NEW ANSI REQUIREMENT – TILE INDUSTRY

It is official. The floor flatness requirements in ANSI 108.1 are now 1/8” in 10’ for any tile with an edge of 15” or greater. There is a public comment period on this before it is published, but there shouldn’t be any problem. This tighter requirement helps tile contractors avoid excessive floor preparation and the associated back charges.

OK, so what does this mean ..?  To the architect / designer ...?  To the Owner ..?  To the GC / Builder ...?  To the Tile Sub-Contractor / Installer ..?

What level of flatness ...?

Received an email with an interesting technical question:

What level of flatness do we need in a concrete slab for a ceramic tile installation – using the F-number system?

Note:

Measuring concrete levelness and flatness using the F-number system for ceramic tile & stone installations may be over and above what is needed. Typically measuring FF/FL tolerances would be for projects such as warehouses where forklifts or machinery requires tight concrete levelness and flatness tolerances.

And our Laticrete Technical Support reply:

Please note that the American Concrete Institute's (ACI) Floor Flatness (FF) / Floor Levelness (FL) are typically used by concrete specifiers / masons to pour their floors to specific tolerances.

Typically, the following are the FF #'s which roughly correlate to the respective floor tolerances:

FF 25 is roughly equivalent to a single ± 1/4" defect in 10'
FF 50 is roughly equivalent to a single ± 1/8" defect in 10'
FF 100 is roughly equivalent to a single ± 1/16" defect in 10'

Tile Council of North America / ANSI Standards typically require substrates receiving thin set applications to be within 1/4" in 10' (and 1/16” in 1’-0”). For large format tiles and running bond patterns, a tighter tolerance of 1/8" in 10' may be necessary.

Standards

OK, time for alphabet soup ... ANSI, EN, ISO, JS, BS, AS

Laticrete operates Globally. We understand the subject of "Standards." We produce Laticrete products in many countries around the world and we meet & exceed applicable standards in each Country, Region & Market.

Just thought that you should know.