Considering giving up tiling

[jay]

looks like you have made your choice cornish best for the future

 

[cornish_crofter]

When I do the course and/or work with someone else, I may end up just tiling if I like it that much and can get the work - who knows

And whilst I'm here, can anyone recommend courses near me please?

Plymouth, Exeter etc would be good. City College at Plymouth do one, can anyone comment on it please?

....or even a good tiling manual so I can read it and work out where I've been going wrong?

Thanks

 

[Brinkley]

cornish you have to ask yourself what you enjoy doing most .when you wake up in the morning and you dread the thought of bricking a wall up is that what you want.The tiling part pretty much covers a whole bathroom with 4 walls ,from wall prep to using correct materials ,then the tiling .
i always prefer to tile wallsi have prepped because i know theyre plumb and square and you can also charge for the prep work having the confidence that your walls youve prepped are gonna be easy to tile.preparation is the key for easy tiling.

 

[cornish_crofter]

looks like you have made your choice cornish best for the future

WEll, yes, I've made my decision. It all depends if I can actually go through with it. I've got a bit of a lull in the new year which isn't a bad thing. I may be able to find and attend that course. In any case I'll follow up that offer from Steve. I'd be foolish not to.

Also, I actually think that some kind of structured training in tiling will also help towards other work. It's amaizing how skills I've picked up on one trade help another.

 

[aph257]

WEll, yes, I've made my decision. It all depends if I can actually go through with it. I've got a bit of a lull in the new year which isn't a bad thing. I may be able to find and attend that course. In any case I'll follow up that offer from Steve. I'd be foolish not to.

Also, I actually think that some kind of structured training in tiling will also help towards other work. It's amaizing how skills I've picked up on one trade help another.

i've noted that as well.

 

[Alberta Stone]

At the end of the day it doesn't really matter what you did to make it through.
if you work to live that is.
If you live to work, however, that is another matter entirely.

 

[cornish_crofter]

At the end of the day it doesn't really matter what you did to make it through.
if you work to live that is.
If you live to work, however, that is another matter entirely.

Not quite sure where you're coming from with that one, but....

I live to enjoy life.

Work is part of it, so you could say I live to work. Maybe that's why I get fustrated when I know I could do better but I just seem to be hitting a brick wall.

One of the reasons I enjoy multi skill is that I am renovating a property at the moment. I wouldn't want to just give up all but one trade. But i do think I should concentrate on improving in at least one trade. Tiling seems to be the one I find most interesting.

 

[Alberta Stone]

Not quite sure where you're coming from with that one, but....

I live to enjoy life.

Work is part of it, so you could say I live to work. Maybe that's why I get fustrated when I know I could do better but I just seem to be hitting a brick wall.

One of the reasons I enjoy multi skill is that I am renovating a property at the moment. I wouldn't want to just give up all but one trade. But i do think I should concentrate on improving in at least one trade. Tiling seems to be the one I find most interesting.

I get a day off because of a huge blizzard so I am being philosophical.
Do you live to work or work to live?
As in why do we exist......to labor,.....or, to live.?
That opens a lot of doors for many discussions not really relevant to this thread.

Personally I work to live as that is what is required of me to be here and keep body and soul together and I found I have some aptitude for tiling and stone work and enjoyed it, hence i pursue it for both capital reasons and personal aesthetics.

But really, does it matter what career one chose at the beginning of their life, once they reach the later parts of it?
I have listened to many older folks who have finished their run of work, and what I have gathered is that it really doesn't matter what row you choose to work as it merely paid your passage.
The point is, did you learn things of importance in the process.

 

[cornish_crofter]

A work life balance is important, which is why, saying I live to work, on reflection is a little extreme.

On the whole I enjoy what I do. I've just put together a quote to replace a ceiling that I hope I will get. I'm going to get someone else to help me with the skimming as ceilings are not really my thing. Walls are not a major problem for me, but my standard of plastering isn't as good as his. He has expressed an interest in being involved. That is his only trade, but he is good at it.

Knowing that he will be along when I need him so that we can work together on the skimming will help me enjoy it. However if I were doing the prep and boarding out thinking that I'm going to have to skim it myself, I wouldn' t enjoy the bits I could do on my own.

Instead I have added an element for his time, which will ensure that I will actually make a few quid on hiring him, so that may be the work to live element.

 

[peckers]

Hugo, My offer still stands when your ready nearer the time just give me a call!
I also multi task and while this is a good thing as you make the job last longer, and you dont need so many customers threw out the year and everything should be correct for the next bit to follow on as you have done it yourself.
The downside to multi tasking as you know is that you spend alot of time in one place which can get you down, and if you work on your own you struggle as some of it is a two man job. You then have made the work hard on yourself and at the end off the day on some occasions you cant see that you have moved forward.
Then you try to make up for it the next day and you then hit a snag and it slows you down again, This al makes for a job that is sometimes sole destroying.
While you are multi tasking you find that you are quick at some things and not so quick at others and you find you could be blocking for 2 months and then tiling for 1 week and plasterboarding for 2 days and so on!
I only multi task in everything to do with tiling! ie plastering/plasterboarding/screeding etc. I dont go off block laying perticularily for a month or so, everything i do leads upto the main job i came to do and thats tiling! so i am tiling more often then anything else. I dont just go off and do say screeding!(unless its for friends/family or if i had no work etc)(But i dont do plumbing or electrics!!)
So you dont have to give up anything just put it all into one job(bathroom renovation etc)
You can hire in help as and when needed or even sub a bit out if you need too. but the job would still be in your hands and you would be in control off what was happening etc. This suits some people and not others.

To get more knowledge/experience you could hire in a reputable tiler and see how he/she goes about things or even work for another tiler labouring.

Your question about courses in plymouth. I know they do them at plymouth colledge but dont know what there like, but the nvq assessor which use to cover plymouth has recently started up teaching in exeter i did my nvq2 with him for the cscs card he is old school and if you pm me i will pass on his number but i dont know what the tiling course is like!

All that said the way to get better at tiling is experience the more you do the more experience you get! training will defo help but it wont teach you everything! And i bet every tiler is still learning things now and again.

steve...

 

[Alberta Stone]

If one stops learning they are either dead or blind.