our storefront spaces. The space was originally a bank lobby, and the beautiful terrazzo had been covered up for years with glue-down carpet. It took some water soaking of the glue to help with scraping off most of that. The tenant then rented a terrazzo machine which was akin to a floor polisher, except that instead of brushes or abrasive pads the machine had three rotating stones. This was a very heavy, powerful piece of serious equipment, and I know that the tenant had to hire someone with experience to do it. As I recall it took quite a while to get the job done. I think that they used some grinding or polishing compounds. That's about all I know about doing this. Sorry I can't be of more help.

   I do know that terrazzo is very expensive to do on smaller jobs. That's why the places you usually see it involve acres of the stuff, like highrises and airport concourses.

   Ken Hill

2. 
   KARLSTER | Aug 23, 2002 07:39am | #2

   You might scroll through this forum

   http://stoneindustry.com/test/bboard0/

   and see if anything comes up.  Everything I have read about restoring a terazzo floor makes it sound like a job that requires a lot of time as an apprentice working under a seasoned professional. 

   I polish stone countertops all the time but typically only do the edges.   Once you start doing the surface you can really create a lot of new problems that are tough to correct.

   The equipment and abrasives used to grind and polish a lot of square feet of polish aren't worth investing in unless you plan to do a lot of this but then you would be wise to get the training first and the equipment second.

   Karl