10 service categories · 100 service pages · Miami-Dade, Broward & Palm Beach
View all servicesUnder the carpet in most mid-century South Florida homes there is a poured terrazzo floor nobody could afford to install today. Restoring it is grinding, crack repair and polishing — not replacement — and it usually costs less than the flooring people put on top of it.
Miami-Dade · Broward & Palm Beach Counties
ScrollPoured-in-place terrazzo was the standard floor in Florida houses built from roughly the nineteen-fifties to the nineteen-seventies. Marble chips in a cement matrix, laid over the slab and divided into panels by brass or zinc strips. It does not wear out — it gets covered up, and then it gets damaged by what covered it.
Establishing what is actually under the covering and how much material the floor has left, removing adhesive and residue, repairing cracks and holes, grinding through a diamond sequence from coarse to fine, densifying and polishing, then sealing with a penetrating impregnator rather than a coating.
Have your floor assessedUsually the conversation starts as "we are pulling up the carpet and there is something underneath". What is underneath is frequently the original terrazzo, and frequently it is in better condition than it looks under forty years of adhesive.
A South Florida ground-bearing slab carries moisture upward year-round. That is why a topical coating on terrazzo tends to cloud, blister and peel, and why a penetrating impregnator that leaves the floor able to breathe is almost always the right answer here even though a coating looks better on day one.
Which one applies depends almost entirely on what has been done to the floor since it was laid, not on how old it is.
Carpet, vinyl or tile comes up and leaves adhesive, tack-strip holes and staining. The floor is stripped, repaired, ground through the full diamond sequence and polished back. This is the great majority of the work.
Cracks follow slab movement and usually reappear if simply filled. They are routed out, filled with a matched matrix and aggregate, then ground flat with the surrounding floor so the repair reads as part of the field.
A floor that was restored years ago and has lost its sheen often needs only the fine end of the sequence and a re-seal, not a full grind. Grinding removes material the floor cannot get back, so it is not done for cosmetic reasons alone.
Many original floors turn up the wall as a coved terrazzo skirting. It is polished as part of the floor and is one of the details that makes a restoration read as original rather than resurfaced.
New terrazzo can be poured to meet old, but the aggregate, matrix colour and chip grade all have to be matched deliberately — and a divider strip at the junction is usually more honest than pretending it is continuous.
A penetrating impregnator protects without forming a film. Topical coatings look excellent briefly and then cloud or peel as the slab drives moisture up through them.
Important: every image in this section is an AI-generated educational illustration, not a photograph of an Elbaz Construction project. We do not currently hold cleared photography of completed terrazzo work, and we would rather show you an honest illustration of the material and the process than present somebody else’s job as ours.
How these images are labelledSix things worth understanding about terrazzo before you decide what to do with yours.
Marble, granite or glass aggregate set into a cement or epoxy matrix, poured in place and then ground down until the chips are cut through and the surface is flat. The pattern is not printed on it — it goes all the way through, which is why it can be restored at all.
Every image on this page is an AI-generated educational illustration. None of them is a photograph of an Elbaz Construction project, and none depicts a real client property.
A laminate wears through its image layer and is finished. Terrazzo has the same material all the way down, so a surface that looks destroyed is usually a few millimetres of damage sitting on top of a floor that is otherwise intact.
Every grind removes material, and the divider strips give you a datum for how much is left. That is why a floor is assessed before it is ground, and why a dull floor is re-polished rather than re-ground where that will do.
Most of what looks like ruined terrazzo is carpet adhesive, tile thinset, paint and tack-strip holes. Those come off. Genuine structural cracking is the exception rather than the rule, and it is a slab question rather than a floor question.
A topical coating sits on the surface as a film. On a Florida slab that drives moisture upward, that film is what clouds and lifts. A penetrating impregnator protects from within and lets the floor breathe.
A terrazzo restoration is a sequence, and skipping a stage shows in the finish. Select one to see what it does.
Material thickness, divider-strip height, crack pattern and whether the matrix is cement or epoxy. This decides whether the floor can take a full grind at all, and it is done before anything is quoted.
Grinding is irreversible. This stage is the one that protects you from it.
LayerCarpet adhesive, thinset, paint and mastic come off mechanically and chemically before grinding starts. Grinding through adhesive loads the diamonds and drags residue across the floor rather than removing it.
LayerCracks routed out and filled with a matched matrix and aggregate; tack-strip holes and spalled edges made good. Repairs are done before grinding so they are cut flat with the field and polish with it.
LayerMetal-bonded diamonds cut the surface flat and expose the aggregate, then progressively finer resin pads remove the scratch pattern left by the step before. Every step exists only to erase the previous one.
Jumping grits is the most common shortcut and it is visible forever — as a haze the polish cannot fix.
LayerA chemical densifier reacts within the cement matrix to harden the surface before the final polishing steps, so the matrix and the much harder aggregate polish at closer to the same rate.
LayerAn impregnating sealer soaks in and resists staining without forming a film. It needs periodic renewal and it will not peel — which on a slab that carries moisture upward matters more than the extra gloss a coating would give.
Soaks in, no film, will not peel or cloud. The right default on a Florida ground-bearing slab.
Very high mechanical polish with only light protection. Beautiful and less forgiving of spills.
A film on the surface. Excellent on day one; on a slab driving moisture upward it tends to cloud, blister and eventually require stripping.
Whether your floor should be fully ground, lightly re-polished or left alone depends on how much material it has left. That is measurable, it is measured before quoting, and it is the one number that decides everything else about the job.
Floor restoration rarely needs a building permit, which does not mean it needs no planning. What follows is how the stage runs.
Restoring a floor in place generally does not require a permit. These can:
Restoration is scheduled after the messy trades and ideally before final decoration, so a finished floor is not being walked on by everyone still working in the room.
Grinding produces very fine dust. Extraction at the machine, sealed doorways and negative pressure keep it in the room being worked rather than through the whole house. It is worth asking any contractor exactly how they do this.
What your floor needs depends on its remaining thickness and its history. Nothing here is a guarantee about your specific floor. We assess it and tell you if the honest answer is that it should be left alone.
Illustrations of the restoration sequence. These are AI-generated educational images, not photographs of Elbaz Construction projects. Use the thumbnails, the arrows, arrow keys, or swipe on the image.
Terrazzo is quoted by area, but the area is the least interesting part of the number. These are the twelve factors that decide it.
Carpet lifts off. Thinset and tile mortar do not. Removal is frequently the largest single labour item in the whole job.
Routing, filling and colour-matching cracks is slow handwork, and a floor that has moved may need the slab looked at before the floor is worth doing.
Decides whether a full grind is even available. A thin floor gets a lighter, more careful and sometimes more expensive treatment.
Open runs grind quickly; small rooms, closets and tight corners are edge work by hand.
Coved skirtings and perimeters cannot be done by the big machine and take real time.
Harder aggregate takes longer to cut and changes the diamond selection.
Each additional polishing step is another pass over the whole floor.
Impregnator or a higher-build system, and how often it will need renewing.
Dust control in an occupied house is more work than in an empty one.
An empty house lets the whole floor be done in one continuous sequence.
Whether the room is cleared, and whether skirtings or doors have to come off.
Pouring new terrazzo to meet original is a specialist match on aggregate, chip grade and matrix colour — and a divider strip at the junction is usually the honest answer.
After an assessment and a test area you get a written scope with a real number against the actual condition of your floor — including, where it applies, our view that the floor should be left alone or lightly polished rather than fully ground.
Request an estimateFilter by what you are trying to work out. Every answer stays on the page.
Probably not. What you are looking at is almost always adhesive, tack-strip holes and staining sitting on top of an intact floor. Terrazzo is the same material all the way down, so the damage is usually a few millimetres deep on a floor that is otherwise fine.
An assessment answers it properly, and a small test area answers it visually.
Very, without proper containment — and manageable with it. Extraction at the machine, sealed doorways and negative pressure keep the dust in the room being worked. It is worth asking any contractor specifically how they contain it, because the difference between doing it and not doing it is the rest of your house.
Yes, but not indefinitely. Each grind removes material, and the divider strips give a useful datum for how much is left. That is why we measure before quoting, and why a floor that has simply gone dull gets re-polished rather than re-ground.
Usually. Cracks are routed out, filled with a matched matrix and aggregate and ground flat with the field, so they read as part of the floor rather than as a repair.
The question worth asking first is why it cracked. If the slab is still moving, the crack will come back — and that is a structural conversation, not a flooring one.
Neutral-pH cleaner and water, and that is genuinely most of it. What damages a restored terrazzo floor is acidic cleaners, vinegar and anything marketed for bathroom limescale — those etch the cement matrix. We leave you a written aftercare note that says which products to use and which to keep away from it.
Sealed, in almost every South Florida case. A topical coating forms a film and looks superb initially, but a ground-bearing slab here drives moisture upward and that film is what clouds, blisters and eventually has to be stripped off. A penetrating impregnator protects from within and lets the floor breathe.
Frequently, yes — and you end up with a floor of a quality that would be very expensive to install new. The variable is what has to come off first: lifting carpet is quick, and removing tile thinset is often the biggest labour item in the job.
New can be poured to meet old, and matching the aggregate, chip grade and matrix colour is a genuine specialist exercise. Our honest advice is usually to put a divider strip at the junction and let the two panels be two panels — a near-match that is not quite right draws more attention than a deliberate line.
It depends on area, what has to be removed first and how many polishing steps the finish needs. What we can tell you is that the sequence cannot be rushed by skipping grits — that shortcut shows as a permanent haze that no amount of polishing afterwards will lift.
If the house was built in Florida roughly between the nineteen-fifties and the nineteen-seventies, there is a good chance. Lift a corner of the covering in a closet or behind a door and look for stone chips in a solid matrix with thin brass or zinc strips running in lines. Those strips are the giveaway.
Yes. If the floor has been ground too many times already, or the slab beneath it is still moving, restoration is money spent on a problem that will return. We would rather say that at the assessment than halfway through.
Yes. We work with four financing partners — Service Finance, Synchrony, Ygrene and Renew Financial — so you can compare options before you finalise the scope. Terms and eligibility are set by each lender and differ by programme.
No questions in that topic yet.
An illustration of a restored terrazzo floor. This is an AI-generated educational image, not a photograph of an Elbaz Construction project.
Containment goes up, coverings and adhesive come off, cracks are routed and filled, then the diamond sequence runs coarse to fine. Densifier, final polish, sealer. The floor looks worse before it looks better, which is normal and worth expecting.
Remaining thickness before grinding starts. The scratch pattern after each grit, because each step exists only to remove the previous one. Repair colour against the field before the final polish. Sealer coverage while it is still wet.
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Certified building contractor, bonded and insured. Verifiable with the State of Florida.
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We file with your building department directly, and we close the permit at handover.
Specified products are checked against their Notice of Acceptance or Florida Product Approval before ordering.
Service Finance, Synchrony, Ygrene and Renew Financial. $0 down and 100% financing available on qualifying PACE work, subject to lender approval. Compare all four.
We do not hold cleared photography of completed terrazzo work, so this page is illustrated rather than photographed — and every image says so, in its caption, in its alt text and in the media library. Borrowing another company’s job photos would have been easier and is not something we will do.
A family-run, locally owned business. The same point of contact stays with your project through every stage, and you get the assessment in writing whether or not you proceed.
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Project files
The photos here show finished terrazzo surfaces from an Elbaz bathroom project. Both sets here come from one job: two bathrooms finished with terrazzo, one with gray terrazzo on the walls and one with blue terrazzo on the walls and a terrazzo floor. They show the material, not a restoration.
A bathroom from the same job as the next set. Gray terrazzo lines the lower walls around a tub-shower with a glass panel, beside pink geometric tile, white subway tile and brass fixtures. The photos show terrazzo in a finished room, and no restoration work.
Look at the speckled surface. Terrazzo is stone chips set in a binder, then ground flat, which is the same surface a restoration brings back.
Elbaz Construction project photo · 6 photos
A compact bathroom from the same job. Blue terrazzo lines the lower walls of a walk-in shower with a glass wall. Two views show a terrazzo floor and wainscot beside a walnut vanity and pink patterned tile. These are terrazzo surfaces in a finished room, not a restoration.
The terrazzo floor and the wall panel read as one surface here. Look at how it meets the vanity and the tile with a clean, tight line.
Elbaz Construction project photo · 4 photos
Budget and schedule
Most of a restoration is grinding, in stages. These are typical shares and a typical sequence for restoring an existing terrazzo floor.
Typical shares only; the floor's condition and the amount of crack repair move them.
Each grinding stage must finish before the next, so the stages do not overlap.
Drawn out
Three drawings show the restoration steps, the slab under the floor and the layer of tile that sometimes sits beside it.
Terrazzo is ground with coarse diamond pads, then finer ones, then polished and sealed. Each stage removes the scratches left by the last.
Terrazzo sits on a slab. Cracks that run through the floor usually follow the slab, so repairs address the crack and the surface together.
Where terrazzo meets tile, the heights differ. Restoration grinds terrazzo flush but keeps the tile and its edge trim untouched.
Scope planner
Choose the closest options to see the trades involved and typical weeks on site.
More questions
What homeowners ask about adhesive, stains, gloss, grip, joints and humidity on terrazzo.
Ask us directlyYes. Older adhesives, and some tile and sheet vinyl under carpet, can contain regulated materials. A sample is taken and tested before any scraping or grinding, since grinding spreads dust. If the result is positive, the work follows the rules for that material, and the cost and schedule change.
Often yes, but not always. Rust and oil soak into the binder, so a poultice or deeper grinding may be needed. A test patch shows how deep the stain goes. Sealing after restoration helps keep new spills on the surface, where they are easier to clean.
Honing stops at a finer grit and leaves a soft, matte surface. Polishing goes further and gives a reflective shine. Honed hides scratches and wear better, and polished shows the stone chips more brightly. Many homeowners pick a satin finish in between, and we can show test patches.
It can when wet. A high-gloss floor, especially with a sealer, is less grippy than a honed one. For a bathroom or an entrance, a honed finish or a slip-resistant sealer is safer. Ask for a wet test on a patch, and use a mat where water collects.
Yes. It is hard, sealed and can be used on floors, shower walls and wainscots, as in the photos on this page. It needs a good sealer, and the grout lines or divider strips should be checked. Avoid acidic cleaners, which can etch the surface and the binder.
Divider strips, the thin metal lines that cut the floor into panels, can loosen, bend or corrode. We cut out the damaged section, set a new strip and fill the gap with matching material, then grind it flush. The strips control where slab movement cracks the floor, so they matter.
Many do, with conditions. Grinding is loud and makes slurry, so buildings often limit hours, ask for a certificate of insurance and require wet grinding with vacuum. Ask your management office early. Some buildings need sound underlayment if you cover the floor afterward, and some need approval for dumpsters.
Not much, because terrazzo is dense and sealed. Moisture rising through the slab can leave stains and harm a sealer, and salt on the surface can dull it. Keep the floor clean, use a breathable sealer where the slab is damp, and wipe up standing water near doors and showers.
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Where to go next, depending on which part you are pinning down.
What comes off before anything goes down, and what to do about the slab or subfloor once you can finally see it.
A photograph of a lifted corner is worth more than any description — if you can see stone chips and thin metal strips, send that. Roughly what area, and what is on it now.
If the floor has already been ground too far, or the slab is still moving, we will tell you that at the assessment rather than after the machine is in the house.
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Your details are with the Elbaz Construction team and we will come back to you, usually the same or next working day. If it is urgent, call (754) 236-0675.
Remaining thickness and what is stuck to the surface decide the whole job, and both are knowable in an afternoon. Start with a conversation — no obligation, and no brochure.
