Tile submittal packages, assembled from the spec and the data on file for your coordinator to review.

Part 1 of a tiling or stone section lists what the contractor must submit, and much of it falls to you: product data for every tile, setting material and membrane, certificates, test reports and physical samples. Your coordinator works down that list, pulls the matching documents from manufacturer files, orders the samples, and notes what can't be found, all before the package goes to the contractor, who forwards it to the architect.

In the test, AI works from copies of the section and of the documents you held for that job and drafts the package: every requirement as written, the document that seems to answer it, each sample asked for, and a list of what is missing or doesn't line up. It approves nothing and judges no test result. Your reviewer sets each draft beside the package you sent and the architect's response.

Some certificates exist only after shipping. New York State's master tiling section asks for a Master Grade Certificate for each shipment, type and composition of tile, signed by the tile maker and the installer. Its editor's note explains that manufacturers issue them, stating the tile's type and grade under A137.1, and that the line may be deleted where they aren't available, as can happen with imported tile. Los Angeles World Airports and Massillon City Schools both ask for standard grade tile under A137.1. A package built before the first truck can only promise that certificate, so the draft marks it as due with each shipment and leaves it open.

Samples carry a specification of their own. New York wants full-size units of each type, color and finish, or assembled samples on a rigid panel with grouted joints, at least 12 or 36 inches square as the designer chooses and never fewer than four tiles, set in the grout approved for the work. Mosaic color blends come as full sheets, and stone thresholds and metal edge strips as 6-inch lengths. The airports' guide adds an assembled sample for each grout color and wants samples that show the full range of color and texture to expect. The draft writes each sample as its own line, with size, count and grout color, so none ships short.

A test report has to name a method that still exists. The airports' guide, revised in May 2014, asks for slip resistance reports from a qualified independent laboratory approved by the City of Los Angeles, measured as a static coefficient of friction under ASTM C1028. ASTM lists that method as withdrawn in 2014, with no replacement. New York asks instead for product test reports on the setting and grouting materials and on certified porcelain tile. Where a section names a withdrawn method, the draft sets the requirement beside the report you hold and notes that the methods differ; whether that satisfies the architect is a question for your coordinator to raise.

Stone packages answer to a quarry. New York's stone flooring section wants test reports on each variety from a qualified testing agency, based on testing within the previous five years, and samples in sets of at least three, each 12 inches square or larger, showing the full color range. Each variety must come from one quarry whatever its finish, and a veined stone is named vein cut or fleuri cut. The section warns that many marbles suitable for interior floors don't meet ASTM C503, which the Natural Stone Institute lists as the specification for exterior marble, and that some granites suitable for interior floors don't meet C615. The institute's advice is short: where testing isn't available, require it or avoid the stone. The draft lists any variety whose report is missing or older than the window.

Some blanks belong to someone else. New York asks for the installer's qualification data: each installer's name and trade certificates, three similar projects from the past five years, and it requires a crew of Ceramic Tile Education Foundation Certified Installers or journeyman tile layers recognized by the Department of Labor. Its source limits want each tile type and color from one producer, setting and grouting materials from one manufacturer, and thresholds, membranes, backer units and edge strips each from a single maker, while the airports' guide wants one production run in each contiguous area. The draft marks the contractor's items as the contractor's and lists any system split between makers. Your reviewer will look first at certificates promised as if on file, samples short of the count, reports on the wrong method or too old, and mixed makers inside one system.

Once your reviewer agrees, new tile and stone submittals get the same drafting for roughly 30 days.

Each package stays with your coordinator, who corrects, signs and sends it as your desk does today.

The comparison carries on with live jobs, and any next job is a separate call with its own price.