Newcomers to the tiling trade have your say.

[DHTiling]

Do you as newcomers think that you were given the knowledge to succeed in this dog eat dog world as a tiler.

Let's have your stories , be them very successful or you failed...

We have some very good tilers on here that have made in in the world from being a complete newcomer through short courses and we would like to hear your stories whether they are good or bad..


Was your n money well spent.?

Please don't turn this onto a thread of links to who trained you etc... just give your take on how you think you have turned out or if you got value for your pennies.

 

[henrywillicombe]

i started by working with a tiler doing mainly stone floors and bathrooms. used to spend the day measuring cutting mixing up etc.when i got home id spend a couple of hours on this forum learning, i was working for this tiler for two years and then he went quiet. had a few weeks off. then had a few calls from people who heard i was good, my first jobs i used to be so nervous double and triple checking everything. been tiling for myself for 9 months and keep getting more jobs and can feel myself getting quicker as time goes on without trying to be quicker. i looked into a course but the majority of them look like cons to be honest. you can not get good at something in a week. sounds stupid but took me a while just getting quick at measuring and marking a tile. let alone to tile someones bathroom

 

[PS Tiling]

I started labouring for a plasterer friend of mine 2 years ago now. In this time I have become a very good labourer as I know what my mate wants & when he wants it. I watched him like a hawk for 18 months then one day decided to pick up a trowel, basically because I was getting frustrated watching him sweat his bits off while I was standing around!
I never wanted to learn the trade (i'm too old!) but standing around watching him sweat was never going to last for long, i'm not built that way!
My point here is that IMO the only place to learn a trade is on site, in the real world!
Classrooms are fine for theory, but then so is the library, a good book or the internet. Why waste your money on a course?
If you want to learn a trade you need to get on site with someone who knows what they are doing who is willing to teach you.

Phil