Ever felt obliged to do a job?

[Stan001]

Went in today to finish a floor I laid yesterday and finished at 9pm, floor too soft to grout last night so went in for a couple of hours to grout and seal. Mentally ‘finished for xmas’ I was happy, then I get a call. It’s a local pub (5 minutes away, but one I don’t use). The landlady has a panic on, she’s away for a few days and cant afford her cat babysitter to trip over a couple of tiles she has up so wants me to go quote to replace 4 floor tiles (yes that’s right – four!), before xmas!!! (that really means tomorrow right).
How can I turn down the local pub? … its only 4 tiles, and I’m in pub mode but not that pub – aaaarg.
Anyway, I drive round there on the way back from my job as she wants me around there by end of pub lunch today, Im covered in grout and have to make my apologies for my appearance. She has this freshly attacked kitchen floor done by a pub local (tiler?), lippage city with 5mm grout lines +/- 2mm, grout falling out all over the place and she told me he’d been back already to replace 13 tiles (400mm sq ceramics nothing special). The guy had put 6mm marine ply over a 300 year wooden floor which was actually pretty solid. But the ply was like a wave and he had one or two screws where he felt like it. He had used Mapei rapid set but not flex and the grout was some junk from Wickes that I couldn’t even find a spec badge on (so I’m guessing that as that was falling out as fast as the tiles were falling out that the grout wasn’t flex either). He’d also used slivers of marine ply and 5mm spacers to jack up the tiles rather than put down a thick bed on his wibbly floor.
So I’m going to charge her £40 to wiz new tiles back in (chisel out the wood wedges, lots of screws, prime to give the addy a chance, flex addy and grout, pint of beer) on a temporary basis and grout to make safe for her visitors over xmas. … and the job already turned into a quote to rip the whole lot out and re-do properly – 20 sq metres with pub grub already offered 5 minutes down the road … happy end to the year (and here was me calling her a pita as I detoured on the way home to my hot shower). :8:

 

[DHTiling]

A good deed turned out well.....nice one..

 

[mikethetile]

thats handy

should lead to lots of reccomendations

i lost work to a pair of characters in my local

i was getting

we were going to ask you but your always busy and they need the work

i put my best smile on and replied of course i dont mind but feel free to ask in the future

well the futures here

why did they think they had no work

ive got some ripouts and reworks to do in the new year

 

[White Room]

Nice one stan

 

[faithhealer]

small jobs should never be sniffed at, well done Stan

 

[heavytrevy]

Yep had a phone call from a lady asking if i was available to do her bathroom.
Turns out the builder doing the reno was in a very tight situation financially
and the job had been stopped halfway leaving her and a 4 yearold boy showering and toileting outside in winter, this had gone on for 6 mths and she was at her wits end.(lived in the middle of nowhere)

With no guarantee of being paid i finished her bathroom and toilet in 2 weeks .
The builder finally sold some assets became financial again and now because of her I do all of this builders tiling jobs.

Worked out very good for me as I had just moved into the area and set up my business.

Sometimes it pays to do a good deed.

Trev

 

[LM Ceramics]

usually happens that a good deed always turns into a reward

 

[RockCeramics]

:hurray: nice 1 Stan should get more work through that well done.

 

[Stan001]

Thanks guys.
Just got back from fixing their floor. Couldn’t stand seeing the extra loose tiles she didn’t care about so I stuck them too and cut up a new one for the door that was a trip hazard. (addy and grout out - so why not). Job took a couple of hours longer than planned as they insisted I stop ‘for a rest’ twice for proper coffees with orange and mint chocolate and a cheese salad pub lunch down in the bar (everyone poshed up – it is a nice restaurant pub – me in my overalls and kneepads with my safety glass’s perched on my head and rubber gloves hanging out of pockets looking like Mad Max). She asked me how much I wanted as Id been there ages longer, I said the original price, she paid cash and bunged a tenner on top. Top lady! They loved the fix and I’m back before the new year to get them sorted out on the floor proper – the whole kitchen floor needs coming out, hardi or wbp putting down properly, flex addy and grout bla bla.
Today’s entertainment – the landlady is from eastern Europe and has the most horizontal sense of humour and she talks more than me. Her parrots are in the kitchen and don’t shut the heck up until you say hello to them every 5 minutes, and there’s and dog and Persian cat that sit outside the room bogging you out with their heads on one side. I got a guided tour of the pub which is massive out the back and consists of acres of professional kitchen and bakery (with quite a few quarry tiles that need tickling) serving the four pub restaurants they own and they make pies! (nice). The 20sq m I’m hoping to fix before the end of Jan was thrown down by two pub regulars, one is a DIY’er who has done loads of tiling (probably on a shed roof) and the other is a landscape gardener (ho ho ho ho) , so there’s the mystery of the patio constructed in the kitchen solved. When I got my spirit level out she insisted that – ‘’oooh, they never used one of those!’’ (like no sh*t Sherlock). When I dug up other crappy loose tiles they had slabs of thin marine ply under them to raise them. There was three screws holding down the 6mm marine play total under all the tiles i lifted - i put 5 per each tile and when i torqued em down the floor went down another 5~10mm. I could go on and on and on – it was hilarious but I felt really sorry for the customers.
Well its been an entertaining half day that was definitely better than wondering around pre- xmas shopping getting miffed. Today was why I took up tiling and compensated somewhat for the over-ran large format crappatine on wobbly walls we’ve been fighting with all last week.
Happy happy. (and youz guys were bang on the button ref not getting sniffy about small jobs)