ever had this happen...

[Andy Allen]

turned up to tile a kitchen splash back today, as i walked through the door the customer handed me a piece of graph paper with every tile carefully draw to where he wanted them to go.....all 500 of them!!!

he had spent two days marking every tile on his piece of graph paper after measuring the kitchen, only problem was he forgot to allow any grout lines..:lol:

i asked him if he used to be an engineer, for 45 years he said,............what a surprise..:lol:

 

[dave l and l]

had the same thing doing a bathroom, customer was an architect. he had the bathroom tiles drawn out so the border fell perfectly along a bulkhead. once i marked it out myself i noticed it wouldnt work. he hadnt taken grout lines into consideration, think the drawing took him a fair bit of time too, i find architects and engineers are from the same ebb

 

[The Legend; Phil Hobson RIP]

Engineers Andy you got to luv em, I know I have told this story before, but one ex engineer told me he used to work to one hundred 1,000.00ths of an inch, to which I replied " I work until it's right"

 

[Andy Allen]

Engineers Andy you got to luv em, I know I have told this story before, but one ex engineer told me he used to work to one hundred 1,000.00ths of an inch, to which I replied " I work until it's right"

:lol::lol::lol: will have to remember that one phil..

 

[Fliselege]

Did a job once where the customer had specifics for where the mirror was going and some other bits so we set it out, boss with drawing in hand shouting out measurements, me marking them out, and we started tiling, had to look a drawing myself for one reason or another and I noticed the customer had drawn his 20 x 40 tiles standing up and we'd done 1 wall with them lying down, boss thought I was winding him up and grabbed the drawing and you should have heard the swearing. He phoned the customer to see if that was the way he really wanted them, and down they came....

 

[Dan]

Engineers are buggers to tile for. Even electrical engineers or some other engineers that's nothing to do with general building / construction.

Had one bloke get us move a loo once as he measured the back of it to the wall and it was 3mm out (only due to packing out the tiles a little to get them sit flat due to the original exterior wall in the house being a couple of mm out in that place).

The same bloke also kept nicking our tools and when he was out we looked for them, found them in an en-suite he was doing himself. He was only copying what we were doing in the main bathroom and doing the en-suite himself!!!!!

We kept finishing the walls fully then and took the tools home with us each night so he couldn't see what went on behind the tiles and whatnot. That stumped him. lol

 

[Fliselege]

What do you mean he kept nicking your tools, shouldn't be possible to do it twice with 8 broken fingers and 2 dislocated thumbs

 

[Dan]

It was quite a big job and we had a shed load of tools. The job was for Ludlow Tiles (the old MD of BAL owns that) and his lads had their hands full with it, so he called us in. It was near Wales and we drove there daily so to save time we always left all tools on the job. Had a pipe bender go first, so I got another off the van. Then a trowel. Got another. After a few things went we thought this aint right. The Ludlow lads are straight as a die and they said they hand't touched them. So we waited, he went out, had a quick look in the loft (as we worked in there a bit) just to make sure we hadn't been fools and misplaced them as you do. And we hadn't. So we ventured into the spare bedrooms, still nowt. Peeked around the main bedroom door and plasterboard was leaning up suggesting there was something going on in there. Stormed in and found all the tools we were aware we had lost and then some others we hadn't needed but were in our toolboxes.

Took them all back, put all the tools in the van, and carried on (we would have probably quit the job if it wasn't for the old MD of BAL who was close mates with my boss at the time).

The guy even took photo's of the carpet on the stairs afterwards and tried to get a discount from Ludlow for some scuffs, that apparently just brushed out like mud (the lads did that we already finished then).

Just one of those buggers that you'd love to smack in the face.

Don't tell anybody this but the boss pee'd in his header tank before we left. lol

 

[John Benton]

I've done jobs for a few engineers, and that could explain why so much stuff doesn't work properly. They always seem to forget one thing ie grout joints.

Had one who ordered a sheet of glass for his shower and forgot to allow for the thickness of tile so the glass hung over the tray by 10mm.
If customers start asking me about sizes etc I say to them "I was going to be a brain surgeon, but the tolerances weren't fine enough so I became a tiler'. Usually stops them dead.

 

[Topshop]

OK, So I used to be an engineer - I guess always an engineer if once one - but I am much better now.

I tiled a backsplash for an engineer after installing his granite countertops (benchtops to you guys) in his kitchen. He had a few extra tiles so he wanted me to install them behind his range stove. In America we almost never move our stoves unless it needs service. The very last tile he had at the floor was one that had a small corner trimmed off. It drove him nuts. Then he got ****ed at me for charging him for the extra sq. ft of install labor. I told his wife I used to be an engineer and I was glad I didn't have to be like her husband anymore.

 

[Peter]

Done a bathroom floor a few years ago with a cream tile with different irregular shading on each tile. The helpful customer had put a sticker on each tile with a number and a corresponding drawing. Spent longer trying to get the stickers off all the tiles after grouting than I did tiling the floor. :lol:

 

[CDS]

Went to price up a bathroom job a few weeks back. The cm is a surveyor and gave us a detailed plan and list of materials etc that he wanted to be used. All very well presented and actually made our job easier as the guy obviously wants the job done properly.

It was all going really well until we pointed out that the cms tape measure was faulty.... and in order to use the vanity units that he had so carefully selected that we would either need to knock down the front wall or cut 2 inches off the side of the bath!!

Back to the drawing board then!

 

[Diamond Pool Finishers]

Our plastering tutor years ago got me and another lad a bit of cash in-hand work for an engineer doing his kitchen, we were only apprentices then, and had told him about these new trowels call twitchers,we could not afford them then as they were the latest things on the market, anyway about a week later we finished his work which he was very pleased with after checking everything to the mm , he said don't go ! i have something for you , well he had only found out all about the twitchers and made two set's one for me & one for the other lad, but he made them out of stainless steel , we were so chuffed !! and they were better than the one's on the market as they were stainless !!! i still have them today:lol: so it proves not all engineers are a nightmare

 

[martin1c]

I've only worked for one engineer before - it was a nightmare! He knew better ALL of the time. Since then I try to find out what people do for a living at quote stage during general chit chat. As soon as the word engineer is mentioned I seem to lose interest in the job. Just not worth the hassle.

 

[Colour Republic]

i asked him if he used to be an engineer, for 45 years he said,............what a surprise..:lol:

before I even read that line it was my first thought!!! They are like estate agents, you can spot them from a mile off!