Understand the standards, and know the TCNA Handbook Mark Heinlein, NTCA Training Director, Trainer/ Presenter, and formerly a con- tractor in his own right, points to standards as the first line of defense, calling them the “alpha- bet soup of organizations and pub- lications that guide our industry.” The two to be most concerned with are: ANSI 137.1, the manufac- turing standard for ceramic tile; and ANSI A108, the installation stan- dard for ceramic tile that defines specifications for substrate flatness, maximum allowable lippage, grout joint size and other installation components, Heinlein said. And the TCNA Handbook contains the methods, details and best practices for installing ceramic and stone tile in dozens of applications. Thoughthesestandardsandmeth- ods are not law nor REQUIRED to be used, they are “highly regarded standards for tile industry materi- als and installations and hold up as such in courts of law,” he said. They work better when used in tandem. “Here is my point: a certain tile may not meet some or all of the ANSI A137.1 specifications,” he said.“If it doesn’t meet certain specifications, it is going to be dif- ficult for the installation contractor to meet the requirements of ANSI A108.” Heinlein observed that though these standards and specs are designed to help the contractor, many times they are unknown or ignored, much to the contractor’s peril if the installation is called into question. HOT TOPICS –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Substandard Tile, Part 2 By Lesley Goddin In part 1 of our Hot Topics story on substandard tile in March, we looked at the struggles tile contractors and setters had with substandard tile and shared a bulleted list of suggestions to address these challenges. In this installment, we look at these suggestions in more detail, some of them together, since they logically are part and parcel of the same process: 46 TileLetter | April 2018