TECH TALK –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– standard now for several years. In fact, a draft standard has been prepared and will be presented at the next Total Solutions Plus (TSP) conference this year being held in Nashville, Tenn., October 26 - 29. Those companies, organizations and associations involved in this effort include: ARDEX Americas, Custom Building Products; ISOLA; LATICRETE; MAPEI; NAC Products; The Noble Company; Schluter Systems, LLC; and TCNA. Most of the details in the TCNA Handbook that were identified earlier will be part of the testing criteria.Inaddition,“PointLoading” and “Fungus/Microorganism Resistance” will be included. Two additional testing criteria under development are vapor transmis- sion and shears to evaluate the stress/strain relationship between uncoupling membranes and other membranes that are flat. This test- ing has been an international effort that has displayed some promising results. In addition to the MMSA sub- committee working on an uncou- pling standard, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has established WG 11 “Uncoupling Membranes for Ceramic Tile Installation” under the auspices of TC-189 (Technical Committee for Ceramic Tile). Some of the same participants are in both committees, so there has been very good communication and collabo- ration to ultimately achieve the best standards for both organiza- tions. Other areas that are being pursued by the ISO group are “ten- sile” and “compression” testing. Uncoupling membrane in a commercial building Shear testing an uncoupling membrane in the lab using the Instron machine. 96 TileLetter | July 2019