Yes — terrazzo is still made, poured and ground the same way it was a hundred years ago, and it is having a genuine comeback in UAE homes and hospitality projects, not fading out. What has changed is the binder: alongside the original cement matrix, epoxy and polyester resin systems now exist, thinner and faster to install. What has NOT changed, and causes most of the confusion, is that “terrazzo tiles” sold online and in some showrooms are a manufactured, factory-cut product laid like any other tile — not the poured, ground-in-place floor this page and the word “terrazzo” traditionally mean.
Can you still get terrazzo floors?
Yes, without qualification. Cement terrazzo — marble, granite or glass chips poured in a binder, cured, then ground and polished flat — is a live, specified floor in the UAE today. It never stopped being made; it went quiet for a couple of decades as cheaper flooring took over mass housing, then came back through hospitality and high-end residential projects that wanted a floor with real permanence. Schools, airports, museums and lobbies still choose it for the same reason they always did: it wears by re-polishing, not by replacing.
What actually changed since the mid-century original
The chips, the grinding and the ground-flat, speckled look are unchanged. What is genuinely new is the choice of binder. Epoxy terrazzo replaces the cement matrix with resin, going down as a thin-set layer a fraction of cement’s thickness and weight — the fix for upper floors and renovations where a thick cementitious pour was never an option. Polyester terrazzo does the same job faster and cheaper, at the cost of more shrinkage to manage and a stronger odour during install. Colour range has widened too — resin terrazzo takes saturated pigments cement never could. The full comparison of all three is in terrazzo types: cement, epoxy or polyester.
”Terrazzo tiles” are not this floor
A lot of UAE search traffic for “terrazzo tiles” is really looking for one of two different things, and it is worth untangling them before you buy anything. Poured terrazzo — what RBS installs — is mixed and laid on site, then ground flat as one continuous floor with no joints. Terrazzo-look tiles are manufactured off-site, often porcelain or engineered stone printed or cast with a terrazzo pattern, then laid and grouted exactly like any other tile. They are cheaper, faster to fit and genuinely useful for a budget renovation or a rental — but they have grout lines, a repeating pattern, and none of the “no two floors alike” character or fifty-year re-polishing life of the real thing. If a quote calls itself “terrazzo tiles” at a fraction of a poured-terrazzo price, it is very likely this second product, not poured terrazzo, and that is not a bad thing as long as you know which one you are buying. Our guide to terrazzo tiles in Dubai compares cement, resin and porcelain terrazzo tiles room by room.
Where poured terrazzo is genuinely still the right call
It suits the same projects it always did: entrance halls, lobbies, staircases and living spaces in a home or building you intend to keep for decades. It is not the answer for a tenant fit-out you will hand back, a single small room, or a tight budget — see is terrazzo worth it for the honest arithmetic on when the fifty-year floor pays for itself and when it does not. For upper floors where the weight of a cement pour is the obstacle, epoxy terrazzo above is the answer that keeps the real, poured, joint-free floor without the structural load.
The verdict
Terrazzo never went away — it is a live, growing category in the UAE, made exactly the way it always was, now with a thinner resin option alongside the original cement one. What did change is that “terrazzo” now has to share its name with a manufactured tile that only borrows the look. Ask which one is being quoted before you compare a price.
Considering a terrazzo floor, real or tiled? Send the space and the budget on WhatsApp, or call +971 4 587 7086. We pour and grind real terrazzo across the UAE, RBS is responsible for every job from start to finish, and we will tell you plainly if a tiled alternative suits your project better.
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