Terrazzo Care & Maintenance
Helpful tips for terrazzo Maintenance: your terrazzo has been ground, polished, and sealed. This protects your surface from immediate stains, but no spillage should be ignored and allowed to soak and dry into the floor. Good housekeeping procedures require that your floor remains clean.
DO's For Terrazzo Floor Care
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DO ask your installing terrazzo contractor to recommend the proper neutral cleaner and sealers to be used on your floors.
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DO dust mop your floors daily, this not only picks up the dust, but also the grit tracked into your building. The grit acts as an abrasive on your hard surface floor.
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DO scrub your floors a minimum of twice a week, where a new terrazzo floor has been installed for the initial two to three months, as the construction dust is still in the air, and will eventually be deposited on your floor. After this period, once per week, depending on the amount of foot traffic, will keep your floor clean in appearance. Always rinse your floors well to prevent a build-up of cleaner residue that could become slippery.
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DO seal your floors with a water-based sealer in accordance to the manufacturer’s instructions. Normally, a new floor requires two or more coats, which provide a good sheen for a period of 45 to 60 days, before needing additional coats. Sealer should be classified by Underwriters Laboratories, as slip resistant with a rating of minimum 0.5.
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DO use maintenance products designed for terrazzo.
DO allow your neutral cleaner, once applied to the terrazzo surface, time to react as designed to loosen foreign matter. Several minutes should be adequate, but DO NOT allow solution to dry on surface.
DONT's For Terrazzo Floor Care
- DON’T use purely surface waxes, or all purpose sealers. Employment of such can result in slippery surfaces.
- DON’T use all purpose cleaners containing water soluble inorganic or crystallizing salts, harmful alkali or acids. Use of such products could prove harmful to your terrazzo floor.
- DON’T use cheap cleaners or sealers since the majority of your maintenance costs is labor.
- DON’T try miracle cleaners or sealers on your floor without getting an opinion on such products from your terrazzo contractor, Domus Terrazzo or the Terrazzo, Tile & Mosaic Association of Canada (TTMAC).