Wall Tile Lippage

In faux wood tile sophistication we mentioned how important it is to pay attention to offsets when installing tile the reason.

Wall tile lippage.

However not every warpage qualifies as lippage. If wall wash lighting is specified or is already in place it should be about 12 inches out from the wall. According to the american national standards institute ansi the allowable lippage for grout joints that are less than 6 mm 1 4 in wide is 1 mm 1 32 in plus the built in tile warpage. Lippage of tile and stone installations is increasingly becoming a highly contentious issue in the industry.

Answer ansi a108 02 2013 section 4 3 7 lippage states that a ceramic tile porcelain is a type of ceramic tile grout joint that is less than 1 4 in width cannot have any more lippage than 1 32 plus the actual warpage in the tile. Often times expectations far exceed the physical abilities of the tile or stone or the physical characteristics of the surface on which the tile or stone will be installed to provide for a perfect installation. If there is no warpage the lippage should not exceed the value in the table. When a tile is warped but within standards all of the corners cannot be set in the plane of the adjoining tiles.

This is known as lippage and it can diminish the most professional. Ansi a108 02 2013 section 4 3 7 cautions the lippage requirements do not apply to tiled floors sloping to drains specifically when using tiles 15 x 15 mm 6 x 6 in and larger. Don t forget the lights. Accordingly the tolerance for variation from tile to tile includes the actual warpage of the tile.

If you re tiling over an uneven section of wall the corners of the tiles may stick out slightly from the rest of the tiles. The lippage allowance will be the sum of the value in the lippage table and whatever warpage is present in the tile. Offsets and grout joints are particularly critical when you are installing larger tile sizes and rectangular tile such as a wood plank tile where the length is much greater than the width. In the days before isostatic presses warpage was more.

Wall tile applications are more susceptible to mistaken lippage where the tile lippage meets the standards but because of the lighting in the area it looks excessive. If the lighting is already in place and less than 12 inches away from the wall this. The tile lippage standards apply to both floor and wall applications. Unavoidable lippage at drains there are some applications where tile lippage to some degree is unavoidable.

The allowable lippage for grout joints that are 6 mm or wider is 2 mm 1 16 in plus the warpage. This is why one sees grout joints on irregular sized mexican paver tiles that are 20 mm 3 4 in or wider which helps compensate for the wide variations in their dimensional.