Do tilers give away too much hard earned information?

[Flintstone]

I was lucky that my dads, who's now retired, has been tiling all his life and he took me on at about 21' after I had a couple of jobs elsewhere doing shop type work. I was always into tinkering so it was an obvious choice really. Worked with him for quite a few years slowly working up to doing my own jobs. Definitely the best way to learn in my eyes. That was some years ago now.

 

[Flintstone]

Things are always evolving and we are all learning and will continue to. my dad has told me about the old days tiling, with sand and cement and all that in the 70s.

 

[DriftFactory]

So, I'm a carpenter & joiner by trade, i was lucky to work for the people and companies that I worked for as an apprentice, straight from the day after leaving school I was taught to a damn fine standard, moved on every 2-3yrs to different fields so I can do everything from fine joinery to building roofs. Iv been working with my old man for the past 6 months, we do extensions and renovations etc, before that the previous 2 1/2yrs was spent building Drift cars, again to a very high standard, quite a few of them competition cars. That's my real passion, just harder to make a living..

Obviously, as trades man do, Iv been asked along the way to do tiling jobs here and there, I'm sure a lot of it wouldn't have been to your standards, in fact, if I was to go back and look at the first tiling jobs I did, they wouldn't be to my current standard. The first one yrs ago was about 50sqm of limestone floor tiles, real low grade with many holes, it was a old cottage and they wanted it 'rustic', so I got to learning..
However, Iv gotten better with every job and I think if you have the attention to detail installed in you, you can make a good tiler.
And then again, the last job we did was an extension, they had a pro tiler in to do some bathrooms, I have to admit I was pure envious of his skills..

I'm doing 3 bathrooms for a customer at the moment, iv fitted all the sanitary ware inc bath, shower trays, sinks, etc.. Iv also built a boxing off the wall in 2 bathrooms to conceal pipework and cisterns, sterdy construction with 1/2" ply on the front screwed every 6", this is to be tiled. Iv got 35sqm of wall tiling to do and Iv done 3sqm of floor in one bathroom, other 2 bathrooms are to be carpeted.. Iv tiled but not yet grouted about 7sqm, pretty pleased with it so far. My struggles/downfalls are, how long it takes, getting consistency of adhesive right, corner beads, wtf to do when the wall is pissed as bumholes...lol


So long story short, this forum and youtube etc has helped me do a better job, use better materials and tools, a little bit of knowledge can not replace yrs of experience, but it goes a long way..

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Yes this building game is easy!