Terrazzo

Friday morning, me and Rich are in the hallway, and he kicks the dust (which is about an inch thick all over), and sees a weird pattern on the floor. He scrapes away more, and we realise we’ve found something. We were planning on having polished concrete floors throughout the downstairs, but there it is. Bright red and green 1920s polished concrete!

Later in the day, Kevin tells me it’s called ‘Terrazzo’ and when polished up, will look like marble! In fact, it’s made of an aggregate containing coloured concrete and marble chips. He’s asking me if we’re going to keep it, and all I can think of is, we’d have to lose our underfloor heating and would Kate like a green and red floor!? It’s certainly not something we’d choose…

So, Saturday morning, I get up and clear the whole hallway to see the extent of it, and how damaged it is, and where the detailing stops and starts. Well, see the pictures below…

I know this sounds daft, but it just felt like the old cinema was saying, “I know you’re ripping me up, and I’m grateful that you’re coming to live in me, but look! I used to be young and pretty once…” - I know old buildings can’t talk to you, but that’s what it felt like.

We can’t keep it all. Our plans have a different layout, so there’s going to be walls built over it and other walls removed. We need to decide whether we restore it as it is, blemishes and all, or redo parts of it, to fit in with our new layout. I guess this comes down to expense as well.

But yeah, the terrazzo floor stays. There’s no way we could just pour concrete over it, and bury it forever.

So, looks like we’re in the market for a nice pair of cast iron radiators!