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Original poster

Very stressed out - help!

18 replies

PuffTheMagicDragon · 20/10/2004 09:51

In the scheme of things, this may not seem like a big deal, but its stressing me out no end.

We have a standard 3 bed house but it happens to have a marble terrazzo floor in the hall. Now, I'm sure that if it was in good condition, it would be lovely, but it isn't. It has 2 huge cracks in it (due to previous subsidence of the house) and at the edges a lot of the marble pieces have come out. I have tried to find people in the London area who will restore it to no avail.

In the meantime, ds1 (3) and ds2 (1) are having numerous accidents because of it. I have lost count of the amount of times they have fallen on it and hurt themselves badly.

Every time I broach the subject with dh he "rolls" his eyes and makes me feel like I'm being completely unreasonable and unappreciative of this marvellous original feature in our house. I'm at my wits end with it, particularly as ds1 has taken to pushing over/hitting ds2 a lot lately.

Now, I like original features in a house, but I just can't cope with this any more. DH is insistant that we keep the floor and restore it, but I've put up with this bloody floor for 3 years, watching accident after accident as you cannot stop 2 little boys rushing about.

Am I being unreasonable?

Another problem is I don't know what to replace it with. Carpet would be filthy after a week.

Aaagrhh!

OP posts:

clairabelle · 20/10/2004 09:52

Can you afford to restore it now?

Original poster

PuffTheMagicDragon · 20/10/2004 09:54

Well, I can't find anyone to quote on doing it, so no idea of the cost.

OP posts:

JoolsToo · 20/10/2004 09:54

what about a runner that you can put in the washing machine - until you find someone who can put your tiles right - there must be SOMEONE out there! I mean you can still get terrazzo tiles - is not just a case of replacing the broken ones, I wouldn't have thought it'd be that difficult?

Twiglett · 20/10/2004 09:56

have you tried going round the architectural salvage

try calling a load of tilers and see if they've done any restoration

and I agree a runner with non-slip stickers on the back to stop the kids hurting themselves

Original poster

PuffTheMagicDragon · 20/10/2004 09:57

Yes, I thought about this Jools, but its a fairly big hall, a runner wouldn't do it.

OP posts:

clairabelle · 20/10/2004 09:57

what about ringing a non local company and seeing if they know a local company to you?

Original poster

PuffTheMagicDragon · 20/10/2004 09:59

Maybe some dark, cheapish carpet, cut to size, bound around the edges and glued down for now.

Am I making sense - a lot of people do this with cut offs of carpet to stop the stuff they've had put down getting too dirty.

OP posts:

clairabelle · 20/10/2004 10:00

There's a London comapany called Mosiac restoration any good?

katzguk · 20/10/2004 10:01

you could cover it with cheap laminate flooring, this would damage the floor as it floats above it. This could be a short term solution (5 years ish) until you can sort the floor out and your DS's are bigger. We have just laid whats known as a real wood laminate the top layer is wood so it scratches and ages nicely and is slightly warmer than regular laminate

Original poster

PuffTheMagicDragon · 20/10/2004 10:03

Can anyone find me someone in their area that specialises in terazzo floors? It's not tiles - it one large piece of floor - a slab of marble in effect.

At least if I had someone to talk to about it (and be able to say to dh, look, we can restore it at a later date) I'd feel I was getting somewhere.

OP posts:

Original poster

PuffTheMagicDragon · 20/10/2004 10:03

clairabelle - have you got a number for the company?

OP posts:

Original poster

PuffTheMagicDragon · 20/10/2004 10:06

katzguk - do you mean it wouldn't damage the floor cos I wondered about some good laminate flooring but assumed it would damage the floor further.

OP posts:

katzguk · 20/10/2004 10:19

you seletape the underlay to the floor (so no damage there) then you lay the planks over the top leaving a small gap round the edges. You then cover the gap with beading and tack this to your skirting board with very fine tacks or you can glue it on. So it shouldn't damage the floor.

If your floor is pretty much flat then this should work

katzguk · 20/10/2004 10:23

if you don't have a damp prrof course or damp membrane then you may need to put one of these under the underlay

DillyDally · 20/10/2004 10:25

No experience but a google on the internet came up with this lot and the bottom lot do restoration. Maybe they could give you a quote?
here

Original poster

PuffTheMagicDragon · 20/10/2004 10:26

Ok, found the number for the company suggested by clairabelle. Have left them a message.

Hopefully they can advise about putting down laminate flooring as an interim measure.

I suspect (as I always have) that the restoration is going to cost A LOT of money, which we definitely don't have at the moment. There's so much other work to do in this place which has to be done first.

Thanks everyone. I feel a lot calmer now.

OP posts:

Original poster

PuffTheMagicDragon · 20/10/2004 10:37

ps - nice to see you back twiglett

OP posts:

SofiaAmes · 20/10/2004 22:37

Hi Puff. I have terrazzo countertops in my kitchen and absolutely love them. The company that put them in are really wonderful and very professional and the director Michael is very knowledgeable and helpful. They are called Fieldmount Terrazzo and are in NW6. Speak to Michael and mention my name and I'm sure he will give you lots of useful information about repairing the floor. If you want to CAT me with some photos I could also have a think about economical repair options.

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