When Clyde Martin began working as an estimator and project manager in the 1980s at Terrazzo Masters (then known as American Tile and Terrazzo), the versatile poured flooring that had been so ubiquitous in mid-20th-century office buildings, institutions and even houses was definitely not cool.
In the decades since, the pendulum has swung back and terrazzo is once again in demand — and it’s a lot better looking than the floor in your grade-school cafeteria.
The resurgence in popularity is not just due to the fickle whims of the interior design community. Technology has changed and new substances have made it easier to design terrazzo floors with a depth and sparkle that wasn’t possible 70 years ago.
Martin has been at forefront of the industry’s evolution and has helped develop new materials and patterns. He’s done this while selling and installing flooring for clients around the region, including the Higgins Hotel at The National WWII Museum, the New Orleans BioInnovation Center and parts of the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport terminal. Along the way, he helped solidify the company’s expertise in high-quality terrazzo and polished concrete flooring — one of just 120 companies in the U.S. that still makes and installs such products
In this week’s Talking Business, Martin discusses his nearly 1,500-year-old craft and some of the more interesting projects he’s done.
Interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Terrazzo dates back to the 15th century in Italy. What’s the history of your company?
Our company was founded in late 1950s by a family of Italian immigrants and primarily did residential work. New Orleans had a lot of Italian immigrants in the 20th century and a lot of them were skilled in doing that kind of work. I had been working for a construction company and joined American Tile and Terrazzo in the early 1980s. I’ve been here ever since and bought out the original founders. Today, about 90% of what we do is terrazzo, no more tile, and most of it is commercial work, though we do a handful of homes.
The industry has changed a lot since then. How?
It’s very labor intensive and very specialized. That’s what makes it challenging. In the early to mid-20th century, there were a lot of Italian immigrants, who provided cheap labor. By the 1970s and 1980s, those labor costs went up as cheaper flooring options became popular — picture shag carpet and inexpensive, glue-down wood parquet, cheap linoleum. There were a lot of other flooring options. Because terrazzo is a low-maintenance, sanitary flooring, a lot of municipal buildings, courthouses, hospitals continued to use it and we stayed busy just maintaining it for those clients until (Hurricane) Katrina.
How did Katrina change things?
It was a really a turning point for us and we have had a steady growth since Katrina. The Archdiocese of New Orleans was a big reason why and they got us involved in the recovery. Virtually all the Catholic schools in this city have terrazzo floors. So do a lot of the churches. They were all damaged and we demonstrated that we could repolish them and make them look new. Then, the public school systems started calling, so we did their schools, too. We spent years after Katrina restoring institutional buildings. Then, people started building new schools and about 80% of those new buildings were terrazzo installations. We did them all.
The new terrazzo floors do not look like the terrazzo you see in a 70-year-old church or school. They have so much more depth to them. What’s different?
Old terrazzo was not made using epoxy resin, which limited what you could use as your aggregate. Epoxy resin is different and binds well with glass and mirror, so you can use different colors and types of glass chunks in your design styles — like with the Cointreau House. It’s just opened up this advent of terrazzo styles and colors and people can design their own pattern. We just opened a design showroom, which has been a longtime goal of mine, and architects and designers are starting to come and see what they can design. That is really attractive to millennials and younger customers. They want something unique.
Is terrazzo sustainable?
The aggregates are all sustainable. Originally, in northern Italy, the aggregates were a byproduct of stone quarries. It was the trash, the small stuff. That still holds today. All the glass we use is recycled glass. The shell that we use is crushed mother of pearl. And they are developing new cements that do not have as large a carbon footprint as older products and we are developing epoxy bio resins, which are made from plants. So, yes, it’s all more Earth-friendly. They’re also durable. You eventually have to replace vinyl or wood. There are terrazzo floors that are 3,000 years old.
Is it expensive?
It’s in the price range of a marble floor because the flooring is 75% aggregate and standard terrazzo is marble so, cost wise, it is equivalent to high-end porcelain or a middle-range marble. But it’s still within the price range of institutional customers.
Is there a lot of competition?
There’s one other company on the northshore, one in Baton Rouge and us. The next closest is in Jackson, Houston and Dallas. It’s a very labor intensive expertise. It takes years to become a full journeyman terrazzo installer. I am a board member of the National Terrazzo and Mosaic Association, and we have licensing standards. There are some large, national companies that work all over the country. The rest of us are local and regional.
What have been some of your most fun projects?
Each project is different, but we have done some crazy stuff — like the football administration building on LSU campus. We had aggregate custom-made to duplicate LSU purple. We’re doing a residential project right now for a customer who wants to recreate a 14th-century floor.
(Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to correct the location of Terrazzo Master’s in Metairie.)
Email Stephanie Riegel at stephanie.riegel@theadvocate.com.
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