First private Job

[paul damian]

Hi henry, it is upsetting that you feel " you shouldnt of bothered" all these lads on here have been through the learning journey and have learnt from their mistakes ,me included, they would not advise you to do something wrong.Floorboards and ditra then tiles is a no-no. I have never recieved the wrong advice on here and you will never find a better place to learn with these bunch of lads.IF you did a course to learn about tiling you would have to pay for it, its free on here these lads give their time to help you. Hope fully you will take this the right way.

 

[Perry]

rang two builders one is a chippie and foreman for a big building company does that mean they also know about cars aircraft tiling ? no i dont think so or they wouldent be giving you that advise and the guy you have been working for as a tiler for two years should be able to tell you that if not i would look for a new job not trying to be rude but trying to help

 

[henrywillicombe]

i want to do a proper job. this is the first time ive had to do any prep. I want to do it properly. i was planning on taking pictures of every stage of the job and giving it to the customer so that she could see exactly what ive done and know ive done a good job. My boss would also tile on floor boards with ditra and thinks ditra is a substitute for ply, when i started this job it was under impression my boss was a brilliant tiler as he gets loads of work and his jobs always look good. I have basically learnt from him and am now learning that i may of been misinformed. I want to be as good as possible so may have to look into a tiling course. every job we get is a nightmare to do. i.e plastered walls that are not flat, or tiling on a screed that is uneven or level etc all our jobs take ages because we are basically rendering the walls with adhesive then sticking tiles on them. My boss is a good bloke but i get the impression he doesnt know much about preparation but thinks he does. i dont think he is intentionally doing a bad job or i wouldnt work for him. i have only known one job go wrong and that is a kitchen floor done before i worked for him. he cancelled going on a stag do and relaid the whole floor for free. ive joined this forum to be a better. Also ive rang MANDARIN stone and tile giant to ask about laying marble tiles on schluter straight on floor boards. Both said it was ok and tile giant said if i used Mapei 2 part adhesive it would be guaranteed for 25 years. i made it clear it was tongue and groove and they both said it was ok. easy to see how mistakes are made.

 

[White Room]

Floor boards in old victorian houses are rock solid, floor boards in some from the houses in the 70's tend to have a habit having curly edges and are thin and are no way suitible to ditra and tile on....can't believe there saying it's ok though.

 

[bobbynz]

Floor boards in old victorian houses are rock solid, floor boards in some from the houses in the 70's tend to have a habit having curly edges and are thin and are no way suitible to ditra and tile on....can't believe there saying it's ok though.

I think the confusion for someone with limited knowledge is hearing advice from someone with years of practical advice and comparing that with the tds of any product. The thing is, we know that sometimes if you do it based on tech info from manufacturer, you might have a failure simply because they cannot possibly test product under every possible scenario. However, if you want to reduce the chance of failure, then you listen to the guys who produce an installation that they would want in their own homes.
Its the years of experience they have that tells them that the tech sheets for the products they use are limited to what the manufacturer wants their product to do and not what it actually does in the real world.:yikes: