QUESTION

I have purchased a house for my residence. It has been constructed/sold by a builder, who is building 10 blocks - each of 6 floors, and each block housing 144 houses. Most of the houses have already been sold. My house has recently been constructed and offered to me for possession. When I went for inspection, I found that the floors have been constructed with finished ceramic tiles, 18" x 18" in size. I find that the adjoining tiles do not flush in height with each other, and there is a height difference in adjoining tiles. I want to know what is the acceptance standard for the difference in height of the installed adjoining tiles?

ANSWER

ANSWER - For ceramic tile, or porcelain tile that is a type of ceramic tile, there are standards for what is acceptable tile lippage.  Tile lippage is the vertical displacement between two adjacent tile edges.

The standard for what is acceptable tile lippage is ANSI A108.02-4.3.7.  For tiles that have a grout joint width of 1/16" to 1/8" the allowable lippage is 1/32" plus the inherent warpage in the tile.  Inherent warpage is the actual warpage that that tile has that does not exceed the allowable warpage for that respective tile in ANSI A137.1.  All tiles have some degree of warpage.

For tiles that have a grout joint width of 1/4" or greater the allowable lippage is 1/16" plus the inherent warpage in the tile.

Note that there are cases where the tile does not exceed the tile lippage standards, but it appears to have excessive tile lippage.  This can be caused by the type of lighting and the angle of the lighting that creates a shadowing affect at the tile grout joints.