It all started way back over 500 years ago in Italy. Marble was the big and popular choice of material back in that time. The Venetian construction workers got the idea to start mixing scraps with the pieces from the upscale jobs with the clay that they used to make the inexpensive floorings in their own homes. The crazy part of the idea was how they brought the shine out of the marble in the mix, they used goat’s milk to seal the floor.
Upon creating this new, beautiful tile flooring they started calling it terrazzo, which is the Italian word for “terraces”. It is a beautiful and very versatile tile flooring that is very commonly used in both contemporary flooring as well as wall materials both inside and outside homes.
We give credit to the Italians in creating this beautiful tile flooring, but archaeologists have found some evidence of terrazzo tile flooring within some ruins in Turkey that date way back to 8,000 – 10,000 years ago. This gives us the idea that terrazzo tiles were the original substance that was used for flooring.
So now you are probably sitting here wondering just how did this unique and beautiful tiling come all the way from Italy to the United States. It was brought to the U.S. back in the late 18th century, and was used in various monuments and historic American buildings. It was well known that in the home of George Washington, Mt. Vernon, that he had terrazzo tile floors.
It very quickly became very popular and that due to the amount of marble found throughout America, that there were continuous advancements in terrazzo installation techniques which made it faster and much more durable than most other choices for flooring.
Once the 1920s hit, producing terrazzo because much easier due to the invention of electric grinders and other power tools. From there, the 1960s and 1970s brought on the thin-set, or epoxy. This much more modern terrazzo offered a larger variety of colors as well as thickness of the tiles and were much quicker to install. Epoxy terrazzo has been used much more for interior tile flooring.
When you look at terrazzo today, you will find that it has many different durable materials in it such as quartz, marble, recycled glass, porcelain, granite, concrete, and other metal aggregates. When mixed with the cement or epoxy and then polished, it makes it very durable, smooth, and has a textured surface that will last for many years. It has quickly become a popular choice due to this and its beauty.
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