Terrazzo for Furniture: What You Are Actually Buying

No. It is a composite: stone or glass chips set in a binder and ground back to a flat surface, so the chips read as part of the surface rather than as inclusions in it. The word comes from the Italian for terrace, and the technique goes back to Venetian workshops that ground marble offcuts into a cement-bound facing.

Source: Terrazzo industry literature on the material and its history

The binder. Cement-bound terrazzo is matte, UV-stable and slightly porous, so it needs sealing and resealing; the aggregate colour is softer and more mineral. Epoxy-bound terrazzo sets in a day or two instead of days, comes out thinner, is non-porous and takes brighter colour. For a bathroom top or a bar front that has to be sealed and looked after, epoxy is usually the easier material. For a floor in sun, cement holds its colour better.

Source: Terrazzo industry literature on cement-bound and epoxy-bound systems

Epoxy-bound terrazzo is commonly supplied in slabs of 10 to 30 mm, which is thin enough to build a top on a base or to use as a facing panel. Cement-bound material is thicker — a floor topping is normally in the region of 12 to 18 mm and is laid onto a base rather than used as a free-standing top. The thickness that suits a furniture top is a specification we agree with the supplier, not a fixed number.

Source: Published terrazzo slab and topping specification data

Entirely. Small chips give a fine, even speckle; large chips give a strong contrast and a much more graphic surface. The base colour of the binder and the colour of the chips are chosen separately, and both are decided per piece — which is why two terrazzo tops from the same project rarely match. If a specific pattern matters, the slab is selected and the cutting area agreed before it is cut.

Source: Terrazzo supplier material descriptions

Heavier than most natural stone of the same size, and much of that weight is the binder. A cement-bound piece carries the density of cement plus the aggregate, and an epoxy-bound piece is lighter than cement but heavier than a thin marble top of the same dimension. For a table this matters in the handling, not in the use — the piece is moved once, and after that the weight is what makes it sit still.

A cement-bound piece needs sealing, and it needs it renewed on a schedule that depends on the binder and the aggregate; acidic cleaners are avoided on both types. An epoxy-bound piece needs no sealer because it is non-porous, but it will show scratches from abrasive cleaning and it can chip at an edge if it is knocked. Either way it is a surface that is wiped down, not scrubbed.

Source: Terrazzo maintenance guidance from the material suppliers

Not exactly. The chips are chosen to harmonise with a stone, and the binder colour can be brought close, but terrazzo is a granular material and marble is not — the eye reads the difference at close range. What can be matched is the aggregate palette, so the two read as a family. We will say plainly which of the two is which rather than pretend otherwise.

Terrazzo as a product category is largely made from stone offcuts and post-consumer glass, and the industry commonly quotes a recycled content of 70 to 90 per cent. That figure is the category figure, not a measurement of a particular batch. We do not publish a content figure for a specific mix without checking it, because a mix is bought from a supplier and the answer belongs to that batch.

Source: Published terrazzo industry data on recycled content