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

[Spare Tool]

Oh my! Is this part if the "new" forum. Are we bonding and getting to know one another now?

I hated school. Was one if the disruptive kids/class clown because I found it boring. Scrapped through GCSES and decided adhoc to join the Army as I left school.
Trained to be a telecommunications technician and spent just shy of 6 years in the Royal Signals. Left two months after 9/11 after my final tour in Bosnia.
About the same time my father got made redundant and setup on his own first electrics and then moving into kitchens and bathrooms.
So after leaving the Army I worked and learnt all aspects of kitchens and bathrooms from my dad, and tiling from a his mate who he employeed.
In 2007 I done a week course in tiling thinking the certificate might help me in someway.
My dad semi retired in 2008 and I went out on my own doing kitchen and Bathrooms. In 2012 done my EWPA to get my NVQ, and since then focused on mainly tiling.
Doing a few bathroom, wetroom and kitchens on the way. 2 or 3 of each a year maybe.

Tiling allows me to control my OCD and anxiety issues. Privileged to do something I absolutely love to do everyday and be paid for it

Plumber I work with is ex army too, get a bit of ady on his levels and there's hell to pay 😉

 

[Just Rizzle]

by the sound of it none of us left school and tiling was our first choice.
when I was 16 stayed on at school to do a levels then some of us formed a band playing rock and punk to fill in our spare lessons and used to do lunchtime concerts then when the band split I bought the pa from the lads and did discos in the pubs and clubs in the north east did my first tiling job during my disco period my dads bathroom lol in 4inch marble effect tiles
the chicken ones
then did a few more relatives bathrooms then got married and moved to London, Epsom got a job on a prison complex at felthem were ever thing fixed in sand and cement so been tiling now 34yrs and I still have my disco decks an records

 

[Old Mod]

Done the first firemans strike in 77 then over to Belfast for a year and a half and worked on Navy minesweeper searching ships coming into Belfast docks for a short period then Kenya for a bit.

Was a Royal Anglian 3rd Battalion (the Pompadours) was disbanded in 92 due to the governments infinite wisdom.

I joined when fireman strike was on and labour was on the way out!
Good job and all! They were trying to decommission our Nuclear Subs at the time! Grrrrrr

...and I think I'm a liar Mark @whitebeam I do vaguely recall u telling me on the Nu-stone stone restoration course oooops! Sorry mate!
But that course seems like 10 years ago now! Hahha

 

[Old Mod]

Plumber I work with is ex army too, get a bit of ady on his levels and there's hell to pay 😉

Hahaha I think he was in a different army Andy! Hahaha

 

[AD Ceramics]

When I left school my first to jobs was the old government training scheme working in a fishing tackle and bike shop then went on to insulating houses for six months
Then I got my first full time job stacking shelves in a warehouse, got my fork lift license and became a supervisor there but ended up being made redundant.
After four weeks of drinking my redundancy money away a friend who was working behind the bar of my local was looking for an apprentice tiler to go working in London with him, I was bored so I said I'd give it a go.
I made the right choice I loved it and took to it like a duck to water and had a talent for the trade (his words) after working with him for a few years I was dropped in at the deep end to continue with all our work on my own when he ended up doing a bit of bird.
That was in the late eighties, a long time ago and I continued to grow at one stage in the 90's I had several tilers working for me but had to take a break after suffering a sort of..... Eek.... A nervous breakdown, working seven days a week 14-16 hours a day all over the country doesn't help.
In 1998 I joined my best friend putting our businesses together and set up a construction company we went from strength to strength we even bought out the company that he started out as an apprentice plasterer and became construction and shop fitting.
Needless to say it ended in 2006 when we fell out after I realised he was ripping me off and the company ended up folding.
So back to tiling it was. Took a while to get re-established but got there in the end, I now mainly do my work in Cheshire for a developer that builds one off houses for the wealthy and the footballing fraternity.
Feel like I'm talking to a therapist.

 

[AD Ceramics]

by the sound of it none of us left school and tiling was our first choice.
were ever thing fixed in sand and cement so been tiling now 34yrs and I still have my disco decks an records

Not many tilers these days can fix in sand and cement, not done it for years, I used to love it a proper work out for a days Graft.
Flat as a pancake and would last a lifetime.

 

[Spare Tool]

Hahaha I think he was in a different army Andy! Hahaha

Yeah the barmy Burnley army...although huck spit he's a Blackburn fan 🙁 tut tut

 

[Old Mod]

An engineer..........well twist my nipple nuts and send me to Alaska. That explains everything.

@AD Ceramics
C'mon then Paul!
Explain oneself! Hahaha

 

[White Room]

I joined when fireman strike was on and labour was on the way out!
Good job and all! They were trying to decommission our Nuclear Subs at the time! Grrrrrr

...and I think I'm a liar Mark @whitebeam I do vaguely recall u telling me on the Nu-stone stone restoration course oooops! Sorry mate!
But that course seems like 10 years ago now! Hahha

That's how Maggie got in, she said she would give all forces a pay rise....so from 50p a day danger money we got a £1 a day when serving in N/Ireland.

 

[gamma38]

The thing that i really enjoy doing is tiling. What is it they say, find something you love doing and then find a way of getting paid to do it. I've certainly done that. International as well now... But i also fit the bathroom that I tile, or the kitchen. I have been privileged to work on some stunning projects over the years, some of my best was while i lived in New Zealand for ten years. From houses, they were ok, to building super yachts. Now thats something special. Best job working for someone else i have ever had.