Very Pleased with 1st wetroom/bathroom

[cornish_crofter]

I'll ask the customer on Monday if I can take some more pics.

The wetroom is basically finished. On Friday I just had to box in and tile some pipes, so the tiling around the boxing in will need some grout and silicone.

All the shower kit and area is new, though the customer reused a toilet and sink from other areas of the house saving himself around £100. I had removed the sink from an upstairs bathroom and the toilet was out of their utility room.

The tiling is as good as I can get it with B&Q tiles. most of them were warped to the extent that I had to be very careful to avoid excessive lippage. As a result the tiling took almost twice as long as it should have done:veryangry: At least the customer is pleased with it.

I did however like working with the floor tiles. These were also B&Q but porcelain. These were nice and straight. The only complaint I'd have with these is that the glaze is rather thin. I have never had so much cutting to do with a floor. I worked out that I had laid some 27 floor tiles, but only 8 didn't need to be cut! The TS60 Plus was fine in cutting them at 90°, but I needed the wet cutter to do the 45° cuts.

The nice thing is that the customer was in awe of it all when he saw the finished result, just as he was with the other bathrooms I've done for him. Well, finished as much as he wants it. He's going to do the decorating and minor filling. Also, for that very reason he's asked me not to silicone between the tiles and the woodwork.

Richard's drills worked well with the porcelain tiles. Rather than do cut outs to cope with the towel rail plumbing, I put stop ends on the pipes and used the 30mm bit to drill the tiles prior to laying them over the pipes. Changing the valves for stop ends and then changing them back again without draining down the system meant that I did get a bit wet but I've done this a few times so with a gravity fed CH system I lost very little water. As the holes were oversize for the pipes I used some cheap Screwfix chrome coloured plastic collars.

 

[Saltire69]

Well done m8. Worth all the effort then.Look forward to the pics.

 

[medlar]

Nice 1 CC,all that hard work has paid off for you,seeing as your customer is happy he will be pleased to pass your name on to anyone wanting a wet room done.

 

[cornish_crofter]

I thanked him for letting me practice on his house

 

[kilty55]

nice one,ive got a bathroom in january and the customers just informed me they are flying up to b and q on boxing day to buy the 35 sq metres of tiles cause they are on sale:smash::smash: nooooooooooooooo lol

 

[cornish_crofter]

:rant:

Tips from buying from B&Q

1) Don't

2) No really, I mean don't!

3) If you have to, get the customer to pick tiles that are still shrink wrapped. I have heard a member of the Plymouth B&Q staff being asked by a manager to box up loose tiles. They use a glue gun to repackage the boxes to make them look like unopened boxes. This means that different shades and sizes will be in the same box. To further prove this point I found a tile with a large chunk missing from it in a non shrink wrapped box. Unless the pack had been tampered with I would have expected to find the missing chunk in there. I didn't. I rest my case.

4) Try to avoid large ceramic tiles. The ones that I fixed were 13x10s. The larger the tile the more the problems will occurr.

5) Get the customer to buy twice as many as he thinks he needs.

6) Inspect each tile to make sure it's not warped, reject the ones that are. Assuming you still have enough left after doing this then reinspect the 'good' ones to make sure they aren't different shades.

7) bill the customer for all this extra prep and he'll realise that he should have gone to CTD with your 15% voucher!

As far as I'm concerned, the only thing these crappy ceramics were good for was infill!

I did kind of lose my rag with the customer about these tiles when I asked him how much he saved. It turned out that had I charged him for the extra work in fixing them these tiles would have actually cost him more.

I told him that he would not be charged the extra but the next customer will be.

The next job I go to I will inform the customer that the charge for fixing B&Q tiles will be twice that of fixing CTD tiles.

Quite frankly those B&Q tiles were not fit for purpose.

By the way, don't get me started on B&Q tiles. :rant:

Focus ones are just as bad. Avoid their 10x8 stuff. I fitted these for a different customer and they were twisted. That is to say that if you put them on a flat surface, two opposite corners made contact and the tile rocked from side to side.

 

[kilty55]

i can see your not a huge fan of b and spew tiles,i have used them a few times they are always different approximate sizes which is a real pain,i said id give the customer a great discount at ctd but you cant force people eh..i recently tiles there en suite and offered them a discount at ctd but listen to this one...........it was supposed to be just plain white tiles as i had quoted them for afixing a mosaic border and her eyes nearly popped out there sockets so that idea quickly dissapeared,,so i turns up to tile only to be met by a box of 70 5 inch cermaic border peices all with individual stickers from b and q,i asked her how much these cost her to which she replies 4.99 each and she bought 70 of them.......:santa_cheesy::santa_cheesy::santa_cheesy: i said but i priced a border fix for you but you said it was too expensive ,,to which she replied yes but i just bought these cos theyre like a mini tile and u wont charge extra.......ERRM WRONG MISSUS .thats a border so in the end instead of me getting her excellent quality tiles and a decent labour rate she spent a fortune on rubbish from b and spew and still had to pay labour,,wat a coconut:smash::46:

 

[cornish_crofter]

i can see your not a huge fan of b and spew tiles.........

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Whatever gave you that idea now:santa_cheesy:

 

[heatybob]

:rant:

Tips from buying from B&Q

1) Don't

2) No really, I mean don't!

3) If you have to, get the customer to pick tiles that are still shrink wrapped. I have heard a member of the Plymouth B&Q staff being asked by a manager to box up loose tiles. They use a glue gun to repackage the boxes to make them look like unopened boxes. This means that different shades and sizes will be in the same box. To further prove this point I found a tile with a large chunk missing from it in a non shrink wrapped box. Unless the pack had been tampered with I would have expected to find the missing chunk in there. I didn't. I rest my case.

4) Try to avoid large ceramic tiles. The ones that I fixed were 13x10s. The larger the tile the more the problems will occurr.

5) Get the customer to buy twice as many as he thinks he needs.

6) Inspect each tile to make sure it's not warped, reject the ones that are. Assuming you still have enough left after doing this then reinspect the 'good' ones to make sure they aren't different shades.

7) bill the customer for all this extra prep and he'll realise that he should have gone to CTD with your 15% voucher!

As far as I'm concerned, the only thing these crappy ceramics were good for was infill!

I did kind of lose my rag with the customer about these tiles when I asked him how much he saved. It turned out that had I charged him for the extra work in fixing them these tiles would have actually cost him more.

I told him that he would not be charged the extra but the next customer will be.

The next job I go to I will inform the customer that the charge for fixing B&Q tiles will be twice that of fixing CTD tiles.

Quite frankly those B&Q tiles were not fit for purpose.

By the way, don't get me started on B&Q tiles. :rant:

Focus ones are just as bad. Avoid their 10x8 stuff. I fitted these for a different customer and they were twisted. That is to say that if you put them on a flat surface, two opposite corners made contact and the tile rocked from side to side.

Top post CC,would you realy charge double for fixing crappy tiles,i would imagine b&"spew"and the like sell more tiles than anyone else,so thats a lot of crappy tiles that need fixin,if the tiles hadnt been bought would you explain that it is false economy to go to the sheds,
it would be interesting to hear other members views on this.also how many of your customers take any notice of your advice.
again top post and your points will take their place in my sales pitch.

Ged

 

[kilty55]

hi,although i agree with crofter that b and spew tiles are poor quality,i doubt my customers would be willing to pay double for me to fix them,some customers take heed of your advice and as we all well know some just dont but theres no harm in trying to educate/make people aware of the pros and cons of buying from different places.:santa_cheesy:

 

[Rob Z]

This is related to CC's post about the B & Spew (love it) tiles. My buddy Terry (another tile setter in my area, very good) and I really, Really, REALLY HATE these so-called rectified tiles. The things are warped on the face and impossible to set without lippage. We have gone round and round with the "sales professionals" in the showrooms at the tile stores, and they just can't get it through their heads what the problems are with these types of tiles. We have told them they are just fine as long as the joint spacing is widened, but they want to market them to the customer as a lower cost alternative to stone, have the look of stone, etc etc, and should be set with tight joints like polished marble. Terry and I have showed these folks two large format tiles put together face-to-face, and with the huge gaps around the perimeter that are demonstrating the degree of warpage. And even with that, the people in the showroom, and some customers, still look at Terry and me with what we call the "deer in the headlights" look.

I just went to do an inspection last night on the way home from work. There are about a thousand things wrong with this bathroom, but one huge problem is the massive lippage on the walls in the shower....large format rectangular rectified porcelain tiles set on the running bond, with wall washers in the ceiling showing every imperfection as looking like the Grand Canyon.

So, how do you tell people that the lippage is unavoidable given the tile that the tilesetter had to work with? Of course, their response is "but these tiles were very expensive" and "this is what the designer in the showroom said we should do". :mad2:

My personal claim to fame in the tiling world :laugh4: is that the Impronta Italgraniti catalogs all have a disclaimer :deal2: about not setting their rectified tile on the running bond (because of the warpage) and the issues I raised here in a showroom with a display I did years ago (the US office for I.I. is located in my area and the company big shots heard about my shall we say "observations")

Sorry for the thread hijack, but I thought this fit in with CC's problems he was having.