Wall Tiling - The sand & cement method

[Aston]

found this video clip a while back with Mr Hobson..


its old school wall tiling using sand and cement..I laboured for my dad on Merchant Taylors school in Crosby during the summer holidays of 1984 and after that job, i decided tiling wasnt for me lol..All the shower areas were done in this method...Thank God for adhesives hey ;0)

anybody recognise or know the tiler in the video?

 

[White Room]

Having a good quality sand makes a big difference...

 

[Time's Ran Out]

It's Terry Carney.

 

[AD Ceramics]

I thought to myself his wife will hit the roof when she sees him doing that in her nice clean and tidy conservatory......and then I heard her getting excited in the background....class stuck for a lifetime!!!!

 

[david mccullough]

did you notice that the tiles have no spacers, they may have had small nibs cast on them to leave a gap, and they didn't have tiles bursting off in those days.
i remember working in a court house extension about 30 years ago and the floors in the cells were 6" quarry tiles laid in the screed, the tiler mixed a slurry of almost pure cement to bed the tiles in , to lay on the sand/cement screed. it took him weeks to do the job but it was no expense spared in government work back in "THE TROUBLES"
i also went to tile public toilets about 20 years ago and the foreman reached me a spec sheet form the architect requiring the wall tiles fix with the sand cement method!!! luckily the architect was on site, and we asked him if we could use the powdered adhesive? and he said yes but he had never seen powdered adhesive before!!! mind you if you had seen how old he was they must have had to dig him up to over see the contract.

 

[AD Ceramics]

did you notice that the tiles have no spacers, they may have had small nibs cast on them to leave a gap, and they didn't have tiles bursting off in those days.
i remember working in a court house extension about 30 years ago and the floors in the cells were 6" quarry tiles laid in the screed, the tiler mixed a slurry of almost pure cement to bed the tiles in , to lay on the sand/cement screed. it took him weeks to do the job but it was no expense spared in government work back in "THE TROUBLES"
i also went to tile public toilets about 20 years ago and the foreman reached me a spec sheet form the architect requiring the wall tiles fix with the sand cement method!!! luckily the architect was on site, and we asked him if we could use the powdered adhesive? and he said yes but he had never seen powdered adhesive before!!! mind you if you had seen how old he was they must have had to dig him up to over see the contract.

In the eighties I did work on the toilet blocks at Euston station, we did it all in semi dry sand and cement mixing with a crappy mixer on site, fixed shaws twin tiles buttered in neat cement slurry and grouted in 1.1 silver sand and cement cleaned down with dryers....flush joints flat as a pancake and down for donkeys......

 

[GAZ5518]

Tried and Tested ways... Was hard work , but solid..
How my Father and Grandfather learned their trade... Remember my Dad saying to me do not get into this game son... too bloody hard...
.38 years now in it and still going... Thanks Dad)

 

[GAZ5518]

In the eighties I did work on the toilet blocks at Euston station, we did it all in semi dry sand and cement mixing with a crappy mixer on site, fixed shaws twin tiles buttered in neat cement slurry and grouted in 1.1 silver sand and cement cleaned down with dryers....flush joints flat as a pancake and down for donkeys......

Used to love this type of work ... Hard knocking up by hand .. But great results..

 

[Just Rizzle]

did feltem youth custody prison back in the early eighty's all floors and corridors between blocks laid in sand and cement with slurry cement on semi dry screed and all shower blocks all tiled in sand cement .
and yes bloody hard work. had a big lad called Brendon who was the labourer who kept us going. his mixer never stopped. We used to do a gang of 4 of us about 40 mtrs aday at 10 quid a YARD SQ . weall got paid cash at 1 pm every friday at 1 30 we were in the local pub happy days

 

[andy8758]

Priceless video. We could learn a lot from the old methods.

 

[AD Ceramics]

Tried and Tested ways... Was hard work , but solid..
How my Father and Grandfather learned their trade... Remember my Dad saying to me do not get into this game son... too bloody hard...
.38 years now in it and still going... Thanks Dad)

Do you reckon they would allow you to do it this way nowadays? I'd love to give it a shot see if I could still do it..... hard work yes but nothing better than going home physically knackered.
I feel old now.

 

[Just Rizzle]

not sure it would work on modern porcelain tiles but on stone and terracotta i would have no hessitation

 

[GAZ5518]

Used to fix Tesselated sometimes this way.. My dad loved screed n lay..

 

[jonnyc]

found this video clip a while back with Mr Hobson..


its old school wall tiling using sand and cement..I laboured for my dad on Merchant Taylors school in Crosby during the summer holidays of 1984 and after that job, i decided tiling wasnt for me lol..All the shower areas were done in this method...Thank God for adhesives hey ;0)

anybody recognise or know the tiler in the video?

interersting . i just looked up merchant taylors crosby and it seems this school may preceed the merchant taylors in north london that my old school used to play in most sport formats. there must be some connection ?
as was the format , i followed due process in my chosen sport and became the secretary of sport on the squash and tennis front but the oddity to some was that at tender age of 17 i was given the authority to invite a new school to play us.

 

[Blunt Tool]

Before wedi boards, hardi backer boards, moisture resistant plasterboard shower walls were framed as normal, polythene cut and installed onto wooden framing, then wire lathe (like chicken wire) cut and installed. Sand and cement scratch coat, then sand and cement top coat left then floated up. Then left to dry for at least a week then BAL ctf powder adhesive mixed and 6inch by 6inch Pilkingtons Cristal tiles with lugs (no spacers) installed. Bit of cardboard from the tile boxes used to keep the level then BAL grout spread with handmade squegee, grout left to set then make a pointing stick run over grout lines to take off excess grout in joints then old rags to buff up tiles (wasn't allowed to wash grout back then) 3 sides of a 800x800 shower tray would take just about 2 weeks to do from start to finish!! Haha

 

[jonnyc]

Before wedi boards, hardi backer boards, moisture resistant plasterboard shower walls were framed as normal, polythene cut and installed onto wooden framing, then wire lathe (like chicken wire) cut and installed. Sand and cement scratch coat, then sand and cement top coat left then floated up. Then left to dry for at least a week then BAL ctf powder adhesive mixed and 6inch by 6inch Pilkingtons Cristal tiles with lugs (no spacers) installed. Bit of cardboard from the tile boxes used to keep the level then BAL grout spread with handmade squegee, grout left to set then make a pointing stick run over grout lines to take off excess grout in joints then old rags to buff up tiles (wasn't allowed to wash grout back then) 3 sides of a 800x800 shower tray would take just about 2 weeks to do from start to finish!