Here we go :) give me some options fellas/ladies (if any)

[Anto Holland]

Alrighty tilers,

Been working with plumbers on full bathroom installation, I help with the rip and, prep the walls and tile. I would really like to get into the full bathroom installation.

Pipe work and installation and design. What do I need (minimum) to be able to do that. I will be getting on the job experience as well and not just planning to go straight into once trained.

I have looked at my local college and they only do full time courses, which I cannot afford to do as I am a tiler.

Are there any fast track courses I can go on, or a course I can pay in bits for?

Like I said, it's to get my papers to allow me to go in, rip out, design, install a new bathroom.

Any advice at all will be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Chalker]

Don't bother with any courses, for bathrooms, generally your only moving existing pipework. You don't need any qualifications. But make sure your public liability knows what scope of work you are carrying out. Expect it to go up to around £450 mark.

you will also need tons of tools and a bigger van. At last add up I had about £25,000 worth of tools!

 

[DJS]

I tried doing tiling and bathrooms, but found doing all trades leads to too many unknowns, which in turn will affect your profit margin and schedules.

In turn this affects your payday, so you may not be paid in time for the end of the month when the bills need paying, and you'll suffer charges for late payment, which again eats into your profit margin.

Then, because the job overruns, you'll miss the start date of your next job and the customer may not always accept your excuses and go back to someone else they also got a quote from. Then your left with a 2 week gap in your diary and no earnings to feed you and your family.

If I were you, I would find some good builders/plumbers to work with and stick to just tiling for now. Better to specialise than be a jack of all trades. Changing from complete bathrooms to tiling for builders and the local tile shops worked for me, but it was too little too late!

 

[Anto Holland]

I tried doing tiling and bathrooms, but found doing all trades leads to too many unknowns, which in turn will affect your profit margin and schedules.

In turn this affects your payday, so you may not be paid in time for the end of the month when the bills need paying, and you'll suffer charges for late payment, which again eats into your profit margin.

Then, because the job overruns, you'll miss the start date of your next job and the customer may not always accept your excuses and go back to someone else they also got a quote from. Then your left with a 2 week gap in your diary and no earnings to feed you and your family.

If I were you, I would find some good builders/plumbers to work with and stick to just tiling for now. Better to specialise than be a jack of all trades. Changing from complete bathrooms to tiling for builders and the local tile shops worked for me, but it was too little too late!

Good advice thanks mate. it is something I am going to do mind. I am pretty much doing it now but with another plumber and would just like to get involved. We have been doing well, on time the last 4 big jobs and customer always been happy. I know there will be times of course. I agree though, for now I will stick to what I know

Thanks

 

[swanman]

stick to what your good at
don't get greedy just be thankful the plumbers are including you and not doing it themselves

 

[Andy Allen]

I quite often work with my plumber mate on full refits been doing them together on and off for nearly 20 years now......and seeing the crap he puts up with and all the dodgy plumbing he has to put right before he even starts what he's quoted for....think I will stick to tiling. ....if it was as easy as just take a bathroom suite out and put another in then maybe but from what I've seen its rarely that straight forward. .

Funny thing is he says the same about tiling.....wouldn't want to touch it with a barge pole. .lol

 

[Taylormade]

It's suprising how many plumbers don't want to tile and tilers don't want to plumb! Showing my age again but my old man who taught me loads was an apprentice plumber and tiler when Adam was a lad. I don't mind doing the whole install but when I do I quote on a day rate due to the fact you don't know what your going to find. Luckily my customer base accept this and will wait for me and not the other way round. That's what you need to aim for.

 

[charlie1]

I make less money overall doing full bathroom refits with my friend But the work is more regular. The standard of my tiling has dropped also as we are on a tight schedule to get the bathroom done in a week. I don't really enjoy doing them either, it's too much work but as I say, there seems to be loads of work doing it this way. In a perfect world I'd have loads of tiling work lined up but I sort of moved away from that. I love just tiling, it's not work, really isn't, we can sometimes create really nice work just tiling.

 

[Anto Holland]

I make less money overall doing full bathroom refits with my friend But the work is more regular. The standard of my tiling has dropped also as we are on a tight schedule to get the bathroom done in a week. I don't really enjoy doing them either, it's too much work but as I say, there seems to be loads of work doing it this way. In a perfect world I'd have loads of tiling work lined up but I sort of moved away from that. I love just tiling, it's not work, really isn't, we can sometimes create really nice work just tiling.

This is true. I'm always busy now I'm on full installs. But standard can drop due to time. Cheers

 

[Anto Holland]

It's suprising how many plumbers don't want to tile and tilers don't want to plumb! Showing my age again but my old man who taught me loads was an apprentice plumber and tiler when Adam was a lad. I don't mind doing the whole install but when I do I quote on a day rate due to the fact you don't know what your going to find. Luckily my customer base accept this and will wait for me and not the other way round. That's what you need to aim for.

Ok mate thanks for the info

 

[Anto Holland]

I quite often work with my plumber mate on full refits been doing them together on and off for nearly 20 years now......and seeing the crap he puts up with and all the dodgy plumbing he has to put right before he even starts what he's quoted for....think I will stick to tiling. ....if it was as easy as just take a bathroom suite out and put another in then maybe but from what I've seen its rarely that straight forward. .

Funny thing is he says the same about tiling.....wouldn't want to touch it with a barge pole. .lol

Haha fair enough.