Tile Council of North America (TCNA), tile manufacturers, installation material manufacturers, and various labor associations recently met to discuss additions and updates to ceramic, glass, and stone tile installation methods for incorporation in the 2024 TCNA Handbook.

Meeting sponsors included Laticrete, Daltile, Portobello America, Schluter Systems, Crossville Inc., Custom Building Products, Ironrock, Tile and Stone Council of Northern California, and Barnes and Thornburg. Tile industry leaders went to Capitol Hill to meet with congressional and senatorial staff members.

The TCNA Handbook for Ceramic, Glass, and Stone Tile Installation, now in its 61st year of continuous publication, features guidelines widely used in specifying, selling, and installing tile and related installation materials. “The TCNA Handbook Committee Meeting is an important gathering of industry leaders to collaborate on potential updates to the TCNA Handbook, which is considered a must-have guide for tile installation in the U.S.,” said Ryan Marino, TCNA’s standards development and research manager.

TCNA Handbook additions and changes approved by the Handbook Committee at the recent meeting include:

• Updates to installation details for epoxy spot bonding and tile in steam showers
• Revisions based on recent changes to ANSI A108 standards
• Revisions to the “Green Building Standards and Green Product Selection Guide:”
  • Additional details on TCNA’s Material Ingredient Guide
  • A new section — “Choosing Products with the Lowest Cradle-to-Grave Embodied Carbon”  
• A new “Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) Selection Guide”

TCNA, with the help of the Barnes and Thornburg law firm, scheduled small group meetings with TCNA Handbook Committee members and U.S. senators, representatives, and staffers. Participants had the opportunity to discuss important industry goals and key issues affecting the ceramic tile industry, as well as offer possible solutions to these issues. The visit included more than 20 TCNA Handbook Committee members, who met with congressional representatives from Texas, South Carolina, Missouri, Florida, Arizona, Ohio, Connecticut, New York, Michigan, Washington, California, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia.