Ceramic floor tiles...?

[The D]

I agree with you 100% people who don't know what they are doing shouldn't be charging customers for it but on the other hand a lot of people who come on this forum complain about jobs failing because of incorrect prep, wrong materials, dot & dabbing etc. a lot of this is down to "tilers" not knowing any different and if these people find their way on to the forum would it not be more beneficial to the general public to educate these people? we have all ripped out jobs that on the face of it appear to be good jobs but then uncover 6mm plyed floors and dot & dabbed walls, with a bit more knowledge there is a good chance that these people would prep a job right and use the right materials and then you would be cursing them because ripping their work out is taking twice as long as you thought it would when you follow them 10 years later.

When I was learning to tile I was taught to use 6mm ply, prime with PVA, we never tanked a wet area, always used tubbed addy on walls. The work always looked good as and far as I know my gaffer never got a call back because of a failure. I only stumbled onto this forum when I was planning on setting up on my own and my god am I glad I did! if I hadn't then I would probably still be doing all of those things, I would have been unintentionally producing cowboy work because I would have thought it was the right way to do it.

I'm not the only one to have benefitted from the advise on this forum though because 6 months after I set up on my own I teamed up with my old boss to do 20 bathrooms in a new residential home and as far as he was concerned it was business as usual: tubbed addy, PVA for primer, no tanking and the first 2 we were due to start were only plastered the day before. I told him I didn't want to try and tell him how to suck eggs but it was all wrong and explained it all to him and thankfully he listened and we left the rooms for 2 weeks to dry out properly, he changed the primer and the addy and talked to the site manager about tanking (he didn't listen though).

granted I spent the best part of a month staying up until stupid o'clock in the morning reading through old threads to educate myself before I posted anything at all but if I had joined the forum , posted a stupid question or given bad advice and had a load a aggressive answers calling me every name under the sun I probably wouldn't have logged in again and carried on with my cowboy ways simply because that's the way I was taught and I didn't know any better.

Everybody wants to improve the trade and I think everyone can improve it a tiny bit by simply telling everybody that comes onto the forum how to do the job better and some of these people will start producing good work and there will be a few less customers getting ripped off. I think a lot of people think that the cowboys who don't do the job properly know exactly how to do the work right and choose not to but I think there are a lot more people who just need educating on the error of their ways.

One question for you, where is your advice to the op??? I can find some answers and I can find some questions as to the length and depth of experience the op has (and in my mind it is sensible to find out what tiles are being used and what level of understanding the op has before you spend to much time answering) but I can’t find your advice all I can find is negative comments about the forum and its long standing members.

 

[The D]

When I started tiling I would ask the shop the correct method of what to use..thankfully it was as most have advised in here..but it also gets tiring when someone asks a question and your first responses is...are you a diy'er or being paid for the job!..what does it matter ? Just give them the correct advise and people will be doing the job better..then you won't need to moan about it every time someone posts a question.ot have to go Roy d that poor customers house and put it right...my mum said..you got nothing positive to say, don't say it..why can't you all just turn the record off and give these guys and gals the advise they need and not be so bloody patronising !

100% coverage as with all floor tiles.
Nothing wrong with laying ceramics on a floor as long as they are floor tiles & not wall... this was the first post not are you a diy'er or being paid for the job! so what are you banging on about ??????

 

[AMtek]

I would advise a customer to spend a few extra quid and go for porcelain personally, tougher tile and they don't have the tendency to scratch and chip round the edges like I have seen ceramics do. That's just my opinion and if its wrong then I have probably lost a few jobs needlessly but that's only affecting my bank balance.


At the end of the day there are always going to be people who do work they don't know how to do and until customers start taking the advice that they should ask for recommendations, view previous work the tradesman has done, check their liability cover and educate themselves on how a job should be done then there will be people charging for bad work. its tiling not open heart surgery.


My original post was to do with the attitude of some people when answering a question not whether it is right or wrong that people charge for work that shouldn't be

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Not for the first time ( but it might be!) I am in total agreement with Deano .
This thread has gone from helping an Op ( who hasn't even responded to his own thread) to defending the input from more experienced members. I'am surprised that we are even giving credence to some individual members comments as they seem so full of contradiction and set on disruption. How long they would last in the real world - I wonder ( but still couldn't care a bit) !

 

[AMtek]

How long they would last in the real world - I wonder ( but still couldn't care a bit) !

I'm confused?

 

[The D]

I'm confused?

Yes I think you are very confused

 

[Time's Ran Out]

My original post was to do with the attitude of some people when answering a question not whether it is right or wrong that people charge for work that shouldn't be

Well that's where your confusion started because the original thread was about the suitability of ceramic tiles for a floor tiling job!
Your post should have been started in its own thread and we may not have lost the OP in a maze of personal comments that had no relevance to his enquiry.
However we are now in 'advice on the forum' so that's good.

 

[AMtek]

Yes I think you are very confused

Don't think there was any need for that. You're obviously a very good tiler but you don't know me as a person or as a tiler. I very much doubt you would say something like that to me in person so why you feel the need to flex your forum muscles I don't know. As already stated there is a thread open in the arms, I suggest we stick to posting there.

 

[The D]

Don't think there was any need for that. You're obviously a very good tiler but you don't know me as a person or as a tiler. I very much doubt you would say something like that to me in person so why you feel the need to flex your forum muscles I don't know. As already stated there is a thread open in the arms, I suggest we stick to posting there.

I never say anything on a computer that I would not say to a persons face. If you was stood in front of me and we was having this conversation I would say exactly the same thing if that makes you want to fight me that is up to you. I do not think I am flexing any muscles I am just saying you are or you are coming across as being confused. In this and the thread you have started you say stop all the bitching and answer the op but no one was bitching and the op had been answered then you say the forum is unfriendly in general and long standing members are ripping in to people that have just asked a simple question. Show me where this has happened
You have banged on about all sorts of non related stuff and that is why I said you are confused and now you sound angry but is it me you are angry with ?? Or do you even know what you are angry about ??

 

[AMtek]

If it came across that I wanted to fight you then that wasn't my intention, there is nothing worse than throwing threats about over the internet when everyone knows that nothing is ever going to be done about it.

Maybe I do sound confused but all I was trying to say is that I think that sometimes we could give people a break but it seemed to me that a lot of people were more concerned with who should and shouldn't be tiling which is a different topic completely but one I did get drawn into.

I did also play devils advocate and try to get people to put themselves into a customers or someone inexperienced in tilings shoes for a second which probably confused things further. I think we all probably see things from a tilers point of view sometimes without looking at the bigger picture.

I think "torn to shreds" was the wrong phrase and perhaps derogatory would have been a better word to describe some of the replies that I have seen.

I didn't mean any disrespect to the forum, its a great place to come to get advice and the banter is good I just think that sometimes some of the replies are a bit unfair to the poster and a little unneeded.

I'm not back tracking, changing my opinion or apologising for my general point of view but I think we have all had our say now, maybe something has been taken from the thread, maybe not but we are going round in circles now and nothing is being achieved so I think the thread has run its course.