Dealing with substandard tile By Lesley Goddin HOT TOPICS –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– On Dec 29, 2017, on the NTCA Members Only Facebook page, a discussion developed from com- ments from NTCA Member Damian Arine of Sun Country Customs in Arroyo Grande, Calif., about the challenges of contractors dealing with substandard tile. Arine, frustrated with a prolifera- tion of flawed product, asked why companies are “allowed to stamp a regulatory committee stamp on their stuff when it is obviously not up to any standards? It’s an ongo- ing thing. If you call and bring it to their attention, you might get an apology and some money taken off your order. But it still doesn’t change their methods.” Arine continued, “I used to just deal with the problems. Now I bring it up to everyone who will pay attention. The distributor. The rep…even the company itself. Maybe one day it will make a dent but until then I’m blessed with being given different but ‘the same material,’ or tee shirts.” The situation is compounded by the real-world situation the con- tractor is up against, Arine said. “It’s a horrible situation. You bitch at the distributor too much; well, they’re going to stop referring you. The homeowner wants it done and you want to save face.” This discussion spurred the desire to investigate how contrac- tors around the country are deal- ing with similar challenges, in two parts – looking at the problem; then looking at the solutions. We do not have the space here to detail ALL of the horror stories about substandard, out-of-caliber, incorrectly fired, etc. tile, but suf- fice to say that every contractor we contacted had experienced this at one time or another. For instance, Arine sent this photo of this unevenly-mounted tile. He said, “Best solution is to 52 TileLetter | February 2018