The Challenge
A renovated terrace in Balmain had original marble hall tiles and a terrazzo kitchen floor that had been covered by carpet and sheet vinyl for decades. Once the floor coverings were removed, the marble tiles were dull, scratched and in some cases cracked, and the terrazzo had lost its polish entirely. The owners wanted the floors restored to their original character without replacing them — both for heritage reasons and because the original materials were higher quality than anything currently available.
Our Approach
We started by assessing the condition floor by floor. The marble tiles in the hallway had three cracked tiles and several loose areas. We removed and replaced the three cracked tiles with matching reclaimed marble sourced from a salvage yard, then re-bedded the loose tiles. For the terrazzo kitchen floor, we used a diamond polishing process starting from a coarse grit and stepping through finer grades until we reached a high-gloss finish. This removed the deep scratches and restored the natural aggregate appearance. The whole floor was then sealed with a penetrating sealer appropriate for both marble and terrazzo.
Execution
The work was done in a occupied home, so we managed dust carefully. The dry diamond grinding was done with a dust extraction unit connected directly to the polisher. We worked section by section so the owners could still move through the house. The whole process — crack repair, tile replacement, grinding, polishing and sealing — took six working days. We protected the skirting boards and door frames during the work and left the site clean each day.
The Result
The owners were surprised at how much life was still in the original floors. The marble hallway tiles now have a soft honed finish (we recommended against high polish for a high-traffic hallway), and the terrazzo kitchen floor has regained its original shine. We provided the owners with maintenance instructions — a pH-neutral cleaner and annual re-sealing — to keep the floors looking good long term.