Acceptable Ceramic Tile Lippage

There are tolerances for tile lippage.

Acceptable ceramic tile lippage.

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. Would it technically be acceptable. This is defined in the ansi american national standards institute standard a108 02 section 4 3 7. What percentage of floor tiles that are at the 1 32 limit for lippage is acceptable.

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. Imagine a floor where all tiles are at 1 32 lippage. Variation in the height of adjoining tiles is called lippage. When excessive this can lead to numerous problems ranging from chipped edges to snagged furnishings and appliances to safety hazards.

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. There are industry standards for determining whether the amount of lippage is acceptable or excessive. Lippage is more of a problem with large format tiles because they are harder to set. That suggest that it should not be smaller than that.

The daltile data sheet does say that you can have as small of a grout joint as 3 16 wide. Lippage refers to differences in elevation between edges of adjacent tile modules. If the grout joint width is 1 4 or greater then the allowable warpage is 1 16 plus the allowable inherent warpage of the tile. You have a wood look glazed porcelain tile that is 6x24 inches.

There are quantitative industry standards for what is acceptable lippage for ceramic tile. The data sheet doesn t indicate whether it. We have 40 spots that are at 1 32 lippage and 8 spots that are above. 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.