ASK THE EXPERTS QUESTION I have these photos from a cus- tomer who is adamant that the chipped tiles are defective.The tiles are butted up and were installed without grout. Would the inability to allow deflection be the cause of breakage? ANSWER You are correct. These tiles have very likely chipped along the edges where they touch each other because an appropriate grout joint was not installed in the system. Appropriately-sized grout joints are required by tile industry stan- dards and are an integral com- ponent to successful tile installa- tions. One of the purposes of a grout joint and grout is to protect the edges of the tiles from damage such as this. – Mark Heinlein, NTCA Training Director, Trainer/Presenter QUESTION Have you seen a rise in issues with tile crazing? I've had several issues with a few different facto- ries with different dye lots. From both Italy and Spain, all glossy. ALL of these jobs used one form of waterproofing; all used premium thinset and premium grouts. All of the factories pass the crazing test and also ANSI. Without see- ing into the walls, the jobs looked solid, very good craftsmanship. I have had a total of seven jobs with this issue (three of one color – two Sponsored by Ask the Experts Q&As are culled from member inqui- ries to NTCA’s Technical Support staff. To become a member and make use of personal, targeted answers from Technical Support staff to your installation ques- tions, contact Jim Olson at jim@tile-assn.com. 26 TileLetter | July 2018