Terrazzo Restoration in Forest Hills

Forest Hills was citrus grove until the 1950s, and the block houses built there in the 1950s and early 1960s are prime terrazzo territory. Restoring one of those floors typically runs $5 to $9 per square foot for the grind, hone and polish, $2 to $3 per square foot to take up carpet and glue, $4 to $6 for tile, and $75 to $250 per patch. Send a closet-corner photo and we will tell you what you have.

A golf course neighborhood that came later

A golf course and clubhouse were built here in 1926. In 1949 Babe Zaharias bought the clubhouse and course, and she moved to a house nearby in 1954. After her death in 1956 the course closed, and the City of Tampa later bought it and reopened it in 1974. It is the city-owned Babe Zaharias golf course today.

The houses mostly came after the plan. The area was mainly citrus grove until residential development began in the 1950s and 1960s, which puts most of the original Forest Hills housing right in the Florida terrazzo window. Part of the neighborhood is inside Tampa’s city limits and the northern part is unincorporated county near Lake Magdalene, in ZIP code 33612.

One more thing is changing the stock. Some of the older, smaller Forest Hills houses have been replaced by much bigger new ones, particularly around the lakes and ponds west of North Boulevard and north of Country Club Drive. Every original house that is restored rather than replaced keeps one more of those floors in the neighborhood.

Because the neighborhood straddles the city line, the West Country Club Drive houses we pulled are taxed inside the City of Tampa, while streets farther north near Lake Magdalene are unincorporated county. For a floor job that matters only if there is flood repair involved, since the city and the county run their own building departments.

What the county records show

On West Country Club Drive, we pulled every single-family house the county property appraiser listed. The ones built between 1950 and 1972:

The street as a whole is mostly mid-1950s. The terrazzo listings on it run from 1954 to 1960. Armenia Acres, farther west on the street, returned none, and three of its seven records list wood flooring instead, a reminder that “1950s” alone is not enough; you need block construction and a builder who poured terrazzo. The property-record guide shows how to read your own house’s record.

What Forest Hills floors tend to need

These are among the oldest terrazzo floors in our area, and age shows in particular ways:

• Cracks along divider strips. A topping on a slab poured seventy years ago has had time to follow every slab crack. Most are hairline and get filled; a crack with a height difference needs a closer look. See cracks along divider strips.
• Hollow spots where the topping has let go of the slab. A golf-ball test finds them. See hollow-sounding terrazzo.
• Wax and coatings on floors that were kept bare through the 1960s and 1970s.
• Carpet and tack strip on the rest, with rust dots and holes around every room.

A note for buyers

If you are looking at an original Forest Hills house, the floor is worth checking before you write an offer. A home inspector is not required to lift carpet to inspect the floor beneath, under the InterNACHI Standards of Practice, so ask the seller to let you fold back one closet corner. If it is terrazzo and you plan to keep the house, it is one of the strongest arguments for keeping it rather than rebuilding.

Getting a number

Send a closet-corner photo, a close shot of the worst spot with a coin beside it, and the square footage. You get a range from the pricing page and a plain read on cracks and hollow spots. The full process is on the restoration page, and we also work in Carrollwood and Temple Terrace.