Do you remember when ....

[Time's Ran Out]

Anyone use spinks tiles....they would come with perforated cardboard sheets that you broke off to use as spacers....

Sphinx I believe, Dutch company.
Visited their stand at Interbuild in 1984 and won a long weekend in Paris!

 

[Andy Allen]

Thats the ones......spelling not my strong point lol
Used loads of them on the building sites when I was starting out. .

 

[Houston]

Like the 3/4/5 triangle , the water level is a tool worth investing in !
When I bought my 3/4/5 triangle I wondered how I was going to get the 15 foot length in the van!
And how many times has the water level been cut to syphon off diesel ?
Can't get more accurate than gravity to keep your tiles level.

My uncle made my square from straight edges we used, it's at least 20years old but doesn't get used now but a good investment for someone starting out and still bang on. The water level is a favourite of mine and still in use.

 

[afright]

Candy tiles another name from the past,the first floor tile cutter my firm got was a box frame with a platform with what was a bike chain and you turned a handle with the tile on the platform thru a fixed wheel but you would still have to tap the back of the tile with the pin hammer to break the tile.

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Candy tiles - made somewhere down in Devon I think.
Absolute $hi£e Calypso range were dished and almost untileable.

 

[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.