So You Tile, What Else Do You Do And Why?

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Started tiling straight from school, working for my then brother in law. An old fashioned apprenticeship, first 6 months was pretty much cleaning, fetching and observing. I worked 5 years in the family business before leaving Wales for Liverpool. After 2 weeks job hunting I ended up working in a big independent diy store selling tiles. After 2 years I'd re-tiled the floors, all the displays and brought in professional adhesives which in turn brought in the trade. We'd gone from running at a 13% loss to a 300% profit. I was on minimum wage with no prospect of promotion so went self employed. I'm still working on my own to this day, I've never had to advertise only ever worked through recommendation. I do most things now, plastering, Joinery, plumbing but I'm still very much a tiler. Sometimes I love the job but often hate it. Find myself getting bored very easily fixing tiles. Over the last 2 years I must have applied for more than 30 jobs just to get away from tiles. The most ambitious being trainee astronaut for virgin galactic, the buggers never even acknowledged my cv!
 
I trained as a quantity surveyor for 7 years. Big recession at the end of the eighties put me out of work at 23.
Started decorating and tiling. Then started a loft company and watched all the trades that I employed. Then joined in and had a go.

Now primarily a kitchen and bathroom fitter working on my own.

Plumbing; plastering; tiling; carpentry; decorating; LVT flooring; solid surface worktops; design.

Happy as a pig in sh*t.
 
Bailed on my Electronic Engineering degree for Tiling haha, had done an array of rubbish and good jobs alike before then.

Once time served so to speak went into partnership fitting bathrooms with with ex girlfriends dad who was a plumber and learned that trade from him then went on my own.

Rarely get anyone in no matter what the spec of the bathroom, confident with any trade really as the van has a tool for every job in it, haven't installed a boiler yet that's about it! And although I don't plaster I'm sure I can do it better than half the mugs out there probably the least cost of all tradesman tools to start up and really bugs me off when they turn up without certain items that cost next to nothing!

"Language Timothy!"
 
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