What is the biggest mistake you have made?

[Knifey_Spoony]

No matter how good you are at whatever job you do,sometimes you will make mistakes.Just wondering what big mistakes you lot have all made?

When i was an apprentice i was left to grout a big porcelain or stone floor.Can't remember as it was a long time ago.I grouted about 30m2 then went to wash it off and the grout was rock hard.The house had underfloor heating so it made it go off really quickly but i had still grouted way too much anyway.I just couldn't get it off at all.I called my boss to come who went mental at me when he couldn't get it off either.He tried all kinds of acids and stuff on it but it never completely came off.We had been on the job for 4 days and he never got paid because of it.

One other time i layed a 50m floor out wrong.It was a entrance to an apartment block which had a foyer that led to a stairwell like a U shape.I was just using a tape to measure everything up then tiled the entrance way which was about 35m.When i got into the room with the stairwell there was a 1cm cut running the whole way along the skirting down one of the walls with 600x600 tiles.Had to have the whole wall plaster boarded again to cover it.Was on a building site so i felt like a right **** having everyone know.I have always doubled checked my laying out by manually checking with a tile rather than solely using a tape ever since.

So what mistakes have you guys made?

 

[Russell brown]

Once had a labourer drill all the kitchen door handles wrong and couldn't get handles to match the holes. I've made a few but nothing that sticks out.

 

[Dougs Third Go]

once left out thermostat on underfloor heating😳 also tiled 2 bathrooms with the wrong tiles, (labourer was supposed to carry tiles up to bathrooms and stack them outside each bathroom, he stacked the wrong ones)

 

[lizzardtong]

I did cut the cable on underfloor heating. And did plumb thermostatic shower the other way - twice.

 

[gamma38]

When i was younger i tiled a floating floor as a weekend cash job, needless to say i got a call to say it had failed. I went round to look and it wasn't the end of the world to be fair. I managed to rectify two rows of cracked tiles and never heard back again. It cost me and it was a lesson learned. Apart from that i don't make mistakes..... I'm perfect.......:yikes:

Just ask my missus.. :sofahide:

 

[Sean SML Tiling]

I've also made a few mistakes on setting out but now everything is double checked. Also tiled onto paint when I first started. Guess what the tiles nearly fell off the wall. Was lucky enough rectify it in time.

 

[Fliselege]

Is this just about tiling or is it time for story of the bird I pulled that had an Adams apple and took a pee standing up? I've damaged a heated floor cable twice, done a rip out without being told the floor is staying, and used the wrong tiles twice, one I spotted was a delivery mistake and fixed it there and then, and the other one I got away with as the customer preferred the contrast of different tiles, lucky for me, but still felt a plonker for not spotting it

 

[tubs]

Buying RUBI Cutters !

 

[Rookery]

Did a big floor once through several rooms and when I was putting the last couple of rows in by the back door I realised that the composite door wouldn't have opened. Fortunately my joiner pal was able to take a few mil off the bottom for me without it affecting the threshold.

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Fully tiled a bathroom and seperate Wc. Only to realise wc was only meant to be half height!

 

[nybor62]

when i was house bashing for persimmon , i tiled a kitchen floor , only to find out after i'd done i was in the wrong plot .

 

[Dash J]

Tiled a floor and forgot to put probe in for ufh

tiled round a kitchen island and went off square,had to get a tile laser cut to fit

the list goes on lol

i will stop now before I make a complete Hugh hunt of myself

that was a long time ago btw I'm not bad now

 

[The Legend; Phil Hobson RIP]

My biggest mistake involved one of a pair of very expensive vases placed on shelves high above either side of double doors, me trying to carry to many plastic trims through the doors.

I will leave the rest to your imagination.

 

[Andy Allen]

Tiled a bathroom up to boarder height picture frame only to discover the boarders were landscape. .....and so should the field tiles have been..😳

 

[area tiling]

Tiled a wall once halfway up in stack pattern , and grouted out ! The next day customer came back from hols and said it should have been laid in a brick bond pattern , also dropped a tile onto a shower tray once which had to be completely ripped out ! Well all make them !!!

 

[afright]

Worked on a site ,and the carpet fitter's turned up and asked me the name of the owner which was right so they started to lay the carpet got to the last room and they was short of carpet,I then just mentioned have they got the right house as the son has brought the house next door,oh dear :yikes:

 

[afright]

Tiled a bathroom up to boarder height picture frame only to discover the boarders were landscape. .....and so should the field tiles have been..😳

Yep I've done that, but lucky bluffed the customer,convinced him thats how he told me to do it that way.

 

[cone]

Tiled a full bathroom then realised I forgot to put border in! Felt like a right **** when customer pointed it out. Another one, had a bathroom to rip out, all tiles to come off walls and was flat out busy and pulled 2 chavs in I know to pull bathroom out/tiles etc.. Dropped one off outside the house while he waited for his mate to call, his mate arrived half hour later with tools, these 2 headers walked into the next house, upstairs and started ripping tiles out of the bathroom while the owners daughter sat downstairs thinking they were in to do a job for their parents lol. Now this is the funny part if it, once the owners found out, the husband went crazy but after some calming down by his wife, I ended up with getting paid for tiling the new bathroom because his wife was wanting a change. The 2 chavs however didn't get paid for their work. Could have ended up alot worse but its been a good aul laugh in the pub when I see that cple lol

 

[cone]

Worked on a site ,and the carpet fitter's turned up and asked me the name of the owner which was right so they started to lay the carpet got to the last room and they was short of carpet,I then just mentioned have they got the right house as the son has brought the house next door,oh dear :yikes:

Lol, just after seeing this after my post. **** happens is all I can say as ya can see from my post above

 

[cone]

Tiled a bathroom up to boarder height picture frame only to discover the boarders were landscape. .....and so should the field tiles have been..😳

What you mean landscape?

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Tiled a full bathroom then realised I forgot to put border in! Felt like a right **** when customer pointed it out. Another one, had a bathroom to rip out, all tiles to come off walls and was flat out busy and pulled 2 chavs in I know to pull bathroom out/tiles etc.. Dropped one off outside the house while he waited for his mate to call, his mate arrived half hour later with tools, these 2 headers walked into the next house, upstairs and started ripping tiles out of the bathroom while the owners daughter sat downstairs thinking they were in to do a job for their parents lol. Now this is the funny part if it, once the owners found out, the husband went crazy but after some calming down by his wife, I ended up with getting paid for tiling the new bathroom because his wife was wanting a change. The 2 chavs however didn't get paid for their work. Could have ended up alot worse but its been a good aul laugh in the pub when I see that cple lol

If you got paid why would you not pay the labourers!

 

[mma]

Same as cone, tiled a wall and forgot about the border. Also removing old tiles from a bathroom wall but keeping the old bath. The first tile I removed, I dropped and it scratched the bath quite badly. Thankfully the couple were ok about it and I didn't have to pay for a new bath! It was only the grout keeping the tiles up. No adhesive on the back of the tiles??

 

[Spud]

Last year before Xmas , I thought it would be a good idea to do some house bashing , ended up mixing up to similar tiles and tiling the kitchen floor patchwork style didn't see it until i grouted as they were so close I took out the Wrong ones and cleaned them up and didn't even invoice for the bathrooms I had tiled as I felt such a plonker

 

[Stef]

In doing a full bathroom supply & fit years ago, took on the full job.
The only thing that wasn't getting changed were the door facings. Don't know why when I look back on it.
They looked terrible so ripped them out & replaced them, sticking in the last nail or 2 & swung my estwing down & took a chunk out the side of the bath, the lip.
Quick call to the plastic surgeon got me out of buying a new bath.

 

[Andy Allen]

ou mean landscape?

200x300 tile.......lanscape .....tiles fitted horizontal on the wall . Picture frame tiles fitted vertical on the wall. ..

 

[steve-tiler]

I dropped a tile in a 1400mm walk in shower tray. Was doing top cuts and it fell out my hand and when through the cardboard and dust sheets and took a big chip out it. Had to be a matki tray didn't it.

I was employee of the month!

 

[kevsalt]

left out the mosaic border...got two walls up before i realised,,,,doh ..what a numb nut

 

[andyb1]

Put some feature tiles up, forgot the metal trims they wanted In between :lol:

 

[Rich Midge]

Turned the water on under the kitchen sink in a show house when I was an apprentice. Filled 10 or more buckets to clean them before I noticed the water coming through the light fittings from upstairs. Turns out the plumber hadn't capped any pipes. The whole of the upstairs was under about 3 inch of water. Mains pressure straight out the cold tails.
A fella tipped me £20 (half my weekly wage as a 17 year old) after I'd finished grouting his kitchen floor. Picked up a bag of adhesive and walked right through his house and down his newly tarmaced drive to the van before I found out the bag was split. Gave him his cash back and spent about 2 hours cleaning.

 

[Ian]

I was doing two ensuites a in the same house, got the floor tiles mixed up, fortunately the adhesive was still soft(ish) when the homeowner spotted it. I may have mentioned before that I nearly burnt a house down when a spark from my grinder lit a dust sheet I'd used to cover a motorcycle in the garage!

 

[peteablard]

Fitted the wrong colour vinyl in 2 houses once but never heard anything back from the customers. Fitted tiles landscape instead of portrait too a couple of times. Me and a subby cocked up the bond on a marble floor once but had gone too far to change it. It's still there in one of the designer outlets in Heathrow Terminal 2A. Have known floor layers set fire to floors when using contact adhesive when heating the vinyl with a blow lamp!!