Tilers deserve more credit

[thompsonbrown]

As a plumber & Electician by trade, most guys on this forum may consider me the enemy. However, please bear in mind that most of my work is bathroom fitting and that tiling takes up about 50% of my work.
If it wasn't for the tiling, my installations would look mediocre and would not give me the appreciation I receive from customers.
Without good tiling my bathroom installations would look bad. So seeing other blogs about how much to charge per sqm makes me cringe that customers will overlook a great tiler who knows what he's talking about, based on price.
My only advice on pricing jobs is to show your ability to your customers; having an ipad with previous work will help, and learn how to promote your expertise.

 

[John Benton]

Well anybody can tile can't they!!!

That's what most people think surely. They don't think anything about paying £60 for a plumber to stop a leak or a spark to change a faulty socket, but charge a customer £60 for replacing a broken tile and you're a rip-off merchant.

Problem is tiling is cosmetic and a broken tile doesn't stop the tiles from 'working', whereas a leak will cause a lot more than £60 worth of damage, and a blown fuse will stop them watching their £1500 60" telly that they didn't mind paying a fortune for!!!

I quoted a bathroom at just over £800 a while since to tile it for a work colleague of my wife. She said she didn't want to pay that much but she was more than happy the following week to spend £650 on a handbag.

Work that one out then!!!

 

[White Room]

What amazes me is you can buy a technical book on bricklaying, plastering, electrics, plumbing etc but why not tiling, never understood that.

£650 for an handbag :yikes:somehow the prioritys are all over the place.

 

[Dan]

Jeeeeeeez, and I bet some chinese kid mate that handbag too.

Well said though TBrown.

I think customers still think all tiles are 6x6's and all walls are lath and plaster and all adhesive is hand mixed sand sand and cement.

 

[thompsonbrown]

Well anybody can tile can't they!!!

That's what most people think surely. They don't think anything about paying £60 for a plumber to stop a leak or a spark to change a faulty socket, but charge a customer £60 for replacing a broken tile and you're a rip-off merchant.

Problem is tiling is cosmetic and a broken tile doesn't stop the tiles from 'working', whereas a leak will cause a lot more than £60 worth of damage, and a blown fuse will stop them watching their £1500 60" telly that they didn't mind paying a fortune for!!!

I quoted a bathroom at just over £800 a while since to tile it for a work colleague of my wife. She said she didn't want to pay that much but she was more than happy the following week to spend £650 on a handbag.

Work that one out then!!!

£650 FOR A HANDBAG. what was it made of, crock-a-"tile" skin.

 

[Ajax123]

£60 for fixing a leak.... Blimey... Talk about rip off Britain... ;-0)

 

[bgatty68]

I think that people just want something for nothing. Now i'm a DIYer and offered-yes offered- to tile my sisters small bathroom in her 4 bedroom/3 bathroom detached expensive house for free, all they had to do was supply tiles adh grout etc. When i went to the house to size it up they had removed some of the old tiles and made a right mess of a wall, so i suggested they get the walls plastered after removing rest of the tiles, and the reply was "cant you just level it up with extra adhesive" and after giving the answer that it isnt the right way to do it, I left and they never spoke to me again, and told the family i was ripping them off :lol: how can you rip someone off for free

also they didnt believe on the amount of tiles i recommended for their sm2 because the tiles they wanted were big tiles, so i pointed out 20m2 is 20m2 it doesnt get smaller because your tiles are big:lol:

now work that one out

 

[MTiler]

What amazes me is you can buy a technical book on bricklaying, plastering, electrics, plumbing etc but why not tiling, never understood that.

£650 for an handbag :yikes:somehow the prioritys are all over the place.

yeah they tend to be more practical than technical. A technical book would be huge and probably end up something like an encyclopedia with many volumes lol.

 

[thompsonbrown]

I think that people just want something for nothing. Now i'm a DIYer and offered-yes offered- to tile my sisters small bathroom in her 4 bedroom/3 bathroom detached expensive house for free, all they had to do was supply tiles adh grout etc. When i went to the house to size it up they had removed some of the old tiles and made a right mess of a wall, so i suggested they get the walls plastered after removing rest of the tiles, and the reply was "cant you just level it up with extra adhesive" and after giving the answer that it isnt the right way to do it, I left and they never spoke to me again, and told the family i was ripping them off :lol: how can you rip someone off for free

also they didnt believe on the amount of tiles i recommended for their sm2 because the tiles they wanted were big tiles, so i pointed out 20m2 is 20m2 it doesnt get smaller because your tiles are big:lol:

now work that one out

Feel for you mate.
I never work for family, friends or neighbours. Haven't fallen out with any but working for these people isn't a good idea.
Hope your sister finally comes to her sences.

 

[Houston]

who actually looks at the sanitary when entering a bathroom. It is always the tiles that catches your eye, as most of us know, tiling can make or break a bathroom etc

 

[bgatty68]

Cheers Thompsonbrown
wish I never offered anyway been 6years and she ain't come to her senses yet

 

[thompsonbrown]

Cheers Thompsonbrown
wish I never offered anyway been 6years and she ain't come to her senses yet

Didn't speak to my mam for 5 years. Got bi-lateral testical cancer. love her to bits now. Hope you don't need a medical problem to sort out your differences out with your sister.
But family really does matter.

 

[Mr Tiler]

Didn't speak to my mam for 5 years. Got bi-lateral testical cancer. love her to bits now. Hope you don't need a medical problem to sort out your differences out with your sister.
But family really does matter.

a lot of that in my family mate it takes someone to die or get terminally ill for everyone to be able to talk to each other... and some of the immatures cant even do that without trying to stir something up!

 

[thompsonbrown]

a lot of that in my family mate it takes someone to die or get terminally ill for everyone to be able to talk to each other... and some of the immatures cant even do that without trying to stir something up!

Its friday night and i didn't want to make this blog morbid. But i empathise with you, Ash.

 

[Mr Tiler]

mate there all miserable buggers on this site anyway probably the old age thing lol

 

[thompsonbrown]

mate there all miserable buggers on this site anyway probably the old age thing lol
i'm 43 probably classed as one of the old timers.

 

[White Room]

I'm 57, my brain is still 21 the body just ai'nt catching up:lol:

 

[Mr Tiler]

can I have your van and tools when you pack up whitebeam? another 8 years on this site has got to be worth something lol

 

[Mr Tiler]

whats affected you most over all these years then mate is it the knees im guessing? I wonder how many times that bit of hard skin you get from the trowel has fallen off your hand lmao

 

[thompsonbrown]

I'm 57, my brain is still 21 the body just ai'nt catching up:lol:

"They say your only as young as the woman you feel". My 21yr old brain is saying not to help my misses up the stairs to the toilet.
The body is saying use the stair lift together, save the electric.:lol:

 

[bgatty68]

Hope you are okay now thompsonbrown.