Marketable Securities - Schedule of Marketable Securities (Detail) - USD ($) $ in Thousands	Mar. 31, 2017	Dec. 31, 2016
Schedule Of Available For Sale Securities [Line Items]
Market value	$ 47,143	$ 49,731
Level 1 \| Valhi Inc \| Common stock
Schedule Of Available For Sale Securities [Line Items]
Market value	47,143	49,731
Cost basis	24,347	24,347
Unrealized gain	$ 22,796	$ 25,384

Amount before tax of unrealized gain in accumulated other comprehensive income (AOCI) on investments in equity securities classified as available-for-sale.

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 320
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 2
-Subparagraph (b)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=73527792&loc=d3e27161-111563

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- Definition

This item represents the cost of equity securities, which are categorized neither as held-to-maturity nor trading, net of adjustments for other-than-temporary impairments recognized in earnings (less any cumulative-effect adjustments recognized, as defined), and fair value hedge accounting adjustments, if any.

+ References

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- Definition

Equity securities categorized neither as held-to-maturity nor trading which are intended be sold more than one year from the balance sheet date or operating cycle, if longer.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 320
-SubTopic 10
-Section 25
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (b)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=65884222&loc=d3e22054-111558

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 320
-SubTopic 10
-Section 45
-Paragraph 2
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=66010992&loc=d3e26626-111562

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- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

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