QUESTION

Can ceramic tile seconds be installed without problems? - Are "all bets off" when it comes to installation of seconds? I have a customer that bought seconds and is complaining of size and lippage. The tiles where sold as seconds ( AND THE CUSTOMER NEW THIS,)and are 24 x 124 polished and 12 x 12 polished Porcelain. They were not modular to each other. The 24" x 24" where different thickness's as well as up to 3/32" or more in size difference The have a slight chamfered edge. I told the dealer that Seconds are Seconds and that the cusrtomer gets what he buys. What are you thoughts?

ANSWER

ANSWER - There is no standard for seconds other than it doesn't meet the ANSI A137.1 standards in some respect. On the other hand it isn't expected to represent any unlimited degree of flaws. In the past seconds normally were slight facial flaws. I wouldn't expect them to be excessively warped or off sized unless it was specifically represented that way when it was sold.

So the question is was it miss-represented when it was sold or was it clearly documented to have the type of variations as described? On the other hand, lippage tends to be caused more by the installer than the tile. A good tile job can minimize lippage and a bad tile job can have excessive lippage with a tile that does meet the standards. fyi