Can You Repair Terrazzo Floors

"Nobody likes to see a fissure in the floor," said Dan Stanton, president of NTMA member company Colorado Design Tile & Terrazzo in Denver. While cracks are largely preventable through honoring the joint in the concrete with a divider strip, they tin't ever be avoided, he explained. "Nosotros don't run into it too frequently only when we do information technology feels like the end of the world."

Once in an operating room they installed, a tiny scissure appeared in the flooring, which nobody noticed until they went to clean the flooring and saw claret in the crack. To maintain a sterile environs, the room had to be closed down and the crack fixed.

"It's hard on the possessor and the installer," noted Mr. Stanton, a 30-year veteran in the terrazzo industry. "Both get worked upwards."

At the same time, when a cleft does happen, information technology'due south not that hard to prepare," Mr. Stanton added. An experienced NTMA contractor tin walk you through the best way to bargain with that sometimes-unavoidable fissure. "Nosotros prepare it and owners are ordinarily happy."

Investigate

The get-go step when a flooring cracks is to figure out why information technology developed in the first place, brash Gary French, NTMA Technical Director and a twoscore-year veteran of the flooring industry. He has been on staff with NTMA since 2022. "If y'all patch a crevice without knowing what caused information technology, it will probably come back," Mr. French explained.

The mystery

Sometimes the cause of a crevice evades fifty-fifty the most experienced professional person, nonetheless. Information technology's not always clear why it happened. It could be that someone drove a elevator over it or another incident that may never come to calorie-free.

Is it always somebody'southward fault? "I don't think and so," Mr. Stanton replied. A floor tin crack even though your contractor did everything right. "Like concrete: y'all can't predict where it will crack," he added. "If we knew where it'd crack we'd exist millionaires."

Questions to inquire:

• Are varying temperatures causing thermal movement?
• Is at that place evidence of physical settling or shrinkage?
• Is the floor heaving?
• Is the terrazzo pulling the concrete?
• Does the fissure line upwards with columns?

Which repair method?

1 way to effigy out the cause is to chop out a small department and see if the concrete underneath is croaky. Mr. Stanton notes that you can clean out the crack and if it's not moving, you can grout information technology with epoxy and it will exist barely visible. If it reopens, there is movement.

Once some headway is made every bit to causes, then comes the decision of whether to put a scissure membrane down and fill up the crack and or cut a new joint to relieve the stress on the floor. Wherever there's a joint, a divider strip is needed.

How far to go?

In one case you lot figure out the method, the question is whether to take out only the affected areas or the entire panel. If it's a bad cleft, you will want to open it upward at least a pes on each side and replace the section with added divider strips.

The objective is always to build back in equally much aesthetics equally possible. Discuss the options with your NTMA contractor, with the help of NTMA'south technical managing director if needed.

Old floors vs new

If it'south a crack that occurred within months of the installation, the aggregates, and the colors will be readily available, but if it's a 50-year-former floor, yous won't exist able to find the aggregates, Mr. French cautions. It is extremely difficult to match a floor that's been in a while because natural aggregates modify; the vein in the source changes over time if it'due south available at all.

No about match

If you lot can't perfectly match the aggregates, ane solution is to take out the section strip to strip and supplant the whole panel with a complementary color, Mr. French brash. Rather than trying to friction match an old color and butting the new upwardly confronting the old, consider separating the colors. "The eye tin't transfer across the divide and it volition look like a good lucifer," Mr. French explained.

Equally the authoritative resource on terrazzo, NTMA offers personalized technical guidance on the installation of terrazzo and related bug to all parties on a project. Call Gary French at 800-323-9736, ext or email him at gary@ntma.com .

Can You Repair Terrazzo Floors,

Source: https://www.ntma.com/how-to-repair-cracks-in-terrazzo/

Posted by: woodardoringlats.blogspot.com

Share this post