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Floor With History Makes Comeback

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By SUSAN HEMMINGWAY, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 17, 2007

The midcentury terrazzo floor was made with a matrix of two parts marble chips and one part Portland cement. Workers poured the floor on the home's concrete slab before construction of the interior wall framework. The marble chips came in four sizes and were sprinkled liberally by hand on the wet cement.

Builders picked the combination of colors, which meant houses in a neighborhood often had the same mix of chips, though no two terrazzo floors are exactly alike.

Common patterns ranged from a neutral mix of beige and white to the more exuberant tutti-frutti, named for its assortment of burgundy, blue, gray, pink and black.

The marble came from domestic mines in states such as Tennessee and Texas. Many of those mines have since closed, making it nearly impossible to find an exact match for chips in a vintage floor.

Decades ago, the floors were cheap to make, but no more. Terrazzo is showing up in pricey homes being built as showcases of contemporary architecture in places such as Naples.

It may be made with cement or epoxy resin, a durable medium that can have mixed pigments for truly vivid colors. This new terrazzo costs $25 to $30 per square foot - and up.

In a little Florida ranch, it could be a $30,000 floor.

Besides its midcentury appeal, terrazzo also is riding another trend: It's a "green" building material. The cement-based flooring doesn't emit fumes such as typical wall-to-wall carpeting.

Manufacturers also are making vibrant terrazzo kitchen countertops with recycled glass.

It's unclear why terrazzo swept onto the Florida home construction scene in the 1950s. But while terrazzo floors may seem iconic in a kitschy sort of way, Florida didn't invent this underfoot artistry.

Terrazzo means "terraces" in Italian. Venetian mosaic workers created it in the 1400s to use discarded remnants of marble.

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