Acceptable Ceramic Tile Lippage

The daltile data sheet does say that you can have as small of a grout joint as 3 16 wide.

Acceptable ceramic tile lippage.

There are tolerances for tile lippage. We have 40 spots that are at 1 32 lippage and 8 spots that are above. There are industry standards for determining whether the amount of lippage is acceptable or excessive. That suggest that it should not be smaller than that.

What looks like a center offset isn t helping either because the tiles themselves can dip down in the middle so when the ends of the offset tile are set in the middle the differing levels are accentuated. This is defined in the ansi american national standards institute standard a108 02 section 4 3 7. The data sheet doesn t indicate whether it. You have a wood look glazed porcelain tile that is 6x24 inches.

What percentage of floor tiles that are at the 1 32 limit for lippage is acceptable. When excessive this can lead to numerous problems ranging from chipped edges to snagged furnishings and appliances to safety hazards. There are quantitative industry standards for what is acceptable lippage for ceramic tile. Lippage is more of a problem with large format tiles because they are harder to set.

Today however the ceramic tile industry has grown far more complicated as 12 in by 24 in 18 in by 18 in 24 in by 24 in and larger tiles are manufactured in abundance. I have yet to see the percentage question addressed. When the specification for ceramic tile american national standard was first revised in 1988 large format tiles were 8 in by 8 in and 12 in by 12 in. What is acceptable variations in the height of adjoining tiles.

Imagine a floor where all tiles are at 1 32 lippage. The ansi a108 02 standards say that acceptable lippage for floor tiles with a grout joint width of 1 16 to less than 1 4 is 1 32 plus the allowable inherent warpage of the tile. Lippage refers to differences in elevation between edges of adjacent tile modules. Lippage is the vertical displacement between two adjacent tiles of a ceramic glass or stone installation.