FAQs
Take a look at our quick answer questions or delve into something with a bit more detail
from our Knowledge Base articles.
It’s easy! Just click the box saying, ‘add sample to order’. When you have finished choosing your samples, fill in the delivery details. You can order up to 10 samples with free UK delivery or with our flat fee postage charge for overseas including ROI.
We’ve also written an article about this if you want to find out more.
Like marble and other natural stones, terrazzo does require some TLC to ensure it retains its beauty. Key tricks to avoid unnecessary wear and tear include cleaning regularly with a neutral cleaner, re-sealing your countertop every 8-12 months, cleaning spills (particularly acidic liquids) as soon as possible, using chopping boards and mats under hot surfaces and avoiding dropping heavy objects on the surface.
We’ve also written an article about this if you want to find out more.
Marble is a premium product with a premium cost. Each slab has its own characteristics (with Diespeker you can potentially choose your own slab). It is a heavy material and if used for a countertop you must ensure the appropriate support.
Marble should be sealed to avoid staining from acidic materials. It is, however, resistant to heat, water and scratches. Find out more.
A rough guide only:
– Tiles: Supply only tiles from our Standard range start at £85 sqm plus VAT and delivery if required.  Â
– Poured: For 10 sqm or more a small chipping poured floor in the London area starts from £400 sqm and a large chunk poured floor costs between £500 and £600 sqm, plus VAT.
Prices depend on many factors including whether the terrazzo is resin or cement, the design, which finish is required, the size of the floor, whether the sale is supply only or requires installation. Find out more.
Worktops are priced individually due to the many variations for each project, including size, preferred choice of material (eg resin or cement, standard or luxury surfaces) and finishes and features such as cut-outs, texturing and edges.
As a rough guide, a standard-sized worktop with a standard edge, polished and delivered within the London area starts at £800 per square meter plus VAT. Find out more.
Diespeker offers pendulum testing in-house. This type of test provides a reliable and accurate assessment of the slipperiness of a floor. Our pendulum testing service is carried out by trained, certified team members.
We provide a full written report and our in-house certificate once the flooring is installed (please note, this is a Diespeker certificate, not BSI or UKSRG). Find out more.
Resin terrazzo is suitable for:
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– General interior flooring
– Bathroom floors
– Kitchen countertops
– Reception desks
– Cladding
Cement terrazzo is suitable for:
– Outside concourses
– Patio flooring
– Outdoor kitchen countertops
– Interior use where a classic look is preferred
A countertop in a working kitchen is usually put under lots of stress – and accidents will happen. If you are looking for the most durable stone option for a worktop, then it is worth considering engineered stone.
This is made up of marble chips bonded together with resin and pigments. It may lack the depth of design of other options, but it is hardwearing, stain resistant and less prone to chips and cracks.
Diespeker offers a number of designs that are terrazzo ‘lookalikes’. For some customers, these offer the best of both worlds! Find out more
Marble is a beautiful surface to use for flooring and with a little care will keep its good looks for the long term. These are some practical tips to consider:
– Apply a professional, stain-resistant coating and reapply as necessary.
– In wet areas such as bathrooms, also apply an anti-mould treatment .
– Remove dust and dirt at least twice-weekly using a soft brush or dry mop to prevent the marble getting scratched.
– Brushing is better than using a vacuum cleaner, even one with a setting for hard floors although you can use a hose attachment around the edges.
– For a deeper clean use a wet mop and a neutral cleaner – this can be an off-the-shelf washing up liquid such as Fairy Liquid but avoid all-purpose cleaners and any product containing bleach or vinegar as these can cause discolouration.
– Don’t use wax-based or oil-based polishes – as well as causing the surface to become slippery the marble may actually start looking drab.
– Marble does stain, so be careful with any acidic, bleaching or staining products. These include seemingly innocuous items like tomato ketchup, brown sauce and coke, as well as more obvious culprits such as chilli sauce, curry sauce, red wine, blood, rust, bleach, vinegar and lemon juice.
– When the floor has been sealed it can be stain-resistant for between one to eight hours after contact. But it is always better to remove stains immediately. Try blotting first, then use a damp cloth and neutral cleaner before drying the area with a clean cloth.
– Marble can show scuff marks, but as long as your floor has been sealed properly, conventional cleaning as above is often enough to remove scuffs. Scratches, however, may require remedial work by a specialist.
Generally you will use a thinner profile tile for walls. Unlike floor tiles, wall tiles are not usually intended to be load-bearing. And they don’t need to cope with foot traffic.
Your choice depends on the room that you are tiling. For a bathroom or wet room you’ll want a tile that is more water resistant. Porcelain is a good option and Diespeker stocks a terrazzo-style design with a 10mm profile ideal for walls.
If you want the real deal, Diespeker also offers a 12mm terrazzo option for a variety of designs. Bear in mind this thin profile is more fragile than the standard 20/30mm tile, so you will need an experienced installer. Find out more here. Â
Natural stone tiles including granite and marble are always popular for walls. Bear in mind that as well as being a heavier material, natural stone is porous. It is sensible to seal natural stone wall tiles when used in a bathroom or wet room.
Terrazzo is a beautiful surface for your family kitchen, there’s nothing quite like it! If you cook a lot or have young children or teenagers prone to knocking over liquids, you’ll just need to be aware that terrazzo needs looking after, in the same way that marble does.
You may find a resin terrazzo is more resilient to stains, but even then you will need to be vigilant and wipe it clean as quickly as possible after every spill. It’s also good to reseal the surface every 8 to 12 months with a sealant like our anti-stain protector..
If you need total peace of mind you may prefer a conglomerate terrazzo look-a-like.
You’ve come to the right place! While there are many different designs of terrazzo on the market, for a totally unique terrazzo you’ll need one made up for you – what we call a bespoke terrazzo.
You can get involved in the design, specifying colours, sizes of chunks and chippings and whether you want anything unusual added to the mix. Diespeker will create samples so you can see your design come to life.
Once you are happy, your terrazzo is made in our factory ready to be used as tiles or worktops. Please note, bespoke terrazzo comes with a price tag – after all, it’s one of a kind!
No surface is completely heat proof, but marble is heat resistant. So, while you could place a warm cup of tea on a marble worktop, a hot pan from the oven may discolour or crack the surface.
To be safe and to best maintain your worktop, we always recommend using coasters, a heat mat, pad, trivet or other protector to help ensure that your marble worktop stays in good condition.
Granite is a good choice for a countertop if you’re going to place hot pans and trays directly on to the surface. Granite is formed by extremely high temperatures and pressure to form so is not affected by heat in the same way that a quartz worktop would be.
However, with any worktop of any material, we still recommend using a heat pad or other protector.
Cement based terrazzo is an ideal choice for external patio flooring or outdoor countertops, for example in a BBQ area. Outside terrazzo flooring can be tiles or, for a seamless patio finish, poured terrazzo. It’s durable and with a little care will last for years. For soemthing extra special and eco-friendly, try our Rubblazzo product.
Resin based terrazzo is not suitable for outdoor use as it fades or discolours with exposure to UV light.
Both of these natural stones look stunning used in offices, on concourses, in retail stores, and in other commercial applications. Both have an air of luxury and timelessness. Maintained properly, both granite and marble flooring will last and last.
However, it’s worth remembering that marble is a softer material than granite. As such it is more porous and could potentially be damaged or discoloured by liquid ingress. So in an environment where the floor is exposed to rain or where there is a regular use of liquids that could be spilled – such as a bar – then granite is the better choice.
Generally speaking, cement terrazzo is more classic in look with a slightly earthier, more rustic appearance. Resin terrazzo can appear more vibrant.
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Resin terrazzo is generally stronger, and therefore less prone to cracking. It is also slightly more stain resistant. You should, however, treat and seal both resin and cement terrazzo in the same way given that they are both porous materials. You can read more about this here.
All of our terrazzo tiles, which generally come honed rather than polished, have a slip rating of R10.
We are also able to add an anti-slip sealant to our tiles, taking them up to R11, based on Diespeker’s most recent testing. Find out more about slip resistance here.
The brilliant thing about bespoke terrazzo is that you have so many options to create something totally unique.
Typically this type of branded terrazzo is used for flooring, as tiles or a seamless poured floor, or on walls such as a display panel. But we can also make unique moulded items too from fountains to plinths.
Coloured patterns can be created in a poured floor using carefully placed dividers. Our poured floor for restaurant Folie features curves and circles reflecting the logo as well as colours to evoke the 1960s and 70s.
You can opt for the colourways that you use in your branding. These can be matched by our expert bespoke team. A good example is a blue design made for Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium which was opened in 2019. While we didn’t make this terrazzo, we did snap up the surplus stock which is now part of our limited edition range.
As the bespoke terrazzo is made in a mould, we can also introduce company logos. This can take more preparation and is usually best used where it is clearly visible, in a reception area for example.  If you visit the National Portrait Gallery you’ll see an early example of logo work by Diespeker, the NPG logo created in mosaic! A more recent example is a terrazzo ‘welcome mat’ created for the Moorings Sociable Club in Thamesmead, which reflects unusual pastel colours used by the club and features the club’s logo.
For an international bank we produced a unique terrazzo display panel and countertop which used crushed green beer bottles. This had an additional challenge as the display panel was made from resin terrazzo and the countertop from cement terrazzo, and the two needed to match perfectly.
Other branded work by our bespoke team has included a multi-coloured countertop for a jelly bean specialist, and bespoke terrazzo in orange with airplanes in brass, for a well-known airline.
When it comes to corporate branded terrazzo, the sky really is the limit!
When you order a worktop, you have the opportunity to specify the edging type.
All Diespeker worktops come with a pencil or bevelled edge as standard. However, there are more to choose from. Be aware that different edges come at a cost, as they require more work in the factory.
One design is the Bullnose, so-called because of its similarity to the rounded nose of a bull. The main characteristic is the rounded edge but there are several versions, including flat, demi, ogee, ½ and full.
Another ‘nose’ is the Sharks Nose. You’ve guessed it, it looks like a sharks nose. There are two options, a simple sharks nose and a reverse sharks nose.
Also available are Dupont, Cove, Large Pencil Round and Mitred Apron.
To see the range of edging available please click HERE
Diespeker does also offer the option of bespoke edges including our own Rockface, which as the name suggests, has an unfinished, rough edge similar to a rock. You can find out more about this unusual edging click HERE
As always, if you have something special in mind for your edging, our team will be happy to see how we can meet your brief.
We do have case studies and projects available to view on our website. But if you’re interested in a wider variety of behind-the-scenes images and work in progress to give you a better idea of the many different aspects of a project, we now have a dedicated gallery.
This shows a wide range of the type of work we undertake, from kitchen worktops to floors, cladding, reception desks and even swimming pools. The Gallery includes lots of different materials including a variety of terrazzo designs.
If there’s anything that inspires you, you can refer to the image/s when you contact us. To visit our gallery click here
Terrazzo tiles are a great option to consider if you’re looking for under floor heating, but thickness is an important element to consider.
Check out our Knowledge Base article for more in-depth advice on the best types of terrazzo, adhesive, and more.
Terrazzo can be restored to look as new. You should always use an experienced terrazzo specialist to ensure the best results.
The process involves:
– Cleaning the existing floor and removing any substances
– Filling any holes or cracks with matching terrazzo
– Grinding and polishing the restored surface
– Resealing the surface
Check out our Knowledge Base article for more information.
It is often possible to restore a terrazzo worktop. Terrazzo worktops may incur fractures or holes or more severe damage including large cracks. The terrazzo design must be matched exactly to ensure continuity. Once damage has been repaired, the worktop should be reground, repolished and resealed.
To restore a faded worktop to its original state, the surface can simply be reground, repolished and resealed.
Marble and granite are both good choices for kitchen floors. They are both durable stones although granite is more hardwearing. Correct installation is key, as is sealing the tiles. Regular resealing will ensure your natural stone floor lasts and lasts.
There are many examples of terrazzo floors used in areas of high footfall, including station concourses, hospitals and public buildings, that have been in situ for many decades, with some over a century old.
It is important to maintain a terrazzo floor, keeping it clean, free from stains and resealing on a regular basis. If there is any damage, it is possible to restore a terrazzo floor.
This is where the magic of machinery comes to the fore! Where once this was done by hand, these days state of the art cutting machinery is programmed to create cut outs for features such as sinks and hobs. The critical part of the process is to correctly programme the machine.
Terrazzo is a premium product. It incorporates luxury materials, most frequently marble chippings or chunks, but it can also contain semi-precious stones.
There are generally different levels of price, from a standard terrazzo to a luxury or exclusive terrazzo. The most expensive terrazzo is bespoke-made, where you commission a unique terrazzo to be created just for you.
See a breakdown of our pricing structure for worktops here and flooring here
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