Terrazo Floor polishing

[ralph]

Hi I have an Florida house built in the 1940's with Terrazo flooring but has been covered with carpet. I am looking a taking off the carpet and polishing the terrazzo. My question is, Home depot has the following piece of equipment that I can rent. Can it be used to polish the flooring and why type of pads do you recommend to use?

Thanks in advance

Floor Maintainer CLARKE(R) AMERICAN SANDERS Safety Requirements: Always wear eye and ear protection and breathing mask. See operator's manual.

Versatile polisher uses a range of pads to scrub, scour and buff hard surfaces Sands decks with grit-brush attachment Safety handle reduces operator fatigue Dual independent micro-switches reduce down time Non-marking, vinyl bumper protects walls and furniture

[Oren]

Can't answer the polish question. If this carpet has tack-strip nailed into the Terrazzo - you need to repair the nail holes before polish.

Search - terrazzo maintenance.

[Oren]

Good thing your mom used rubber boots. Bleach and water on terrazzo became our "skating rink", as kids doing chores. It was fun until I landed against the wall and knocked a big hole in the sheet rock (LOL)

[ralph]

What is a good materal to use to repair the tack strip holes ?

R

[DanG]

That is really a question that is subject to the color of the matrix. Materials that work well: ceramic tile grout Durham's Rock Hard water putty White Portland and fine sand

You might be able to randomly patch the holes with a small assortment of colors so that the result is blended in the floor as much as possible. Make sure to seal the entire floor once you get it repaired and cleaned. A well polished terrazzo floor is impressive.

[Cshenk]

"ralph" wrote

Lovely stuff when treated right.

First off, you do not want a sander. Start instead with a floor buffer with those round brushes of sort of hard hair looking stuff.

Terrazo is very hard to damage the coating of (unless you sand it off) so I think it's likely you can get the glue off then just polish with a buffing pad.

Depending on what you find in the way of 'glue' (if any, might just be dirt) you can use some pretty harsh chemicals on terrazo as long as you dont add anything that will scratch it (like Comet type cleansers).

If it's already been scratched, dont panic. They can repolish it or put a new layer of whatever the heck the stuff was on ours back in Florida. You can also just wax it up nice.

I remember once a year, Mom used to bleach ours. She'd open all the windows, put on her really ratty clothes and rubber boots, then just pour straight bleach on'em . Then we'd vacate the house and go grocery shopping or something (Mom would swap clothes in the laundry room at the foot of the garage) for a few hours, then come back and mop it all up.

[Norminn]

I know nothing about the machine. HD had a three-step cleaner/sealer/polish for terazzo that we used. Blue scrubber with the cleaner and lots of elbow grease, on hands and knees. Once cleaned and rinsed, apply sealer. Then spread on two coats of the polish. Ours, 40 y/o, looked beautiful. Polish lasts a long time, about 2 yrs. Damp mop occ. I gave away the original stuff, and have used other brands of cleaner and polish, which work very well and are specific for terazzo.

[Oren]

I really don't have an answer. 40's - 60's Terrazzo; I doubt you find a Terrazzo worker / finisher in Florida.

[Oren]

Dang! We never let mom in until we cleaned up :-))

[Cshenk]

Hehe Ya got that right! Mom never let s in there til it was all cleaned up.

[Norminn]

I don't know what the pro's use, but grout would probably work fine. There are also art materials that can be mixed to your color of choice and dry hard....acryllic paint with medium. Probably available matte or glossy. I love terazzo, and our condo is the only one in our building that isn't tiled over the terazzo. Kitchen, baths and hallway. Tough stuff.

[Norminn]

clipped

For sure! I did that the other morning on my way to the coffee pot......water leak in adjoining laundry room, puddle on floor.

Full strength bleach? What/who was she trying to kill? The cleaners I have used, specific for terazzo, stress being "neutral" pH. Don't know how important that is, but I don't see any purpose in using that. A tough of bleach to sanitize the mop is all I need.

[Cshenk]

"Norminn" wrote

Dunno, also I was pretty young then so maybe she mixed it with some water. Mostly she was trying to bleach it white. Worked is all I really recall.

[Oren]

Our instructions from Mom was a warm pale of water, a cup or so of bleach mixed, scrub the floor a bit and mop up with fresh warm rinse water.