Hi

I am currently refitting my kitchen. The exisiting ceramic floortiles are horrible, and as I was removing them, underneath are some awesome terrazzo floortiles, that I would really like to keep.

So my questions are:

What is the best way to remove the adehsive from the ceramic floor tiles without damaging the terrazzo tiles?

and

What is a good product to use, once the grout and adhesive has been removed, to make them look all nice and shiney and sealed?

Many thanks

Karen

When I was involved in laying terrazo, after laying we grouted them with a wet white cement, then we had a massive polishing machine with various grit stones to ensure that the floor was perfectly smooth and then they were given a couple coats of sealer.

Ah, I see.

Cheers. Thats' the making them look nice bit. Now I just have to work out how to get the adhesive off. Thanks!

How long does this process take and is it really messy?

Originally Posted by theyomper

When I was involved in laying terrazo, after laying we grouted them with a wet white cement, then we had a massive polishing machine with various grit stones to ensure that the floor was perfectly smooth and then they were given a couple coats of sealer.

the machine mentioned is called a terrco and they are big noisy machines that usually run on gas,not really an option for a kitchen floor, but it can be done with smaller hand tools,i use a tool made by a company called flextol however these are very exspensive,the cheaper option would be a 9 inch angle grinder with a polishing pad you would also need dustless shroud for the grinder so you can attach some sort of vacume to it.then you would need to buy 3 grades of sanding pad 36,60,80 grit would be fine, before you attack the floor with the grinder remove as much adhesive as possible with a roberts scraper .if all that goes well the floor will need to be sealed.
hope that helps

This can easily be ground and re-polished, wouldnt tackle it with an angle grinder your be there for ages, go to your local tile supplier and they could put you onto somebody to do it, you will probally be looking at £40/50 sqm to do this but it will be worth it.

Thanks Endurro,

I went on a bit of a mission at the weekend, and our local tiler / tiling company were like "blimey, haven't done a terrazzo floor for about 30 years". Apparently, it's a dying art! A bloke that does marble floors is getting in touch, so it will be interesting to see what he quotes to do the work!

Cheers

Karen

Karen
I had been involved with Terrazzo for quite some time and yes if you aint got the tools your Knackered. What i would do remove tiles with kango and appropiate bit. soak adhesive with chemicals, neutralise , dry then grind rest of . with a small grinder . with carbon disc pads up to 120 grit then diamond machine pad to 400/ 600 grit so its looks like glass.
use to do this in supermarkets.

Originally Posted by RockCeramics

Karen
I had been involved with Terrazzo for quite some time and yes if you aint got the tools your Knackered. What i would do remove tiles with kango and appropiate bit. soak adhesive with chemicals, neutralise , dry then grind rest of . with a small grinder . with carbon disc pads up to 120 grit then diamond machine pad to 400/ 600 grit so its looks like glass.
use to do this in supermarkets.

I lay, grind,and repair terrazzo for 3 big supermarkets,its what i do for a living.and please please please dont try and use a kango with a normal chisel point to remove tiles and adhesive from terrazzo,if you chip the surfcace of the terrazzo it will need to be repaired and believe me it can be very difficult to make the repairs invisible, especially if its an old floor.
you should be able to remove the tiles with a hammer and bolster,and adhesive with a scraper with changeable razor blades (im not sure what they are called but i know them as roberts scrapers).

Danny you miss read me the bit for the kango was a spatula bit that fits to the kango.


please please dont try and use a kango with a normal chisel point to remove tiles and adhesive from terrazzo
or you can use floor /carpet scrapper.

ok fair point,i know the bits you mean, we use them for removing amtico from terrazzo but you still risk damage to the floor

not really .no different than hammer /bolster. if not better.
remember you would only use the spatular just to remove the tiles .
after you remove the adhesive with a scrapper it will leave a slight residue left on the tile /and anyway you will grind the complete floor from 36 to 100 or 120 (i would anyway) so that would remove any scuffs you have placed on the floor.
remember you would only use the spatular just to remove the tiles .

Hmmm.

I have to say, I might be being a bit of a wimp here, but having spent the best part of my weekend scraping off tile adhesive, there is NO WAY I am going to pull the terrazzo tiles up. It's a step DIY to far, even for me.

I have attached two pictures which I like to think, show a before and after. My next question, probably aimed at DannyR and Mr Rock Ceramics, is that do you think I have managed to get enough of the adhesive off, for the rest to get polished off, by the terrco machine (or whatever it's called). Obviously I won't hold you to this, but I am interested in your opinion!

Thanks loads!

Karen

Nice going .
Does the whole floor look like that once stripped?
"Terrco"? KAREN how big of a kitchen have you got ?
dont touch a "TERCO" unless you like 1) Dust 2) you have a VERY LARGE KITCHEN AREA AND I MEAN LARGE , 3) I still would use one.
all you would need / i would use that is , Bosch GWS 9in angle grinder fitted with a rubber backing pad with dust extractor casing for your dry hoover. From the picture i would begin with 60 grit up to 100 grit . then depending on how you want your finish i would use an wetfed sander with 400 then 600 diamond pads .then wash and clean leave to dry then 2/3 coats of johnsons polish or similar . you wouldnt need to use a terrco they do have small versions though.
have a look at 1 of there sites www.terrco.com

i thought that an ellis machine would be about the right size for a kitchen floor and i think that a company called A.lopez may hire them, they hire most polishing equipment , good luck more ,pictures would be nice whem you are finished

Originally Posted by RockCeramics

Nice going .
Does the whole floor look like that once stripped?
"Terrco"? KAREN how big of a kitchen have you got ?
dont touch a "TERCO" unless you like 1) Dust 2) you have a VERY LARGE KITCHEN AREA AND I MEAN LARGE , 3) I still would use one.
all you would need / i would use that is , Bosch GWS 9in angle grinder fitted with a rubber backing pad with dust extractor casing for your dry hoover. From the picture i would begin with 60 grit up to 100 grit . then depending on how you want your finish i would use an wetfed sander with 400 then 600 diamond pads .then wash and clean leave to dry then 2/3 coats of johnsons polish or similar . you wouldnt need to use a terrco they do have small versions though.
have a look at 1 of there sites www.terrco.com

thanks for a good post ,just checked out the link impressive machines

HAH!

My kitchen is HUGE! A whooping 4m by 3m and I haven't taken off the area taken up by the cupboards. Total visible floor space is probably 2 by 3ish. Having just looked at the teraco website, perhaps that was a bit ambitious!!

All the floor looks like that, except a little bit which is going to go under cupboards and the back door step. I think I actually might have to take a couple of tile up from somewhere under the cupboard footprints to fill the back door step bit in. But maybe not.

I take it you mean something like this? Lordy, ever begin to think that you shouldn't have started something?!!

BOSCH GWS 20-230 - 9" Angle-Grinder (110v) - your product at the best price with Twenga

aahh the good old ellis, many a shift have we used them. crap at 110v could nt put but you hook them to 240 man they can go, especially on the underground they were fun getting them down (when they switched the escalators off).

Hi Danny,

I'm looking for a tiler to lay 500m2 of terrazzo tiles in a new supermarket in the Midlands.

What is the best way to lay on concrete slab, can you give me a rough idea of the install spec?

Bob.

hi bobmatharu the posts you are looking at go back to 2008 maybe one of the mods will be able to give you contacts of terrazzo fixers that use this forum im not to sure but maybe worth a try, one thing i do know is that you will need somebody that has all the proper gear as it is a specialists job i have seen some brilliant terrazzo fixers over the years but most of them seem to have been italian fixers ,good luck

hi bobmatharu the posts you are looking at go back to 2008 maybe one of the mods will be able to give you  contacts of terrazzo  fixers that use this forum im not to sure but maybe worth a try, one thing i do know is that you will need somebody that has all the proper gear as it is a specialists job i have  seen some brilliant terrazzo fixers over the years but most of them seem to have been italian fixers ,good luck