Interesting Questions about Glass Tiles from a designer?

Questions raised by a designer from Houzz.com:

The TTMAC and TCNA require the manufacture of each glass tile to specify if they are suitable for pool and shower installations. Further more they require the manufacture to specify the proper setting material. Can you provide us Houzzers this information.

In a wet zone like a pool or shower it is require to get 95% coverage from the substrate to the tile. Does your product have a film face or paper face or some kind of mesh. If it's mesh what type of adhesive is being used. I'm finding the lower quality tile being imported from India and China is coming with water based adhesives and this is very scary.

Answers from BuilderElements.com:

Thank you so much for your comment, John.

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce our company to you.  BuilderElements.com (www.BuilderElements.com) is an online affiliate of Home Elements, Inc. which headquarters in California. We have our own manufacturing facility and a network of OEM manufacturers for us worldwide including China, No matter where the tiles are made; all of our tiles are complied with US standard.

Honestly speaking, a majority of glass tiles in the US market are made in China, products from India have been increased during the past few years but China remains the main global manufacturing base for this product. Our products are imported through big US importer and are sold in both Home Depot and Lowes and also OEM for some biggest brands, including Daltile. China has a large number of factories for almost all products.  The quality depends on the quality control and where the products are sold to. Most American brands made in China have strict quality control system in place with US quality standard reinforced, just like our company, thus have high quality. Many factories have low quality but objectively speaking, the top 10% of Chinese factories now have world-class quality. For example, Apple products are still mainly made in China although apple has the plan to transfer the manufacturing back to the US due to the politics reasons.

We do specify the setting in our glass tile installation guide on our website: http://image.builderelements.com/installguide/glass-mosaic-tile.pdf. We also recommend the installation method from CTIOA (Ceramic Tile Institute of America): http://www.ctioa.org/reports/fr93.html.

Our glass tiles have fiber mesh backing. The majority of areas of the tile will be stick to the tin set (again, please refer to the above links) and stay there forever. How strong the tile will stick to the wall depends on the tin set and the installation workmanship, and it is irrelevant to the adhesive used for the mesh. The mesh is used to put the small mosaic tile together to form a sheet, which is easier for installation. The mesh only serves intermediary purpose and when the glass tiles are installed, the mesh and the adhesive between the mesh and the tiles become irrelevant in terms of how strong the glass tiles will stick to the surfaces.

For the adhesive, there are usually two types of glue, water based and oil based. Similar to the paint industry (now all the mainstream paint products are water based, which mean the paint can be dissolved and washed by water, and non-toxic, thus is more environmental friendly. Oil based paint can not be dissolved by water and usually remains toxic chemical), water based glue, as per the environmental requirement, is used by quality glass tile manufacturers, only low quality glass tiles are still using the oil based glue.  

Our glass tiles are good for pool and wet areas such as bathroom, however, from the safety consideration, we do not recommend glass tiles are used for the flooring and bottom surface of a pool, for slippery concern. Some customers do not think it is a big deal and they still use it despite our disclaimer.

During the past 10 years, based on our record, no single complaint is reported because the fiber mesh or adhesive caused the glass tiles falling from the surfaces. Also, we did not hear any such complaint in this industry.

Hope this answers your concern.