Last week I got a weeks contract on site in Croydon. When I got there I was told it was tiling kitchens and bathrooms in occupied council flats. I got shown around one of the flats and was told where to tile. I asked about the flaking paint, the wallpaper still attached to the walls, the holes in the plaster, the remains of the old adhesive still on the walls, the plasterboard window cills that were sticking out from the wall by over 5mm. I was told to tile over everything and to grout as soon as I had finished tiling. I was constantly being told that the Polish tilers tile & grout 10sqm in a day (earning £150) for themselves. I was not happy. So I did my best to right the walls and to make the substrate as flat as possible. In the end it took me 3 days (earning me £50 a day). I made sure I measured right and made even sized cuts at either end of the walls. So after only 3 days I had to give up that site........mainly due to the fact that my travelling time was way over 4 hours a day. However, I was still not happy at being told to sling the tiles up on unstable walls. I'm pretty sure that this practice is the same for every council house/flat refit, but what really peed me off was the fact that the plasterers, sparks, carpenters etc all did half jobs......which made mine all the more difficult. I was told by my foreman that my work was excellent, but I was too slow. I guess I had been spoilt for 6 weeks working on new builds. I have attached some pictures of what I had to tile over. Cheers Sean
