Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index

Terrazzo

Terrazzo is a faux-marble flooring system.

Origionally created by Venetian construction workers as a kind of 15th century value added product, the workers used the marble chips from upscale jobs to create Terrazzo. The workers would usually setting them in clay to surface the patios around their living quarters. Consisting originally of marble chips, clay, goat milk (as the sealer), production of Terrazzo became much easier after the 1920s and the introduction of electric industrial grinders and other power equipement.

It is interesting to note that newly set Terrazzo will not look like marble unless it is wet. That's where the goat's milk comes in; acting as a sealer and perserving the wet and thus marble like look.