if you could see in to the future of tiling

[diamondtiling]

Not one for doom and gloom but lot of the concrete companies see the floor tiling market as a major target and have developed polished and coloured concrete solutions as an alternative. Mind you we are a very conservative industry in the UK so I imagine the floor tiling industry has a good century or so ahead of it yet.....

Tiling has been around since the Romans (mosaics) it will still be here in another thousand years.

 

[Ajax123]

Do you think? I know what you mean but i'm not so sure anymore, I think the UK has made massive steps in the last decade in innovative installations (all construction industries not just tilling), the last property boom has made the UK see their home as an investment and a statement about them rather than just somewhere they live/eat/sleep and I think this trend will only accelerate. The commecial sector is normally first to install new products but it quickly appears in domestic dwellings much faster than ever before. I'm looking forward to it:hurray:

We just don't seem very good at adopting and using new things. I have been involved with fairly innovative construction products for some years now. The latest is the anhydrite screeds. It has taken 20 odd years for us to penetrate the market with what is essentially a fantastic product up to just 20%. We still (as an industry, not individuals) seem not to know how to use them properly and how to treat them post installation. It is difficult enough to get people to put a blooming roof on let alone anything else.......I agree that we do generally try new things but in my experience there is a generalised lack of willingness to make them work because we feel threatened by them a lot of the time.

 

[diamondtiling]

Very true Al, Germany have been using wedi boards and aqua type panels for decades, we only seem to be playing catch up sometimes. I worked there years ago, (Auf Wiedersehen Pet) and was amazed at the quality of their products. When we were tiling, the areas were all marked out with lasers on glass like finished concrete, laying 60/70 metres a day was quite easy. (we got about £4.50 a mtr between two guys but a grand a week was possible. This was in the mid eighties though.

Loads a money!!

:8::8:

 

[Spud]

Not one for doom and gloom but lot of the concrete companies see the floor tiling market as a major target and have developed polished and coloured concrete solutions as an alternative. Mind you we are a very conservative industry in the UK so I imagine the floor tiling industry has a good century or so ahead of it yet.....

These have been around for quite some time and are still extremely problematic my brother in law used to work for a concrete company doing stone carpet and the ashphalt base and concrete mixed floors for warehouses, crazing and cracking is still a major problem of these decrative concrete floors and even with the super flat high tolerance floors are prone to crazing and cracking, I think the future will be large format tiles, malleable porcelain which will set by uv light, dust less cutting equipment ,fully recyclable materials and packaging, mood color change tiles ,and led tiles providing patterns and finishes

 

[Diamond Pool Finishers]

ajax love to see a paper on there about ,your screed /finishes, i think fation has a lot to do with it!!

 

[Colour Republic]

We just don't seem very good at adopting and using new things. I have been involved with fairly innovative construction products for some years now. The latest is the anhydrite screeds. It has taken 20 odd years for us to penetrate the market with what is essentially a fantastic product up to just 20%. We still (as an industry, not individuals) seem not to know how to use them properly and how to treat them post installation. It is difficult enough to get people to put a blooming roof on let alone anything else.......I agree that we do generally try new things but in my experience there is a generalised lack of willingness to make them work because we feel threatened by them a lot of the time.

ahhh we might be talking cross purposes here? I was referring more to second fix decorative products rather than first fix installation methods before.

It's the same old catch 22 problem until people use the methods more the cost of such products are sometimes prohibitive.

I sometimes swallow the added cost if one of the following is met -
I think it could be more profitable because of quicker install time
It keeps me ahead of the competition
If the product has more longevity
It looks like fun!

Whenever this subject comes up somebody always mentions how Germany are ahead of us but I really don't think you can compare the two because they work in a completely different way - more often than not the 'construction' is done off site in a factory making their on-site installation quicker because of its pre-fab nature. Making them look great and ultra
efficient but the customer doesn't always take into account the work they didn't see with their own eyes. In any case most of the money goes to the factories not the installer. Is it better? Maybe. Would it work in the UK? Not without 20 years of infrastructure being laid down first

 

[diamondtiling]

So your saying that we need 20 years of infrastructure implemented into our country in order to catch up with some of our neighbouring countries? that was what I was saying, having seen how they build and I haven't seen any pre fabs, they were miles ahead in terms of build quality ie, insulation, windows etc. 20 years ago they were insulating floors, we were not, Our build quality has risen vastly but the big boys still churn out crap new builds all the time. There is an exclusive estate near to me with all houses built on a golf course (whycwood park) all properties upwards of £500,000, the bathrooms all leak and I could spend the next 10 years putting them right. Its a sin that the main contractor got away with it.

:mad2:

 

[Colour Republic]

I wouldn't say catch up is the right word, it's a completely different system. In any case our planning laws are to restrictive to allow major change.

You might not have seen any pre-fabs but a lot are it's just they are individual modular pre-fabs not to be confused with the crappy UK pre-fabs of the 60's/70's/80's that we put up.

The fact the big boys still churn out rubbish is because they can, due to un-educated estate agents and buyers. I've said it before on this forum - I was looking forward to the HIP's coming out before it got watered down to just another sales tax, I feel it would have completely re-written the book on how properties are valued. Why is it that when people buy a car they can see two indentical cars in every way but one has done 1,000 miles and the other 150,000 so have completely different values but come buying a property they take leave of there senses and think both are the same :crazy:

 

[Diamond Pool Finishers]

yes floor IMO will all come with the house pre made in a factory and placed on sit!!:lol:

 

[White Room]

There's also the no fines concrete propertys that were thrown up in the 70's.

All houses were shuttered out for the shape and the no fine's concrete poured, two days later the shuttering was dropped.

The floors of a frame and floor boards were then dropped in by crane then the roof put together.

All dry linned and internal walls paramount, all external was pebble dash.

That was fast and cheap.