New methods in the 2015 TCNA Handbook for ceramic, glass and stone tile installation

For the 2015 edition of the TCNA Handbook, the Handbook Committee approved eight new installation methods. Six of them are adaptations of existing methods for heated ceramic tile floors, edited to become stone methods to give building design professionals a means of generically specifying several well-established methods: heated stone floors over cementitious self-leveling and poured gypsum underlayments, over on-ground and above-ground concrete substrates. Additionally, the committee voted to include two curbless shower methods, a reflection of the growing popularity of curbless, or “zero-entry,” showers.

For some, the interest in curbless shower designs is purely aesthetic — a desire for a minimalist, streamlined, ultramodern look — while for others it’s a functional consideration, the need for easier access into a shower by individuals less able to access a tub shower or navigate a shower curb. Regardless of the reason, the design challenges are the same: eliminating the curb eliminates the dam that contains water within the shower area. Since the shower curb allows the floor height just inside the shower curb to be higher than the floor outside the curb, a height difference that results from the typical method of creating slope-to-drain within the shower by building up the floor height of the shower’s perimeter, removing the curb creates many design challenges.