History of the CTMA
In the late 1990's, several concrete tile manufacturers met to form an organization now known as the CTMA. This was the first time any of them had ever met each other or even talked about their mutual goals. Their fundamental purpose was summed up in their Mission Statement located on the adjacent page, “Table of Contents.” A Steering Committee was formed to direct the CTMA from the original four concrete tile manufacturers who have met monthly since they originally organized. After a great deal of discussion, they established six basic major goals
I- Expand the membership of the CTMA through the addition of ‘Associate Members’ consisting of well respected allied product manufacturers.
II- Develop a vehicle to promote the use of concrete tiles to the building industry. That resulted in the development of a newsletter, now known as Concrete Tile Tales! Originally conceived as a four-page black & white newsletter, thanks to financial assistance of cement manufacturing companies and associations, the first issue was expanded to six pages in full color.
III- This required a comprehensive mailing list (now approximately 7,000) of selected masonry and tile dealers and contractors, architects and building officials in California and Nevada.
IV- Develop a rapport with both the ceramic tile and the masonry industries, providing installation standards and specifications that were suited for both segments of the construction industry.
V- Locally, concrete tiles, both as individual products or when installed, have been judged by the standards for ceramic tiles (ANSI and TCA). While some standards would apply, the majority would not function as reasonable standards for concrete tiles. Working closely with Smith-Emery Laboratories and Associate members, we now have a complete set of specifications.
VI- Although concrete is a very well known product, precast concrete tiles were not! So, in addition to the above five goals there was an urgent need to establish unquestioned credibility. This led to the development of CTMA’s Q-Tile Assurance program (Quality-Tile). This is similar to the Q-Block program of the CMA, with Smith-Emery random testing for both programs.