It’s Easy Being Green with Terrazzo – The Original Recyclable Floors
In the last few years, the focus on green living and sustainability has significantly increased. Many home and business owners look to their architects, builders and designers to present more sustainable solutions both for residential and commercial spaces. Terrazzo, being the original recyclable material used for floors has emerged as one of the more sustainable building materials for floors and other installations.
Ancient Recycling
Terrazzo has been around thousands of years ago, before the terms “recycle” and “going green” were around. It was first discovered by Venetian marble workers when they saw that discarded marble chips and slabs set in clay can be re-used to pave the area surrounding their homes or their terraces. Since then, terrazzo has been the more practical and sustainable option for both indoor and outdoor flooring areas. Ancient cementitious terrazzo floors that are still intact to this day are probably the best kind of testament to terrazzo’s durability and exceptional sustainability throughout the years.
Modern, Sustainable Terrazzo
How much has terrazzo improved? With the arrival of better building materials such as polymers and epoxies, modern terrazzo has become more environmentally ideal, sustainable and long lasting compared to ancient terrazzo. How environmentally ideal? These days, more and more hospitals, schools, hotels and other structures are utilising terrazzo for floors, wall installations and others because of its environmentally sound qualities.
First and foremost, terrazzo is non-porous and does not have grout joints. What this means is that the possibility of microbial growth from stagnant water that are usually trapped within the grouts is non-existent. Additionally, modern terrazzo –because of its non-porous quality, absorbs water even less than cementitious terrazzo making cleaning easier and without having to use harsh chemical-based cleaners. Because of terrazzo’s advantages in overall cleanness and sanitation, more and more builders recommend it for areas where the quality of indoor ventilation plays a big consideration.