Based in Lawrenceburg, Ky., Dan Marvin is the director of Quality Assurance and Technical Services for Florida Tile. He has had articles published in Ceramic Industry, the Tile Letter and Floor CoveringWeekly, and he writes a column for Bluegrass Dog Magazine. To contact Dan, e-mail dan.marvin@floridatile.com or link to his profile on LinkedIn. To visit the Florida Tile website, go to www.floridatile.com. To see Dan’s non-technical writing, visit www.danmarvin.net. (Any views or opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Florida Tile; Ceramic Industry, its staff or Editorial Advisory Board; or BNP Media.)
OK class, get out your American National Standard Specifications for Ceramic Tile books and turn to page 13. Now, who would like to tell us about the Diagonal Warpage specifications for Rectified Porcelain? Anyone? Hello?
Poor other flooring choices. They try so hard to be as environmentally friendly as ceramic tile, they really do, but in the end they always come up short.
Specifications continue to evolve to meet the ever-changing world of tile. As tile gets larger, graphics get more complex and installations get more demanding, it is important for the industry to keep up to date.
Every box of tile has a secret. If you read this entire blog entry and promise not to post bad comments, I’ll tell you what it is. First though, I’ll tell you where it is.
Tile is formed in much the same way that a diamond is formed-through incredible pressure. What takes nature millions of years to achieve underground takes a few seconds in the factory.
We may not admit it, but most of us in the business of turning dirt into tile have just a little bit of pyromaniac in us. Putting on those thick, silver gloves to rescue test samples from the kiln reminds us that we’re playing with fire… literally.
I remember when I was six years old and my grandfather asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I looked him in the eyes and with a seriousness that belied my young age, I told him, “I want to be a tile engineer, Grandpa!” OK, so that never happened.