Tile Industry Leaders Meet in Washington, DC for the 2024 TCNA Handbook Committee Meeting and Capitol Hill Discussions

CLEMSON, SC --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. Additionally, 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. “We appreciate all of our sponsors who helped make this year’s meeting a great success.”

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 staff and committee leaders will provide a detailed TCNA Handbook update at Total Solutions Plus, October 22 to 24, 2023.

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.

“Visiting Capitol Hill is a vital step for the government’s continued support of the growth and success of the tile industry,” said TCNA’s Deputy Executive Director, Bill Griese. “It is important that we continue to gather together leaders from manufacturing, labor, and distribution with government officials to discuss solutions to pressing industry issues.”

TCNA is a trade association representing manufacturers of ceramic tile, tile installation materials, tile equipment, raw materials and other tile-related products. Established in 1945 as the Tile Council of America (TCA), it became the Tile Council of North America (TCNA) in 2005, reflecting its membership expansion to all of North America.