Acceptable Ceramic Tile Lippage

Lippage is the vertical displacement between two adjacent tiles of a ceramic glass or stone installation.

Acceptable ceramic tile lippage.

There are tolerances for tile lippage. This is defined in the ansi american national standards institute standard a108 02 section 4 3 7. 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. The daltile data sheet does say that you can have as small of a grout joint as 3 16 wide.

Imagine a floor where all tiles are at 1 32 lippage. That suggest that it should not be smaller than that. What is acceptable variations in the height of adjoining tiles. What percentage of floor tiles that are at the 1 32 limit for lippage is acceptable.

There are industry standards for determining whether the amount of lippage is acceptable or excessive. 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. You have a wood look glazed porcelain tile that is 6x24 inches. 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.

The data sheet doesn t indicate whether it. I have yet to see the percentage question addressed. 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. We have 40 spots that are at 1 32 lippage and 8 spots that are above.

Variation in the height of adjoining tiles is called lippage. Lippage refers to differences in elevation between edges of adjacent tile modules. 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. When excessive this can lead to numerous problems ranging from chipped edges to snagged furnishings and appliances to safety hazards.