CTEF Blog - About Tile Education and Installer Certification

The 2024 CTEF Online Auction is over, and we can't thank you enough for being involved and helping CTEF raise $18,862.00!

These funds are critical to supporting the invaluable work CTEF does through its tile installation certification programs and continued education programs.  

Are you getting ready to stock up on tile installation tools, products, and materials? If yes, please mark your calendar for the December CTEF Online Auction.

Are you familiar with the NTCA Reference Manual? It's an invaluable tool for the tile industry and a well-respected companion document to the TCNA Handbook for Ceramic, Glass, and Stone Tile Installation and ANSI standards. 

Here's an interview with Bart Bettiga, Executive Director of the National Tile Contractors Association (NTCA) so you can learn more.

What are your top tips for becoming a CTI? 

The CTEF Certified Tile Installer program is regularly described as the toughest 25 square feet you'll ever have to tile. It's intense, but not impossible if you're prepared.

To that end, here are our 15 top tips for success, including advice from Mark Heinlein CTI #1112. We invite you to share yours and we'll add them to the list.

Did you know you can find free online prep courses on the CTEF website so you can start preparing to become a Certified Tile Installer?

Here's what: If you're wondering what it takes to become a Certified Tile Installer (CTI), you've come to the right place. We have created an eight-video online prep course that illustrates tile installation best practices expected of Qualified Labor. 

Imagine being a member of the CFI (Certified Flooring Installers) and taking the CTI (Certified Tile Installer program). Talk about a ground-breaking event!

Flooring and tile are distinct given unique installation requirements for floors and walls. That said, many flooring installers must be proficient in the full range of product options. If they're going to be certified for flooring, they may also want to become Certified Tile Installers.

Thanks to Roland Thompson from Thompson Flooring Installers and Leslie Del Pozo from QEP, that possibility became a reality in this first-ever CFI CTI hands-on test event. It took place in Frederick, Maryland. 

Jason Montgomery was the Evaluator for this CTI hands-on test.

Have you considered that how you manage your tile tools affects how you manage your time? It's a similar thought process to how you go about cutting tile.

Those who are Qualified Labor constantly think about how to manage time. After all, time is money. How well you make use of that time affects how long it takes you to complete tile installations, the quality of your work, and how many client projects you can commit to.

This is true with how you manage your tools. 

When you cut tile for an installation project, do you spend much time thinking about how you manage time?

If you're a professional, chances are that you constantly think about how to manage your time - aka time management. After all, your time is money.

How well you use that time affects how long it takes you to complete tile installations, the quality of your work, and how many client projects you can commit to.

This is true even when you cut tile.

Have you looked at the photos in this article and noticed a real problem?  They all demonstrate low grout joints which do not meet the tile industry standards.  To meet these standards, the grout must adequately fill the space which obviously these examples do not. 

And yet, when the person who took these photos shared them with his builder on the job site, the builder did not believe that any standards existed or that there were any organizations that develop them.

Have you found yourself in a similar situation?

If yes, here's how to deal with low grout joints and understand tile installation standards.