Handmade terracotta floors
Seven finishes for our terracotta floors, a color scale of warm tones and numerous formats: Bernasconi terracotta floors allow for endless combinations for any environment.
When we talk about a handmade terracotta floor, we refer to both indoor and outdoor use. The typical nuances of wood-fired kilns, the irregular surface, natural and pleasant to the touch, promote a warm and welcoming interior both aesthetically and functionally. Its versatility knows no limits: from rustic to modern, from classic to industrial, terracotta flooring enhances any environment.
The wood-fired kiln for about 30 hours at 1000° C, makes the brick resistant to very low temperatures (frost resistance) and therefore suitable for outdoor flooring: the manual workmanship and the sanded surface ensure naturally non-slip surfaces. Your homes will extend their beauty outdoors as well.
Terracotta flooring is so durable that it is driveway-suitable, a feature that makes it suitable for creating beautiful courtyards or villa driveways.
In the living room, kitchen, or bathroom… in ancient residences or country farmhouses, in a village home or in the city center: a spread of terracotta tiles creates a warm and familiar flooring, capable of maintaining the charm of tradition and harmonizing a natural material with modern and design environments.
For all this, we produce handcrafted terracotta floors with great care and passion. Rectangular, square, hexagonal shapes, and more: the sizes you desire, different laying patterns, and many ideas to create an always original terracotta floor, that is, a carpet of intense and pleasant tones that matches any covering.
TERRACOTTA FLOOR FORMATS
Rectangular terracotta floors
Square terracotta floors
Terracotta floors – other shapes
Beyond standards, handcrafted and custom-made processing allows for customizations of size, color, finish, and thickness (subject to technical feasibility).
Indoor terracotta flooring: why choose handmade terracotta?
The choice of terracotta for one’s home is often motivated by aesthetic factors. An indoor terracotta floor, in addition to being very elegant and pleasant, gives our home and our rooms a sense of belonging to tradition, an experience that is specified with the material used but with a conscious sense of revisiting the past. This does not exclude the use of this material in the furnishing of modern or contemporary environments, where the choice of finish and tone will give an essential and natural aspect, not emulable with commercial materials.
The reasons why we should choose a handmade terracotta floor are endless; we list below the most relevant:
- Being a porous and compact material, it is resistant to water or other types of stains (making the surface easy to clean);
- Indoor terracotta floors are made of a non-combustible material, therefore non-flammable, in case of fire it does not release any dangerous gases;
- The very material of which terracotta is composed prevents the emission of substances harmful to health. Furthermore, it does not retain allergenic agents and allows for safe cleaning of the surface;
- In anticipation of dismantling a terracotta floor, the discarded material can be recycled and reused in new building works, reducing environmental impact.
Is indoor terracotta different from outdoor terracotta?
This is actually a very common question, although improper. We can safely say that all handmade terracotta formats are suitable for both inside and outside a home. The only precaution to take into consideration is technical, that is, during installation, the slope of your outdoor flooring must be well studied.
What is the most suitable terracotta brick format for indoor floors?
Choosing the format undoubtedly depends on personal taste. But it is the job of a professional company to give its customer indications on the best choice for a specific location, finding the meeting point between technical solutions and the customer’s most careful needs.
How to choose an indoor terracotta floor
For your indoor terracotta floor you will find a wide choice of shapes, finishes and colors, and it is a selection that you can certainly make independently; but if you have doubts about how to adapt it inside your home, you can always rely on the advice of a professional who will accompany you on a journey of style and taste.
If I choose terracotta indoor floors, how can I maintain and preserve the style of my house?
To keep your home in the same styling it is advisable to rely on the advice of the professional you trust, who will be ready to direct you on the best material to use for your indoor terracotta flooring (or if you want to add terracotta bricks, or terracotta tiles): the usefulness of his support will be visible when you discover materials used that blend perfectly with those already existing.
What are the advantages of choosing an indoor terracotta floor?
The antique rustic floors, whether they are handmade terracotta, stone or wood floors, were once used to last a lifetime. For this reason, when we observe a terracotta floor, it gives us an idea of solidity that no other type of floor can give us. The terracotta floor for your interior, in addition to preserving the beauty of an already existing history of your home, has the fundamental advantage of eternal duration!
Terracotta floor prices
After appreciating the naturalness and craftsmanship of a beautiful handmade terracotta floor, with the typical nuances of wood firing, it is legitimate to ask what the price is.
The final price of a terracotta floor is determined by several components and specifically:
- The cost of the brick in the shape, finish and color requested;
- The cost of the service performance of the installation;
- The cost of the service performance of the final treatment (both indoor and outdoor) to make the floor water and oil repellent and easy to maintain.
The sum of these three components will define the total price. We remind you that Fornace Bernasconi is able to offer, in addition to the supply of bricks, also the service performances of installation and treatment throughout the national territory (all inclusive formula). In this way the client will have a single interlocutor (and with decades of experience).
The price of the brick, being handmade and wood fired, is a direct function of the craftsmanship, that is, the difficulty of realization.
What affects the price of terracotta flooring?
Variables that affect the price are essentially the size, finish and (in part) the thickness (not the color which is a pure function of the firing temperature, i.e. the position of the brick in the kiln, unless white, black or mocha is chosen). It goes without saying that by making them by hand, countless sizes can be made (over 5 types of finishes) for which it is not easy to give a price reference here.
As an exercise, in this context, we can say that the price ranges from approx. €35 per square meter (for a 15×30 RAW flat tile) upwards in relation to the size and finishes.
If you consider that we are faced with a hand-molded and wood-fired brick, the price is not high at all. This thesis is also supported by the comparison with other materials such as wood (it is equally natural but has a higher cost) or porcelain stoneware (equal or higher costs for a completely industrial material) which certainly has another history and another charm.
For the price of the service performance of the installation and treatment, we invite you to visit the appropriate pages.
types of terracotta flooring
Learn more about…
Outdoor Terracotta Floors
Terracotta Baseboards
Terracotta Steps and Stairs
terracotta flooring and furnishings
FAQ: frequently asked questions about terracotta floors
Is terracotta suitable for underfloor heating?
When you have an underfloor heating system, the choice of handmade terracotta is technically the best choice, as terracotta has a high thermal transmittance (much better than parquet), and being a natural material it does not release any harmful substances over time.
Also read: “Floor for underfloor heating: terracotta or parquet?“
How much does a handmade and wood-fired terracotta floor cost?
Prices for a handmade and wood-fired terracotta floor vary depending on the size and finish, as the craftsmanship has a significant impact. Regarding the size, the lowest price is for the 15×30 half-brick, while for the finish (surface appearance of the brick) the cheapest is the “RAW” one, i.e. without any processing. The cost of the 15×30 raw is 35 euros per SQM plus VAT and transport. Changing the size and increasing or decreasing the dimensions, the price increases.
How is a handmade terracotta floor made?
An authentic handmade terracotta is molded from a soft paste (rainwater and clay) individually brick by brick, inside wooden molds. After the first drying, the processing concerning the finish may or may not be done, depending on the chosen aesthetic appearance. Following this, it is carefully positioned inside the wood-fired kiln and the relative firing takes place. The firing process lasts on average 3 and a half days, between the initial tempering phase (low fire) and the actual firing phase (36 hours at 1000 °C). The result is a unique and inimitable handmade and wood-fired brick that will create a flooring with warm tones.
Learn more about how terracotta is made.
Can handmade terracotta be installed outdoors?
Handmade terracotta can be placed outdoors if it has frost-resistant characteristics. These characteristics are acquired if the brick is fired for several hours at 1000 °C. This is why wood firing is preferable, where the brick stays for about 36 hours between 1000 °C and 1050 °C. Another aspect of fundamental importance for terracotta to be laid outdoors is the subfloor, which must be well reinforced, dry and with a slope of 1.5/2%.
Learn more about Outdoor Terracotta Flooring.
Do outdoor floors need to be treated?
For outdoor floors, the choice of whether or not to treat the handmade terracotta floor can change depending on the use. If it is an environment where you have banquets (patio) and you want to see it always clean, in this case the advice is to treat with a water and oil repellent. If it is a sidewalk or an outdoor space where it is not important that it always remains clean, the advice is not to treat: in this case the terracotta floor will age naturally and will be equally aesthetically pleasing. In any case (very important), outdoors it is recommended to lay with a slope of 1.5/2%.
Learn more about terracotta treatment.
Why choose a handmade terracotta floor for outdoors?
The choice of a handmade terracotta floor for outdoors is always an excellent decision, both from a technical and aesthetic point of view. In addition to the indisputable characteristics that give it resistance to all atmospheric agents, the handmade terracotta floor is certainly an excellent option outdoors for what concerns the aesthetic side as the warm colors blend perfectly with the colors of nature.
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With terracotta everything is possible!
