Do you remember when ....

[Spud]

Candy tiles = B.C.T still made in Devon

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Candy tiles = B.C.T still made in Devon

There you go - still soak up the moisture like blotting paper, and glaze usually chipped or missing on corners - Nowt changes still rubbish!

 

[the diving tile]

First time I used rapid set about 30years ago for Valfix north London, after 3 hours being able to walk on what you fixed that morning was a trill, now I hate the bloody stuff.

 

[afright]

Before rapid floor tile adhesive was out on the market ,got a few jobs with a butchers tiling a couple of his shops over night,we used Ardex 2 part slc to fix the tiles those tiles stayed down for over 20 years

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Before rapid floor tile adhesive was out on the market ,got a few jobs with a butchers tiling a couple of his shops over night,we used Ardex 2 part slc to fix the tiles those tiles stayed down for over 20 years

Cowboy!:smilewinkgrin:

 

[afright]

Cowboy!:smilewinkgrin:

My firm got the ok from Ardex saying it would work and it did,also done a truckers rest room at Dover docks 100 sq yds, 4 of us banged that out in a day that was down for a long time and it got heavy use.

 

[ttt tiling]

good grief John , I thought I was getting old

 

[Time's Ran Out]

good grief John , I thought I was getting old

What was the reference point that confirmed the 'old' label?

 

[Old Mod]

... You had to break the ice off the drum to get to your tiles, you used sawdust to polish the floors and you got 10shillings a yard for fixing tiles with sand/cement!

By those were the days!!.
Who else used to push their bike up the cobbled streets and eat Hovis jammies.

[MENTION=11380]timeless john[/MENTION], Well I found it John! Wow what a read! Think I'd forgotten most of what's been mentioned :lol:
feels like a lifetime ago, well I spose it was! Haha
using Silver Sand and Sawdust to clean floors, great technique, where did it go? I remember the first lesson I was taught, how to carry my mentors tools and make Tea, haha. Then it was to make his staff and find water. Then the most important piece of maths I ever learnt, never mind my A level maths, 3/4/5! Haha
I learnt a lot from a team of Tilers that worked for our contractor, 3 generations of Irish Tilers. There was "Old Man Billy" his son "Billy" and of course his son "YOUNG Billy!" The old man was in his mid 70's so he knew a trick or two! (Makes me smile thinking about those guys!) of course even "Young Billy" was older than me.
Miles and miles of 'Heathers & Fire Flash' and nearly as many 'Pilk's Dorset and Four Square' haha
laying miles and miles of 'Crystal Whites' laying a whole box in the crook of your arm and fixing them at a rate of knots. When the muscles in your thumbs were the size of biceps and EVERY work shirt u owned had holes in from shaping tiles with nippers. When 'tanking' meant using 'Bal Grip!' Does it still smell like 'wet nappies?' Haha
god life was simpler then! Oh well. **yawn**

 

[Time's Ran Out]

'laying a box in the crook of your arm and fixing at a rate of knots' - was certainly the method used by my mentors father!
I then had to remove all the cardboard box spacers that he'd fixed to the wall instead of Donkey Brown tiles.
Worse still trying to get Bal Tad out of the self spacing joints while grouting.

 

[afright]

I think in the 70s Johnson's had the main market in this country that's all I seemed to fix, my old firm would have an artic lorry each month,also unload once a month 17,000 quarrys stacked loose on edge used to hate seeing those lorrys parked outside the yard at 7 in the morning even on a rainy day.

 

[Time's Ran Out]

I was very fortunate as I started with a small family business and the son took me under his wing from day 1. Always on a job from 7.30 till finished and never made the tea once. The building boom of the early 70's meant I was tiling within 6 months. Always did the labouring and fetching/carrying but that enabled more tiles to be fixed by others and more money! After all £15 a week was a lot of money when you paid £5 a week rent.

 

[afright]

When I first started I started just knocking up muck,loading out tiles and grouting after a year put me on what they called an improver course starting to cut tiles beating and screeding it was not for another three years after that I was let loose on my own ,proud as punch when I took charge of my first site ,splashbacks on a block of council flats.

 

[Houston]

[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]does anyone remember using buchtal tiles, haven't used them for years ,they were tough and very sharp to handle,when fixing on walls we used silver sand and a bit of cement for spacing the 10mm joint and when the tiles had set we used to rake out the sand and cement ready for grouting.[/FONT]

[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]Bal Flex, great adhesive, 5ltr liquid and 7kg powder, but we would never use all the powder it just never seemed to mix wright with your bit of wood, the old boy was adamant to leave a bit in the bottom of the bag [/FONT]

 

[The Legend; Phil Hobson RIP]

Agrob Buchtal,also Zin Zig fixed my fair share of them.