What's the most dificult job you've overcome?

[Dan]

I had a PM from our German Adhesive Friends Nordchemie who is a regular valued forum contributor that signs in under the Family name Pawelzik. Nordchemie are looking for UK distributors of their German Tile Adhesives, Grouts and SLC's by they way. Phone: 0049 4531 87052
Telefax: 0049 4531 87063
Handy: 0049 171 7913581
e-Mail: [email protected] (Not for orders)

Anyway, the PM from Pawelzik suggested I made a topic asking the forum members to tell us all about the most difficult task they've overcome during their tiling experience perhaps explaining with pictures (where possible) and how they did manage to get through the problem.

I think this request is more related to actual tiling than trying to find where Mrs jones lived and finding out you actually passed the house 3 times and it was the one you first thought it was, though you kept checking just in case there was a more obvious No. 7 Smith Street.

I thank Pawelzik for this suggestion and ask that he posts the two sentences next time to avoid me rambling on and turning his two sentences into 4 paragraphs.

I hope we get some decent replies. And I hope we see some before / after pictures too!!!!! :grouphug:

 

[sWe]

I did a fairly difficult site job this winter. I and another tiler had to tile 500m2 worth of facade. The factors which made it difficult were of course the weather and the cold, but also the fact that the surfaces were very uneaven (despite the fact that the buildings were brand spanking new), that there were LOTS of windows, and that we had to work from scaffolds.

That's not mentioning the crappy materials the customer(s) supplied us with.

Had I had a say in it, I would've chosen a different brand because that particular one has a fairly limited selection of adhesives and grouts.
The adhesive the customer supplied us with was rated as useable outdoors, but the cheap crap wasn't strong enough told hold the individual tiles up on it own. We had to use rope and spacers to keep them from slipping. The cold made it necessary to use covered scaffolds and heating fans, as well as antifreeze additives in both the addy and the grout.

Just warming the air from freezing to an acceptable level, took perhaps an hour or two. Heating the substrate took more than a day. And we had a limited supply of heaters.

TBH, if I hadn't needed the work, I wouldn't have touched this one. It took us almost a week to just smooth the surfaces to an acceptable level. Had it been in the spring, we could've done the tiling in about two or so weeks, but it ended up taking almost three months! All due to crappy materials, bad weather conditions, and seriously flawed substrates to beign with...

I left (resigned) after about two months. Had a fight with the boss. Haven't looked back.

The irony in this, is that the customers wanted the job done as fast as possible, and as cheap as possible... And they wanted it to look good too... They gave us ALOT of grief for taking time to heat the substrates etc, and wouldn't listen when we explained to them that everything would fall down in the spring if we didn't atleast try to do a proper job. They wouldn't have any of it when we told them that it was their sub-par planning skills, and the fact that they skimped on materials and preparations, which made it so difficult and slow in the first place. :mad2:

Luckily for me and the other guy, we were there at an hourly rate.

This goes to show, that good planning is essential, and that you don't gain anything at all from skimping on materials and preparations; quite the opposite actually.

 

[Pawelzik]

Thank you Dan, for opening the thread. Here is one of my referencies from one of my clients.

The work was anti-slip floor tiles in the kitchen, dining area and climated food storage room on a big ferry for ~ 5000 cars (no passengers). The ferry was in a dock for several repair works, the ground was new concrete screed on pressed glass mineral wool for isolation purpose and vibration noise reduction.

When the tiler intended to start, the responsable engineer explained that the concrete got cracks as the concrete maker included the wrong steel bars, too weak. No time left over to replace it as the ship has to leave the dock in 4 days. But as the kitchen equipment also needs to be set to its place and to get ready in function the netto time the tiler realy had was 2 days and ½ night.

The tiler took a decoupling matting type Panther QE 10 and sticked it to the cracked ground with my C2TE S1-adhesive Nordas WF 4, on the QE 10 he layed with the same adhesive the tiles and grouted with a flexible grouting.

It was only 180 m2, but due to the lack of time, the cracked ground, other works like tile cutting and getting everything on and off the ship (which is about 14 floor levels high) he had to work with 3 persons day & night. He made a good and fast job and kept the time, he got 7 more ships in contract to do it this way.

Best regards and hope to see your site difficulties story, Martin

 

[murf]

Believe it or not but i once had to replace an expansion joint with epoxy putty. The problem was that the joint was at the deep end of a public swimming pool. It was high season and the pool could not be emptied so i had to use a snorkle, take deep breaths and work under water with my assistant holding a lamp to guide me. The repair took about an hour but was very successful. Those were the dampest conditions i've ever worked in.

 

[joe kelly]

Believe it or not but i once had to replace an expansion joint with epoxy putty. The problem was that the joint was at the deep end of a public swimming pool. It was high season and the pool could not be emptied so i had to use a snorkle, take deep breaths and work under water with my assistant holding a lamp to guide me. The repair took about an hour but was very successful. Those were the dampest conditions i've ever worked in.

your joking right? :boat:

 

[TilingLogistics]

Believe it or not but i once had to replace an expansion joint with epoxy putty. The problem was that the joint was at the deep end of a public swimming pool. It was high season and the pool could not be emptied so i had to use a snorkle, take deep breaths and work under water with my assistant holding a lamp to guide me. The repair took about an hour but was very successful. Those were the dampest conditions i've ever worked in.

So what was the point of the snorkel?

Kev

 

[murf]

The snorkle was for the shallow end. Seriously its not a joke.:glasses2::glasses2:

 

[Rad2474]

Does trying to get the wife to speak to me again after being sick on her new white bedroom carpet after a few to many beers count?She f*****g ballistic with me.

 

[enduro]

This reminds me of a mate of mine who's father builds and repairs swimming pools, he worked for his father for several years building pools, but his first love was diving, and he got a job with a film company as a safety diver, he goes all around the world on film sets and if any famous people do any scenes near water he had to be in all his diving gear in case they get into trouble and he has to rescue them. Anyway his father saves up all the pool repairs up that have to be done with water in the pool, and when his son has time off he puts on his diving gear and repairs them. Customers love it....

 

[Sean Kelly]

Sorry, this is not a funny one, nor does it involve swimming pools or snorkels. It was my first job. A WC that was 6 metres squared. It had water pipes that came from the ceiling and down the wall, then up the wall, then down again (not running parallel to the wall). The light switch was about half an inch from the corner of the room and all 4 walls bowed in every direction. There was not a right angle in sight. There was a cut off switch for the shower (which was next door), and this was about a quarter inch from a corner of the room, plus the electric wire and some copper pipe was sticking out of the wall. The ceiling curved into the walls. The window was about half an inch out too. The worst thing was that the toilet stank. All the problems were overcome by packing out the tiles with lots of adhesive. I took my time and there was an awful lot of cutting (manual & wet). I had to leave the adhesive for a couple of days to dry. The end result was fantastic. It looked really good. I was very pleased and so was the customer. Bearing in mind that the tiles were the really cheap B&Q ones. From then on I now carry a bottle of bleach with me.

 

[sWe]

The worst thing was that the toilet stank.

God, I hate that. Personally, I'd make well sure my bog was clean before letting anyone work in my bathroom. I'd be ashamed otherwise.

 

[MICK the Tiler]

Way back in the very early 90s I got a call from my very rich Uncle, who was a very successful property developer down this way. He wanted me to tile his dream home that he had been planning for the last 10 years. I'd always tiled his housing and unit developments in the past and the work and money was good and consistent even though Australia at the time was still in the grips of recession.

When the time arose for me to look at this "DREAM HOME" my uncle had built. I was in total amazement at the sheer size of the project.

The concrete slab alone was 3500m2 and at the time was the largest house to be built here in Australia.

The entire tiling project would engulf at least 15000m2 of the finest stone, marble, porcelain, and mosaics that I had ever laid my eyes upon.

For starters looking from the street there were pathways that led to the front entrance all in sandstone which led to the front steps which were a 30meter frontage and 12 rises high all with a wavy curve with riser lights 600 to be exact all had to be tiled in sandstone.

Above this were 4 1m diameter columns which held the portico roof up the size was emense you could park 12 cars uder and still have room for a trucks and deliveries and not get wet when it rained. These columns had to be tiled in 20x20 marble mosaics 8 meters high.

Inside the main floor was covered in 600x600 polished porcelain all on the 45 with borders and decorative inlays.

36 450x450x 6meter high columns adorned this inside space all with hand cut coved marble honed from solid blocks on machinery imported from Italy drilled and dowelled and applied in 2 halves to these columns.

There was 2 pools one inside one outside all tiled in glass mosaics with motifs at the bottom. 11 spa baths that had to be hand made waterproofed and also mosaiced.

12 huge bathrooms all done in the finest Itailian marble as was the main staircase 50mm thick hand cut and polished treads and rises.

It would take a whole forum to descibe everything but to keep along story shorter I did the whole job with myself and 1 lacky and it took just a shad over 5 years to complete the tiling I would work 45hr a week and was paid $35/hr EXCELLENT MONEY for the time and the condition of the building industry.

So there you have it a quick glimpse into my toughest job overcomed with alot of patience and persistence.

Feel free to ask about the project.

As this house was built in a time where digital photos were only a dream down here I could scan some and post but just bear with me I got quite a few albums to go through to find some. I'm not even sure if I've got any of the finished job but I know I've got some of the construction phases so you can get an idea of the size.