standards

[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

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Lynn - a pleasure to read your post!

 

[The Legend; Phil Hobson RIP]

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

Lynn I must agree with you, it should not matter what type of work you are doing. When I ran a team of fixers doing power vibro floors we had to hit a very high standard but hit a deadline at the same time.

When I first got involved there was a few gangs doing this work, they were earning good money but taking two weeks to lay 1100 m2 and then spending two weeks on day work doing remedial work (patching rough work).

The first store my team did took 9 days, done and dusted not one tile was snagged. This work was all laid semi dry ready mix sand and cement, on average 25 ton per day, this including skirtings, bucket sinks etc. We went on to do this type of work all over the UK/world, for many years.

The faces on the gang changed along the way, but I finished up with a top class team of tilers, I never once let my standards drop, and our quality ensured we got the next contract.

 

[afright]

I think weve all been there were some contracts just want to see results not quality I always tell the customer what they get for the price they want to pay but in this present climate you can not afford to lose work, not saying that you have to drop your standards but its true what they say, you get what you pay for,me I've been on big jobs with a gang of tilers were we have to get the job done in a certain time scale hated every day but work was work now much happier just plodding from one job to the next keeping up a good standard of work with much more satisfaction.

 

[charlie1]

There is a right and a wrong way of doing things, some companies want to do it the wrong way and get the right results, cant happen, simple! When you ask about prep ,same answer...no money! Some companies just want in and out and grab the money... How long will the installation last?...who cares! I also believe there are more honourable companies out there who do it the right way and prep accordingly and if the don't get the contract due to price then so be it! This is one of the reasons i got in to tiling, so much substandard work and no pride taken,if your not prepared to do the job right or have knowledge to do it right then you either learn or get out and find a job more suited to your skill set.

 

[afright]

Totally agree with you theres nothing better than doing a good job and getting the wow factor from the customer it makes it all worth while.