Two kinds of designers are involved in construction: design professionals responsible for per- formance and structural integrity and interior-focused designers responsible for the final appear- ance. Although they have very dif- ferent roles, some of their deci- sions should be coordinated. For example, they should join forces when hard surface flooring – like tile and stone – is selected since these materials are on the heavier end of the spectrum, requiring more robust structures to support their weight. Hard surface floors are also more susceptible to problems than flexible floor types are when the weight of a concentrated load, like a dreamy kitchen island, is not adequately designed for. This article provides guidelines to design pro- fessionals for specifying adequately supportive structures for tile and stone floors in new construction wood frame buildings. Designing for dead load A key factor is “dead load,” which is the cumulative weight of everything that a structure needs to support continually, including the flooring. When the actual dead load in a wood frame structure exceeds what was designed for, it over stresses the wood framing and Wood frame construction recommendations for tile and stone floors Building design guidelines and additional measures to accommodate sustained concentrated loads TECH TALK –––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Sponsored by This article was derived from an article by Dr. Frank Woeste, P.E., Professor Emeritus at Virginia Tech and a wood construction consultant, and Peter Nielsen, cofounder of MGNT Products Group, LLC, a consult- ing and product design company for the tile and construction industries. This version of the information was generated by NTCA to provide a brief overview of their wood framing recommendations for hard surface flooring. The full article is available at: https://componentadvertiser. com/Portals/0/EasyDNNnews/Uploads/72/AllThingsWood%201806.pdf or https://bit.ly/2TRkT0S. 60 TileLetter | February 2019