Jacks of all trades

[widler]

I do have every respect for people who call themselves multi traders, but lets face it some aspects of tiling are beyond the skills of mosts jacks of all trades. To quote Dave there are tilers, and there are tilers. I would love to see some guys on a real tiling job ie. 3,000 m2 floor, or a complex geometric floor.

Tiling is not just about bathroom bashing imo, to be a real tiler you must be able to take on any job, be it industrial, commercial, or domestic. How many "jacks" could tackle a swimming pool? or a big power vibro floor, laying 180m2 per day laying into semi-dry screed? not many, I think.:incazzato:

But Phil,no offence,I disagree ,some folk won't have the chance to do some things you mention,now hold your breath old timer ,(gulp) me a mere plasterer has laid quarry's into a semi dry screed in a farm house we plastered in the 80s,I've tiled mosaics and stone,I would tile a pool no probs,I would also render the sod before I tiled it as well 🙂
You lads are superb at your jobs,but,I stress, just cos you do 2 trades does not make you crap

 

[The Legend; Phil Hobson RIP]

It's ok .. Phil is passionate about our trade 🙂.. and breath..

Sorry Dave, yes I am. It's sad to see our trade being destroyed, as it is by pretenders.

I am a tiler nothing more, nothing less. I think we should all stick to what we do best.

 

[Colour Republic]

I do have every respect for people who call themselves multi traders, but lets face it some aspects of tiling are beyond the skills of mosts jacks of all trades. To quote Dave there are tilers, and there are tilers. I would love to see some guys on a real tiling job ie. 3,000 m2 floor, or a complex geometric floor.

Tiling is not just about bathroom bashing imo, to be a real tiler you must be able to take on any job, be it industrial, commercial, or domestic. How many "jacks" could tackle a swimming pool? or a big power vibro floor, laying 180m2 per day laying into semi-dry screed? not many, I think.:incazzato:

Completely agree with you Phil, however you have to look at the tiling trade itself, a huge percentage of tilers that only tile and nothing else couldn't do what you're talking about.

Just on this forum I bet there are only a handful on here that could tackle all those jobs you mention.

I can't speak about other multi-trades but the ones I do know don't actively target solo jobs. Each year I hardly do any jobs which are purely tiling, or purely plumbing, or purely electrical..... They are always done in conjunction with other works.

I do still get tilers in on jobs but only on occasion. I'd love to have the number of 3 or 4 top tilers that I could trust but I just can't, most new tilers I've tried out have been of poor quality or turn out 'standard' acceptable work. I don't want standard, I want something special and i'm willing to pay for it. But the general standard of most tilers is in fact pretty poor. So the fact is I tile to a better standard than most 'tilers'

I don't multi-trade because I want to, I have to because there are just so many crap tradesmen out there.

As I say I don't actively target single trade jobs, most of my work is full or semi refurbs. I very much doubt I take away any work from tilers as they wouldn't get the work that I do and I don't go quoting for purely tiling work that they undertake.

 

[The Legend; Phil Hobson RIP]

But Phil,no offence,I disagree ,some folk won't have the chance to do some things you mention,now hold your breath old timer ,(gulp) me a mere plasterer has laid quarry's into a semi dry screed in a farm house we plastered in the 80s,I've tiled mosaics and stone,I would tile a pool no probs,I would also render the sod before I tiled it as well 🙂
You lads are superb at your jobs,but,I stress, just cos you do 2 trades does not make you crap

I maybe an old timer, but I can still do it.:lol: I can also plaster, render, screed but I would not try to compete with a pro.

 

[Rizzle from the Portizzle]

dont worry to much with the 1200x600 thin formats starting to make inroads. the have a go builder and plummer have completey lost there bottle where real tilers love the challenge thats what seperates us from the boys any time any place any were any tile and tiles are only going to get bigger the futre is ours you cant fix bumpy white for ever

 

[andy8758]

I value Phil's opinion that a tiler should be able to turn their hand to any type of tiling no matter how difficult or daunting. However it appears to me that the current trend is away from a "jack-of-all-tiling" to specialism with a particular field of tiling. So I see a lot of stone tiling specialists, Victorian geometric tiling specialists, tile restoration specialists, and (as in my locality) swimming pool installation specialists. In view of that, after an apprenticeship in all aspects of tiling, should we not encourage tilers to become specialists with a particular field of tiling? Personally I am a "domestic tiling specialist" because I like customers and thing that commercial tiling contractors (who sub-contract to us lesser mortals) should be sat on a loo seat facing the water below.... :yikes:

 

[Andy Allen]

ive lost count of the amount of times when working in a house the customer has ask me to price other work that has nowt to do with tiling, and they seem a bit taken back when I tell them all I do is tiling, they assume because your expert at one thing in the building trade you should be expert at everything......imo its down to how much of a conscience have you got......and from what ive seen lately, quite a few tradesmen couldn't give a toss...!!

 

[peteablard]

I value Phil's opinion that a tiler should be able to turn their hand to any type of tiling no matter how difficult or daunting. However it appears to me that the current trend is away from a "jack-of-all-tiling" to specialism with a particular field of tiling. So I see a lot of stone tiling specialists, Victorian geometric tiling specialists, tile restoration specialists, and (as in my locality) swimming pool installation specialists. In view of that, after an apprenticeship in all aspects of tiling, should we not encourage tilers to become specialists with a particular field of tiling? Personally I am a "domestic tiling specialist" because I like customers and thing that commercial tiling contractors (who sub-contract to us lesser mortals) should be sat on a loo seat facing the water below.... :yikes:

It's thanks to tiling contractors who take the big jobs on that some people can put food on the table every week! It takes a lot of time/patience/skill/commitment etc etc to take these jobs on and run a team of subcontractors.

 

[Bubblecraft]

I love sitting on the fence lol

 

[John Benton]

I love sitting on the fence lol

I though you preferred installing 'em Gus

 

[andy8758]

[/B]
It's thanks to tiling contractors who take the big jobs on that some people can put food on the table every week! It takes a lot of time/patience/skill/commitment etc etc to take these jobs on and run a team of subcontractors.

Thanks Pete. I always welcome a voice from the other side. I fully understand the difficulties in running teams. I met some really good guys tiling on site as sub-contractors - I personally learnt a lot from them. Of course there were the usual issues - inconsistent demand for tiling work, tilers promising and not delivering, materials walking off site, shoddy tiling and so on. What really bugged me about the contractor is they consistently lied and failed to pay their sub-contracting tilers their pay. The lies included deliberately not meeting the specification for the work and encouraging bad tiling practice to increase square meterage completed. A lot is said on this forum about poor tiling - and rightly so. There are good commercial tiling contractors out there - I just haven't met one yet.

 

[peteablard]

Thanks Pete. I always welcome a voice from the other side. I fully understand the difficulties in running teams. I met some really good guys tiling on site as sub-contractors - I personally learnt a lot from them. Of course there were the usual issues - inconsistent demand for tiling work, tilers promising and not delivering, materials walking off site, shoddy tiling and so on. What really bugged me about the contractor is they consistently lied and failed to pay their sub-contracting tilers their pay. The lies included deliberately not meeting the specification for the work and encouraging bad tiling practice to increase square meterage completed. A lot is said on this forum about poor tiling - and rightly so. There are good commercial tiling contractors out there - I just haven't met one yet.

You're absolutely right mate, and as a subby I've suffered from everything you've mentioned at one time or another. That's why I decided to bite the bullet and set up my own company at the beginning of this year. I've kept one guy going full time for the last 4 months and at the busiest I had 7 guys going, that was a mix of tillers and floor layers. The one thing I always said I'd do is pay the guys weekly and have done without fail even though it's caused me problems at times. I stress to them I'm after quality not quantity and refuse to do to them what all the naff contractors did to me over the years!