According to Commerce Department statistics, this year has been relatively flat for the tile industry, with sales down 40% from peak levels achieved in 2006.

It was just 12 years ago that I owned and operated a tile contracting business. I spent a good deal of time and money building our brand. We were always looking for the latest trends and products.

Ceramic tile continues to get bigger and the quality better. 

Formerly limited in size and type, glass tile has grown into a dazzling array with numerous types, sizes, and some very intricate patterns. 

There are a lot of terms used when it comes to purchasing crack protection for tile floors, and confusion seems to occur when the various terms are mentioned.

While my focus usually is installation and technical issues, this time we are going to get personal. As you may know, for many years prior to my current position as Technical Director for CTEF I was a tile contractor. Through necessity in our area, this included a retail operation and a warehouse facility for both residential and commercial accounts. Our business started three years before gas rationing in 1974, followed by a recession in 1979-80, and experienced several additional downturns in the mid 80’s and early 90’s.

Training Tribulations [Noun] 1. Great affliction, trial, or distress; suffering. 2. An experience that tests one’s endurance, patience, or faith.  What’s that? You say you’ve never heard of training tribulations? After 10 years of fulltime teaching, I can most certainly assure you it is very real. I can also assure you the triumphs of successful efforts far outweigh any of the negatives. Education is something one must do to achieve personal satisfaction and fulfillment. There is no amount of money commensurate to the effort put forth by those developing and presenting a high quality instruction to students.  That means the program is devoid of any product other than knowledge. Those who avail themselves of such opportunities have bestowed upon themselves a gift they can use throughout their career.  This is why I teach.

Time once again to open the mailbag and respond to some of the questions readers have sent. Whether they ask about situations that are common or unique, the volume of mail suggests there is no shortage of questions about tile. That may be a reflection of our industry’s lack of formal training. To the unschooled, something that would be a minor issue to a trained pro suddenly looks like a manufacturer’s plot to fleece the installer and pad the bill. But keep in mind that there are two sides to a story. With rare exception we only hear one. The opinions therefore are based solely on the information provided and may not accurately reflect the actual issue. As always we look for issues that seem the most pressing, and rest assured we did some judicious editing to protect the innocent.

Today more than ever, the world’s ceramic tile community rightly insists that its products be considered as an installed system. They fully recognize that tile doesn’t serve its purpose or demonstrate its capabilities until it’s not only properly manufactured but installed. This is also where the Ceramic Tile Education Foundation dedicates most of its efforts. It should also be extremely important to retailers or contractors who do business in tile to fully grasp the technical basis for a successful job, and to understand the critical properties of ceramic tile and the environment in which the tile will be installed.

The last time we used this space for a mailbag it proved very popular. Since that time I have been collecting more questions and will focus on those with a broad range of interests in the flooring world.