b"TRAINING AND EDUCATIONI WANTEDContractors and installers to participate in standards development IInvolvement ensures industry's product and installation requirements are fair, appropriate for laborBy Stephanie Samulski, NTCA Technical DirectorLikeitornot,whatsprintedbetweenthecoversofcontracting, and provides oversight to ensure undue lia-theANSIstandardsandtheTCNAHandbookcanhavebility is not pushed onto tile contractors. To facilitate this, tremendous impact on a tile contractor. A single phraseinfrastructural changes have been made to make contrac-or string of words holds the potential to save the day ortor participation more feasible. In addition, outreach has send a projectnamely, profitabilitysideways. At thejust begun to form working groups to address the priority very least then, contractors need to know the require- product and installation standards and guidelines being ments theyre beholden to as a matter of minimizing risk.developed. These include:But its also essential for contractors and installers to take OverhaulingexistingANSIinstallationstandardsto standards a step further. They need to be proactive byeliminateredundancy,conflictingrequirements,out-getting involved and impacting the requirements whiledatedlanguageandrequirements,aswellasundue theyrebeingdevisedratherthanacceptingwhatevertile contractor liability due to lack of clarity regarding others may craft, quite possibly without much consider- requirements that fall under the jurisdiction of other ation or conception of how a proposed new requirementparties, such as the building designer and/or the gen-or language change might affect a contractor.eral contractor.NTCA has been engaged and influential in the national Vettingandcommentingon and international collaborations that produce standardsproposedANSIproductand for the U.S. tile industry since its inception in 1947, soinstallation standards for flow-this call to action is not a new one. It is, perhaps, a more urgent one, emanating from a reported increase in litiga-tion and arbitration, according to some NTCA contractor members, in which ANSI and Handbook language is heav- In the consensus process, input ily relied upon and often instrumental in the outcome offrom stakeholders with diverse, the dispute. In other words, the voters on the ANSI andsometimes even competing, HandbookcommitteeswhorepresentNTCAcontractorinterests is factored in. But members have a lot more riding on their votes, whichits up to stakeholders to participate, to have their necessitates a more critical review of all proposals putpositions taken into before the committees for consideration and balloting.account.Participationisneededfromagreaternumberand wider variety of tile contractors. Why? More participa-tionallowsthoroughreviewsofinternallyandexter-nally drafted proposals to be conducted, with an eye to ensuring that standards and requirements are fair in the context of real world application on a construction site. Greater contractor participation also represents varying contractormembersperspectivesandapproachesto 102019|TECH"