Terrazzo Restoration

To name a post terrazzo restoration on this site is a little tricky. The whole site is about terrazzo restoration and the different aspects, advantages and problems associated with it. When I started doing terrazzo restoration I stripped, cleaned and coated the terrazzo. The problem was the floors were originally ground and honed to around one hundred grit. This left the terrazzo open to dirt and stains. When dirt got into the floors it was very difficult, if not impossible, to simply clean off. The terrazzo needed more.

We started grinding floors with a buffer and finishing the floor with a diamond impregnated pad. This was better, but when we saw floors that were completed with diamonds we realized we were being out done by our competition. We eventually went to three thousand grit, using mostly wet diamonds. This left the floors looking good, but every time we got a chance to improve we did. After a time a friend of mine, Tony Mitchell, worked with me to do floors. Tony told me he had used an HTC 500 many times and I should look into switching over to that machine. The HTC 500 is a four hundred pound planetary grinder. I bought a grinder from HTC and the rest is history. I now own four HTC 500s.

The HTC 500 allows us to get deeper into the floor. Over the years we have changed and evolved our process over and over. We now use a completely dry process. The diamond tooling us use gives us the shiniest floors we have ever seen.

We also densify, using a product and hardens and protects the Portland cement. Our penetrating protectant leaves floors protected against oil based, water bats and as so acid etching stains. Quite simply doing everything a coating does, without a coating that comes up in a few weeks. Terrazzo restoration can mean a lot of things and encompass many techniques. My goal has always been to provide customers with the world’s best available process. Early on we had to learn as we went. There is no book on this subject. I feel this site is the closest thing you will find to a book. If you have any question please shoot me and email to joe@safedry.com, or give us a call. Thanks for your support. Please feel free to like us on Facebook. Joe Martin – SafeDry President