Industry Alert
INDUSTRY MOVEMENT JOINT ALERT
PROVIDED BY RICHARD BOWMAN
INTERTILE RESEARCH PTY LTD
Honorary Principle Technical Adviser to the Australian Tile Council. The Australian Tile Council NSW appreciates and acknowledges Mr Bowmans excellent contribution on this matter of importance
INSTALLATION PROBLEMS WITH LARGE RECTANGULAR TILES LAID IN A BRICK PATTERN
It has been found that the surface flatness of some large format ceramic tiles can cause lipping problems particularly when rectangular tiles are laid in a brick pattern. Often large tiles laid with a brick pattern sees the highest part of any curvature correspond with the lowest part of adjoining tiles therefore accentuating lipping (see below)
The allowable curvature for first quality ceramic tiles whether plain, polished or honed, according to AS4459 and the ISO standard remains at 0.5%.
This allows a 600mm x 300mm tile to curve up to 3mm in its length and still be considered first quality.
The tile installation standard states that lipping allowances of between 1 & 2mm depending on whether the tiles are ground flat or have cushion edges can have the curvature in the tiles added to the lipping tolerances.
Few large tiles come near this allowance, however the Australian Tile Council NSW, strongly advise tile re-sellers to check their stock to ascertain their curvature.
If stocked large tiles do not comply with the above mentioned standard, then the ATC NSW suggest that tile resellers should advise their sales staff to inform the consumer of potential lipping problems which would display significant curvature within a brick pattern and therefore inform consumers that, laying the same tiles in a straight pattern would minimizes any lipping.
FALLS IN FLOOR FINISHES
Report written by Col Cass Honorary and valuable Member of the ATC NSW
In this article Colin Cass looks at issues related to falls in floors, and changes to the Australian Standards on internal and external waterproofing and the BCA.