P
Pebbs
I disagree with some of your comments made about commercial work, first of all when you refer to pubs and retail, that falls under fit outs, and that falls under a diff section of 'commercial work' You seriously think that if you have a 350m2 front reception to do you can slap those tiles down in the quickest possible time and get away with it, your totally wrong. You have the clients representative snagging it, you have the architects snagging it, and you have project managers breathing down your neck. These are people who will only accept the best of the best and wont be fobbed off.
To be a good commercial tiler, you have to combine a good standard with a good speed, and that only comes with years of practice. There is no faffing around, you get in there do your job, knock your money up and move on to the next one. Its fast money, and if your not up to scratch your told to get your tools and leave site.
If you work for some of these big tiling contractors, you know some of them are utter out and out pieces of work. They abuse the system, they abuse their workers, and they have no standards, and their reputation is dirt. A good contractor (and I like to think we are one of them) plan ahead, make sure theres always a working foreman on site, a contracts director who will be on that job every day, and every job should be planned ahead in terms of distribution of materials on site, a good team of labourers. Yes of course we have to push the job forward, we are a finishing trade, we are always under the cosh, but with good planning it doesnt mean that standards have to be compromised. If something is not right in terms of prep, before we start, yes I kick off big time, but there is a reason for that, you cannot say at the end of the job...ohh the substrate was rubbish, its not our fault. Do that and you never get any repeat business.
Lynn
To be a good commercial tiler, you have to combine a good standard with a good speed, and that only comes with years of practice. There is no faffing around, you get in there do your job, knock your money up and move on to the next one. Its fast money, and if your not up to scratch your told to get your tools and leave site.
If you work for some of these big tiling contractors, you know some of them are utter out and out pieces of work. They abuse the system, they abuse their workers, and they have no standards, and their reputation is dirt. A good contractor (and I like to think we are one of them) plan ahead, make sure theres always a working foreman on site, a contracts director who will be on that job every day, and every job should be planned ahead in terms of distribution of materials on site, a good team of labourers. Yes of course we have to push the job forward, we are a finishing trade, we are always under the cosh, but with good planning it doesnt mean that standards have to be compromised. If something is not right in terms of prep, before we start, yes I kick off big time, but there is a reason for that, you cannot say at the end of the job...ohh the substrate was rubbish, its not our fault. Do that and you never get any repeat business.
Lynn