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01 Concrete tile

Polished exposed terrazzo tiles

Terrazzo is marble aggregate suspended in a cement matrix, poured by hand and then ground flat until the stone reads. Thirty eight coded finishes are in current production across six base colours, from ATW-1001 in white to ATB-6001 in light beige brown. Because the aggregate runs through the full depth of the tile, a floor that dulls after ten years is reground rather than lifted.

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01 Library

The whole terrazzo book, filterable

Every finish in current production, by base colour and by chip grade. The code is the specification: the letters are the pigment, the number is the finish within that family, and the grade is the size of the aggregate.

Filter

Filter by base colour

Filter by chip grade

38 finishes in this library

Nothing is collected on this page. Note the codes you want and send them from the contact page, and physical samples of those finishes go out against your quantity.

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Polished terrazzo samples butted edge to edge in grey, mint green, cream and red bases, each with pale and black marble chips

Specification

Coded finishes
38
Base colours
6
Chip grade
1.5 to 3
Format
Cast to order
Finish
Ground, honed, polished
Application
Floor, wall, stair tread

Poured by hand, ground flat

A terrazzo tile starts as a wet cement matrix with marble aggregate stirred through it, poured by hand into a mould at the works in Karachi. The chips are not scattered onto the face. They are carried through the full depth of the slab, which is the whole reason the material behaves the way it does.

The tile cures before anything abrasive touches it. Then it is ground, honed and polished until the aggregate sits flush with the matrix and the surface reads as one plane. A floor that has taken ten years of traffic can be reground in place, because there is more of the same tile underneath the part that wore.

Pour
By hand
Aggregate
Full depth
Repair
Reground in place
Broken terrazzo tile showing marble aggregate suspended through the full depth of the cement matrix
Aggregate carried through the full depth of the tile

How to read a finish code

Every finish carries a code, and the code is the specification. The letters name the base colour of the cement, the number is the finish within that family, and the chip grade is the size of the aggregate: 1.5 is fine and even, 3 is coarse and legible from standing height. ATW-1001 is a white base with Greece white chips at grade 3. ATG-2007 is a grey base with black chips, also at grade 3.

Six base families are in production, and the code order is the order the families were issued rather than any ranking. Quote a code and the yard knows which pigment, which aggregate and which grade to load, with nothing left to interpret over a phone call.

ATW
1001 to 1011, white base
ATG
2001 to 2009, grey base
ATY
3001 to 3007, yellow base
ATR
4001 to 4006, red base
ATMG
5001 to 5004, mint green base
ATB
6001, light beige brown base
Polished terrazzo plate on a white base with large pale marble chips ground flat and honed
White base, pale marble chips, ground flat

Picking from the library of 38

All thirty eight finishes sit together in the library at the top of this page, filterable by base colour and by chip grade. They are the same plates the yard works from, photographed close enough to read the chip edges rather than reduced to a thumbnail.

Two finishes can share a base and still look nothing alike once the aggregate changes. A grey base with Greece white chips at 1.5 is quiet and even; the same base with black chips at 3 is high contrast and busy. Look at the grade before the colour, because the grade decides how a floor reads across a room more than the base does.

Chip grades
1.5, 1.75, 2, 3
Aggregates
Greece white, salt pepper, Verona, black
Browse
At the top of this page

Where terrazzo earns its place

Terrazzo goes where a floor takes traffic for decades and still has to look composed: mosque halls, office and hotel lobbies, retail floors, stair treads and landings, and residential floors that want a hard surface without a grid of visible joints. It suits a stair well, because the same tile can be cut and nosed rather than trimmed in a second material.

Sulafah at Dolmen Mall Clifton is polished terrazzo we made and laid. The counter, the steps and the floor are all the same tile, running under mall traffic, which is the honest test of a finish: the aggregate is doing the work rather than a print of one.

Terrazzo reception counter at Sulafah, lit against terracotta walls and copper shelving
Sulafah, Dolmen Mall Clifton, Karachi

What happens on site

Setting out comes first. The crew checks the screed and the falls, then sets the grid out from the drawing rather than from the nearest doorway, so the cuts land where the drawing says they land and not against a feature wall.

Once the tile is laid and grouted, the floor is ground and honed in place. That is the step that closes the joints visually and takes the whole floor to one level, and it is what separates a terrazzo floor from a tiled floor. Then it is sealed with a penetrating sealer rather than a surface film, before handover.

After that the floor wants a neutral pH cleaner and a mop. Acidic cleaners, bleach and abrasive pads etch marble and dull a polish, and no sealer prevents that. Resealing is periodic and follows traffic rather than a calendar.

Sequence
Set out, lay, grind, seal
Sealer
Penetrating, no film
Cleaning
Neutral pH
07 Questions

What a specifier asks about this material

Can a worn terrazzo floor be repaired instead of replaced?
Yes. The marble aggregate runs through the full depth of the tile rather than sitting on the face, so a floor that has dulled or picked up scratches is reground and re-honed in place and comes back to the same finish. That is not possible with a printed or glazed tile, where grinding the face removes the pattern. Localised damage is cut out, replaced from the same coded finish, then ground flush with the rest of the floor.
How do I specify a finish so the yard makes the right tile?
Quote the code. ATW-1001 states white base, Greece white chips, grade 3, and leaves nothing to interpret. Send the code with the area in square feet and the application, floor or wall or stair tread, and ask for a sample of that code before it goes into a drawing set. A finish chosen from a screen and a finish chosen from a plate are often not the same finish.
What if the colour I want is not among the 38?
The 38 are the coded finishes in current production, not the limit of what can be poured. A base pigment and an aggregate can be matched to a reference and cast as a bespoke batch for that project rather than added to the catalogue. Send a physical reference if you have one, because matching to a screen is guesswork, and send the area with it: a bespoke colour needs a batch large enough to hold consistent.
Is polished terrazzo suitable for a ramp or an external step?
A ground and polished surface is smooth, which is the wrong instinct for a ramp, a pool surround or an external step. Use washed terrazzo there, where the same aggregate is exposed and left standing proud of the matrix so there is texture underfoot. Inside a bathroom or a kitchen, polished terrazzo is specified routinely; the judgement is about standing water and slope, not about the material.
08 Also specified

Materials laid alongside this one

09 Next

Name the codes you need

Send the codes, the format and the area you are covering, and we will come back with physical samples and a quote against that quantity.

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