Do your own tiling work?

[furryneddy]

Never paint when your drunk :smile:

Never drink strong cider and tile a wall ......

 

[Resolute]

I tiled a wall once after a very heavy days drinking at Newmarket - needless to say it was very hard going!

 

[gall.b-tiler]

Is it really a 4 year apprenticeship in tiling? Never would have thought there could be that much to it. I'm not trying to be facetious, just curious. Surely after you've learned how to identify and prepare surfaces, use batons, work with adhesive and grout and set things out properly it's just practise. I'd have thought a year working with someone would be more than enough.

Jeez you really do ive up to your signature sorry if I sound condesending.

Its a Trade 4 year apprenticeship Nvq 2 & 3 gained at college with a Trade test at the end Just like plumbing, painting, Joinery etc

Thers more to it than you assume setting out Rendering screeding working with epoxy stone profiling san cement laying.

Worked in some pools and shopping centres where the course lads turn up promtly ceek there pants and are gone.

As I say im a firm beliver in each to there own thats the profesional approach dont think its fair to charge punters for amateurs practicsing in there house and wasting there hard earned dough.

 

[SimonG]

Who's the amateur?

 

[WaterTight]

Jeez you really do ive up to your signature sorry if I sound condesending.

Nope, just rude.

 

[Barry98]

the old saying of been a master of one trade is outdated now IMHO , customers rightly dont want a jack of all they want a master of all. i know my limits , i can tile,palster,plumb and heat and repair my weakness is electrics hence why its back to college. one step at a time ash maste what your learning before you take another trade on

 

[armyash]

the old saying of been a master of one trade is outdated now IMHO , customers rightly dont want a jack of all they want a master of all. i know my limits , i can tile,palster,plumb and heat and repair my weakness is electrics hence why its back to college. one step at a time ash maste what your learning before you take another trade on

Good advice, thanks

 

[SimonG]

Plus customers don't want an army of trades in the house. If a job involves gas, plastering or electrics I know the right people to bring in. I have more skills than plumbing, heating and tiling, but it's only those skills I sell.

 

[armyash]

I'm concentrating on the plumbing/gas side of things for now but I have resettlement funds to spend so may as well get something good that I can use along side that. It was a toss up between part p and tiling. From a strictly money point of view for now tiling is the more practical option. If I don't use it for 2 years it's not going to cost me more money and I can get plenty of practice in on friends and family's houses before I start using it in customers houses. Don't really fancy having to get my head around electrics while I'm learning plumbing, part p can be done in the future.

 

[Halesowen1]

4 years training for tiling, was it 1 day a year??

 

[Phil]

I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the locked off trusted advisor section of the tilers forum. Gall B will be telling everyone that all plumbers learn to tile watching a £2 B&Q DVD!

Not true, mine was the Homebase version. :38:

 

[WaterTight]

there is a 4 year apprenticeship in plumbing/heating too. and i just can't help but think that there has got to be a lot less to learn in tiling than there is in plumbing. even basic wet plumbing. if that's not true, then fair enough. you learn something boring everyday. but if it is true then either the plumbing apprenticeship route is massively rushed (you don't often hear people claim that) or the tiling one is laboured and leisurely.

 

[tamz]

When i started my time there was no such trade as a tiler as far as i know. Tiling was done mainly by plasterers and plumbers used to build tiled grates.

I really like seeing old tilework. There are lots of old tenements up here with tiled stairs. The work is amazing to look at if you take the time to look properly.

 

[gall.b-tiler]

I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the locked off trusted advisor section of the tilers forum. Gall B will be telling everyone that all plumbers learn to tile watching a £2 B&Q DVD!

Not true, mine was the Homebase version. :38:

Nah I posted it in the HELP yet another handyman wrecked my bathroom section.

WaterTight if you knew anything about the Building trade at all you would know thats not true & if you find it boring its usally because your no good at it & you shouldnt be doing it.

Didnt mean to offend anyone with my comments the the part of reason I stick to my own trade & sub work out is I have respect for the trades and tradesman that do a good job & know there game inside out, the Handyman culture or the im going to do a couple of weeks course, call my self a tradesman undercut every body else is part of the reason quality of work is so low in this country

 

[gall.b-tiler]

When i started my time there was no such trade as a tiler as far as i know. Tiling was done mainly by plasterers and plumbers used to build tiled grates.

I really like seeing old tilework. There are lots of old tenements up here with tiled stairs. The work is amazing to look at if you take the time to look properly.

Take it you never heard of Toflo Jackson Tam? Never seen a Victorian Geometric floor?

The stairs you mention are hand fixed in sand cement, some of the ones in Glasgow are the work of my Grandad, his Dad was a Terrazzo layer/Tiler again a diffrent trade, Grates where done by Grate builders/Stone masons. Time served Tilers Render so maybe why you confuse us with plasterers

 

[Guest123]

I'm concentrating on the plumbing/gas side of things for now but I have resettlement funds to spend so may as well get something good that I can use along side that.

Well mate, there's always the Alloa Plumbers benevolent fund, all donations welcome.....

 

[WaterTight]

WaterTight if you knew anything about the Building trade at all you would know thats not true

Ah. Ok. But just to be clear: What, if I knew anything about the building trade at all, would I know to be untrue? That there is less to learn in tiling then in plumbing? Well then I'm afraid ignorance of this fact does leave me knowing nothing at all about the building trade. A setback to say the least. I hope everyone else reads this to avoid a similar fate.

if you find it boring its usally because your no good at it & you shouldnt be doing it

I find washing my socks fairly dull. Same with peeling potatoes. Sitting in traffic is a distinct bore too. Infact, I suspect the dullest things in life are actually the ones that require precisely no mental involvement at all but still demand to be waited out. I tend to find that the things I'm no good at to be frustrating, confusing, even worrying. But rarely boring.

Incidentally, you were right with your first assumption. I know nothing about the building game. I'm a relative novice. I'm here mainly to learn. Hence my signature which you cleverly noticed and used to damning effect exposing me as such.

But I do know how to argue!

Grrrrrrrrr. Woof woof. Etc.

 

[WHPES]

We have some amazing geometric and encaustic tiling work in our village hall foyer. It's quite a work of art, and the planning and design stage must have taken longer than the tiling itself. It dates from approximately 100 years ago.

 

[Guest123]

Just to add my tuppence worth....tiling has been around for centuries, in fact just as long as plumbing has. The Romans are a good example and going further back so were the Egyptians. I think that both are trades and deserve merit as such. Without tiling there wouldn't be any bathrooms!
I am competent at tiling, but prefer to leave tiling to a tiler as a higher quality finish is achieved than me doing it. Anyhow I hate doing it! LOL

 

[WHPES]

Trouble is I tend to end up doing a lot of my tiling work as a lot of the local tilers I have seen don't meet the standards of work I would expect from them.

 

[gall.b-tiler]

We have some amazing geometric and encaustic tiling work in our village hall foyer. It's quite a work of art, and the planning and design stage must have taken longer than the tiling itself. It dates from approximately 100 years ago.

Have some restoration work coming up on a 150yr geometric old floor in the West end of Glasgow, also a work of art and a joy to work on.

Recently had the pleasure of seeing some Mosaic floors in Pompei over 2000yrs old, wonder if a Plumber done then? :smiley2:

A 143y rold fan mosaic I need to clean up, polish and seal, a plasterers work I belive.

 

[Guest123]

In Roman times as much as in modern times, baths and tiling went hand in hand. I appreciate good quality decorative work from days gone by.

 

[gall.b-tiler]

Trouble is I tend to end up doing a lot of my tiling work as a lot of the local tilers I have seen don't meet the standards of work I would expect from them.

I totaly emphasise with you there is alot of bad fixers out there & I have had the misfortune of working with trully awful plumbers, I would never dream of doing my own plumbing tho I leave that to the pro's.

Came on here to make some contacts & listen to some of the UK's finest, not upset them :smiley2:

 

[tamz]

Take it you never heard of Toflo Jackson Tam? Never seen a Victorian Geometric floor?

The stairs you mention are hand fixed in sand cement, some of the ones in Glasgow are the work of my Grandad, his Dad was a Terrazzo layer/Tiler again a diffrent trade, Grates where done by Grate builders/Stone masons. Time served Tilers Render so maybe why you confuse us with plasterers

Never heard of Toflo Jackson but i have seen plenty geometric floors and terrazzo. Real works of art some of them. I love looking at the old stuff. In the early 70's everyone i knew who did tiling was a plasterer / roughcaster but not every plasterer was a good tiler. Maybe that is where i am getting it from as there was more plaster work than tiling then.

Trades have evolved over the past 100 years or so and keep splitting and specialising even today. Plumbers originally did plumbing, electrical, gas and grate building. Some of the older companies are still plumbing and electrical or plumbing and grate builders. Depends how they evolved. It is like how leadwork and guttering is gradually being taken over by roofers as most plumbers don't know how or don't want to do it to such an extent that leadwork has now been dropped from plumbing college work.
The way things are going we will soon have combi fitters, bathroom fitters, plastic pipe fitters, and some old guys.

Stripped a bathroom this week. Original 1950's stuff. Big yellow and black glass like tiles (the old guy told me the name of the stuff but i can't remember) bedded in dabs of resin. It was a shame to take them down (a tiler is doing the tiles :smile

the Handyman culture or the im going to do a couple of weeks course, call my self a tradesman undercut every body else is part of the reason quality of work is so low in this country

It is affecting us all.

 

[Guest123]

You're doing fine mate. You're not upsetting anyone. It's called debate and no one on here ***** foots around when they have an opinion and I respect that. It's one of the things that makes the forum interesting.