why is it

[Rossymcg]

How do you know the way you're telling the person to do it is already better than the way they're doing it? I generally mind my own business and let them carry on unless they're making a mistake, as there's always more than one hole to put it in,

 

[mike1979]

If I feel the need to change the way I do something I will if I'm happy with the way I work I won't why change it if it's not broke if I want advice and learn new ways I will ask !!!

 

[AliGage]

and the tip was?

 

[Gazzer]

I sub contract to another tiler from time to time and often bump into another fixer on the site. He is old school yet a lot younger than me. His tool kit fits in a bucket, 2 trowels do everything and his main 6mm trowel is so worn its more like a mosaic trowel !!
Holes around anything are either cut with a grinder or nippers. I have seen him set a wall out just so it works well on the cuts around pipes !!
If he needs to rub the edge of a tile he will do it on the screed floor .
Sometimes he comes into where I am working to ask if he can borrow something, maybe a pair of nipers and always comments on how much better they are than his worn pair, so why wont he replace his ?
Polishing after grouting is done with anything he can find, even his own t shirt....yes the one he is wearing.
Unless spaceers are provided he will still use cardboard, even seen him use tile trim as spacers!
Basically he is tight !
Yes his work is very low standard but he gets away with it and he sees no need for many tools........yet if you are working near him he will always try and use your tools.
Recently he drilled the tiles with my core drills ! He cut metal trim not with his grinder or junior hacksaw but my litttle chopsaw.
I saw him spend almost 20 minutes with a lochbouy tapping a hole in a tile then pinching it out to go around a socket.......standard nippers not Parrott nippers too .....then he broke it......why didnt he use his grinder? Because he cut through the cable !
I even got him to admit that my method of polishing the tiles with Microfibre cloths was better but he wont buy any !
Now at the end of the day , he gets the same money as me.......I pay for all those tools and he gets away with doing the very least he can but does his work get passed by the site agent ? Yes it does because the site agent knows nothing! Any decent tiler would look at this guys work and spot faults.........over cuts with the grinder and even pipe collars dont fully cover it. Trim that you can see where he has slipped with the hacksaw ! Areas of grouting that is messy as his sponges are what even he can find.
But at the end of the day, he gets the same rate as me so who is the mug ?
Yes ok I get more tiles fixed and IMHO its all of much higher quality.
My work ethos and his are miles apart , I do it to my standards and hopefully above. His standards are to get done.
Anyway , so while in his own mind he says that you dont need half the tools that I use and that he can get by with his own methods, he is all too willing to use your methods as long as its your tools too !

 

[Time's Ran Out]

The most I've read from you Sir in 5 years!
Hope it's not construed by some as slagging someone off or indeed from that dark place called anus!
An example worthy of 'post of the year' if it existed and a little too close to home for me.
I have been working for a chappie in the south who has every tool - I just mention a laser , and he goes and gets one, big tiles he gets very big cutters, me I'am still on my hand held contride!
However a little bit of advice is often accepted and I don't charge if it helps.
Didnt think the thread was much till I started reading through - so IMHO just what a forum is all about - bit of this , bit of that , and a bit of the unnecessary .

 

[The D]

i like him :lol:

 

[Gazzer]

The most I've read from you Sir in 5 years!
Hope it's not construed as slagging someone off or indeed from that dark place called anus!
An example worthy of 'post of the year' if it existed and a little too close to home for me.
I have been working for a chappie in the south who has every tool - I just mention a laser , and he goes and gets one, big tiles he gets very big cutters, me I'am still on my hand held contride!
However a little bit of advice is often accepted and I don't charge if it helps.
Didnt think the thread was much till I started reading through - so IMHO just what a forum is all about - bit of this , bit of that , and a bit of the unnecessary .

Not slagging anyone off really just 2 ways to look at things.....Basically him and myself have the same job to do. I choose to like things done neat...ie round holes around pipework and and neat mitres on trims etc. He does what he knows will get by the finishing foreman and he does no more.

Just my way of working !

 

[AMA Tiling]

I sub contract to another tiler from time to time and often bump into another fixer on the site. He is old school yet a lot younger than me. His tool kit fits in a bucket, 2 trowels do everything and his main 6mm trowel is so worn its more like a mosaic trowel !!
Holes around anything are either cut with a grinder or nippers. I have seen him set a wall out just so it works well on the cuts around pipes !!
If he needs to rub the edge of a tile he will do it on the screed floor .
Sometimes he comes into where I am working to ask if he can borrow something, maybe a pair of nipers and always comments on how much better they are than his worn pair, so why wont he replace his ?
Polishing after grouting is done with anything he can find, even his own t shirt....yes the one he is wearing.
Unless spaceers are provided he will still use cardboard, even seen him use tile trim as spacers!
Basically he is tight !
Yes his work is very low standard but he gets away with it and he sees no need for many tools........yet if you are working near him he will always try and use your tools.
Recently he drilled the tiles with my core drills ! He cut metal trim not with his grinder or junior hacksaw but my litttle chopsaw.
I saw him spend almost 20 minutes with a lochbouy tapping a hole in a tile then pinching it out to go around a socket.......standard nippers not Parrott nippers too .....then he broke it......why didnt he use his grinder? Because he cut through the cable !
I even got him to admit that my method of polishing the tiles with Microfibre cloths was better but he wont buy any !
Now at the end of the day , he gets the same money as me.......I pay for all those tools and he gets away with doing the very least he can but does his work get passed by the site agent ? Yes it does because the site agent knows nothing! Any decent tiler would look at this guys work and spot faults.........over cuts with the grinder and even pipe collars dont fully cover it. Trim that you can see where he has slipped with the hacksaw ! Areas of grouting that is messy as his sponges are what even he can find.
But at the end of the day, he gets the same rate as me so who is the mug ?
Yes ok I get more tiles fixed and IMHO its all of much higher quality.
My work ethos and his are miles apart , I do it to my standards and hopefully above. His standards are to get done.
Anyway , so while in his own mind he says that you dont need half the tools that I use and that he can get by with his own methods, he is all too willing to use your methods as long as its your tools too !

I'm sure a lot of us can relate to that neale. I told you about the guy mixing grout in a small wok and building out mosaic with cereal box cuttings lol. And esoecialky round here there's the perception that you need as little tools as a brickie to tile. I'm often asked why do you need a big van? ( Trafic) I don't generally let people nosey Into the back but those who do are shocked lol. A lot of tilers round here don't have wet saws, even A cheap one. "The grinder brigade" as I call them know better. Laziness is part I'd the problem too as it's too much hassle filling & emptying dirty water.
There's always a better way to do things but I agree that when you get used to a thing it's hard to change, when I started with my father he was always showing me better ways to do things. Some with better results, some with "quicker " results. Both not necessarily the same thing. Some people just can't adapt or change. Some of the older guys round here never improved from day one. They started and never developed or accepted anything different was better. These are the "20/25 years experience" guys but it means nothing!

 

[Stef]

Not slagging anyone off really just 2 ways to look at things.....Basically him and myself have the same job to do. I choose to like things done neat...ie round holes around pipework and and neat mitres on trims etc. He does what he knows will get by the finishing foreman and he does no more.

Just my way of working !

I think there's a lot of us in the same boat as you Neale.
I always strive to leave a high standard of work even though I know I could get away with a lot less, would I be happy leaving a good job but in my eyes substandard work? Not a chance..
I'm trying to train my boy how to tile & I ain't happy if he comes back from the cutter & the tile is half a mm out, now the client will never see it but I see it & I'm not happy..
Maybe I'm too pernicity at times!!

 

[Andy Allen]

sounds like me to be honest...lol

my cutters are nearly 20 years old, don't own a laser, I have 2 wet cutters a master tiler and a rubi nd200, my tools fit in a bucket...infact my tool box is a bucket...lol

I cant say I enjoy spending a fortune on tools when I can get by with what I got, do you really need 3 of everything?......or that latest tile cutter when the one your using cuts everything perfect?

I admit I would never be like the example of the chap neal mentioned, I do have hole cutters, mixers ect, however I do know someone exactly like that, but he's got 4 kids a high mortgage on his 2nd wife......so its no wonder he's allways skint....lol

 

[Lee@emctiles]

Every day is a school day in my book.....

 

[afright]

I'am learning all the time, then it works both ways ,New tiler's new tricks,Old tiler's old trick's.

 

[mike1979]

It depends on the tips when I was a apprentice and this is true a fixer said top tip your serrating the wall the wrong way you need to do it horizontal I said why he said so if the water goes through the tile it won't go down the inside wall and this man was deadly serious any way I told him to go away told my tiler and he told him to go away with a load of swear words

 

[charlie1]

I've seen some 20yr + experienced *tilers do the silliest of things and when you try and tell them a better what then you can imagine the response so I just tend to let them be, after all, I have a lot of respect for these guys and certainly wouldn't try and make them look stupid but also, they have been making a living from tiling for a good while so really, that's all that matters.

 

[Ian]

Every day is a school day in my book.....

Maybe I can teach you to support a decent football team