is the tiling industry becoming saturated?

[jay326]

seems like there are alot of ppl doing these short tiling courses and going out there working and starting there own companies up.

is the tiling industry becoming saturated and very competitive for work now do you think?

i was thinking of getting into tiling myself but after doing a bit of reseach it seems that alot of ppl are at it.

wondered what other ppls thoughts on this are.


oh yeah,im new by the way,my names jay.

[brummie tiler]

I dont think that anybody can deny that the market is saturated , but then again so are a lot of markets. People still open up and do well,depends how you choose to run your business. Me for example i am pretty quiet right now, doesnt help with new build sites shutting down and lads jumping onto the domestic market to get work. This is only my opinion so lads please dont slate me for this.....but anybody choosing to get into most types of construction at the present time and in the present economy, I think your mad. construction will be hit very hard and it will get worse before it gets better. Whatever you choose though good luck..... and welcome to the forums!

[pjtiler]

we had this back in the seventy's after the miners strike
the steel mill all closed the dockers were all made redundant and theres was mass unemployment
every man and his dog were out there advertising as tilers they soon drop by the wayside after a few jobs mainly for friends and family and Joe soap down the pub
as will the majority of these lads who are coming out of theses schools
sad really

[Dave]

Hello jay...welcome......let us know how you get on........

[enduro]

When i started there was a lot of tilers near me, so i aimed my buisness at a higher market, didn't advertise in the local papers as i found that when i looked at a job around ten others looked at it as well. So i went to local builders that do high quality work, and kitchen shops, i worked my butt off to prove to them i was the best guy in the area. I have been tiling 3 years now and i get one or two jobs every week from these guys. ATTENTION TO DETAIL AND QUALITY WORK just remember that and you will succeed.

[bal]

Welcome Jay ,my opinion is that there will be too many tilers in the near future and not enough work to go around especially at the rate these training centres are spitting them out like a production line, there the ones making plenty cash. When i started there was one page of tilers in the yellow pages ,5yrs on theres 4 pages and they all compete to put as many A`s as they can before there real name.

[whitebeam]

Hello and welcome, Make your choice wisely

[GazTech]

Hello Jay....welcome

[robbo]

Make a decision depending on your area, how many tilers are in your area etc...

[garythetiler]

i live in a town of 70,000 people i personally know over 100 tilers who live in my town then there are probably 100 i dont know i have seen many come and go and you can never say who is going to stick it out lets face it we have over 2million eastern europeans working as tradesmen in this country so i guess the answer is we still havent got enough BRITISH tradesmen because if we did there wouldnt be so many foreign tradesmen filling the skills gap

[LM Ceramics]

i totally agree around preston area it is crammed with full of tilers who have been on courses and there is alot of polish and other eastern europeans and im sure gaz and fekin will agree with me as they are living in preston.

i went to quote a job last week 22 m2 conservatory and 2 m2 kitcehn wall tiling £600 which i think is pretty cheap customer rung up sayin sorry but i had a quote of £400 off a tiler who had just finished a course it will never end.

i believe customers now are more interested in gettin a cheap job than a quality one i presonally believe (no offence to the course people) but they should scrap tiling courses, i know some on here have been on a course and doing very well and pricing proparly but alot of tilers around here who have finished a course are charging next to nothing and its giving me a bad impression on these tiling courses

[whitebeam]

Be fair if a tiler told you he'd just done a course would you entertain him to do your tiling, I think the answer would probably be NO. Like you say it's the price.

[LM Ceramics]

i just have a bad opinion on tiling couses caus of most of the muppets around preston charging naff all if a lad come out of a course and he was good and charged proparly i would take my hat off to him

[bal]

Training course centres will become victims of there own success ,the domestic tiling market will suffer i think it will get to the stage where no one tiler will have constant day after day tiling and have that trade as sole income !

[whitebeam]

no one tiler will have constant day after day tiling and have that trade as sole income !

I think your've hit the nail on the head, I do plastering, dry linning and metal systems and could'nt totaly rely on tiling

[Dan]

Are there really that many more tilers though? I mean, apparently the tile market is still growing, so are the growing rates of tilers about the same? I'd say there could be more tile fixing companies now, but I think if a tiling job needed to be done a few years back then it still would have been done, it just would have been a mate of a mate who's done a bit.

Well why can't that mate do a course, learn how to do it right, and put himself out there at a price to the nation?

And why shouldn't there be some healthy competition? Us homeowners need some benefits these days.

And I haven't heard one sh** hot tiler I know complain about their work loads going down one bit. In fact, they're making more money as 'more expensive' tiles are being imported and fixed more these days it seems.

Though it's just my opinion.

[Fekin]

I can vouch for what LM's saying though.

Im in Preston and have been out to a lot of estimates over the last 9 months, given what I thought was quite a low price to start with and have been told by the customer that I was rather expensive.
One job I measured up a few weeks ago, I gave what I'd class as a silly low price as I'd had a big up coming job get delayed on me and basically knew if I didn't get this other job I'd have nothing on for a week, so to just keep working I quoted £16 psqm "was a big bathroom" plus mats, free tile removal too, only to be told I was way way too expensive

It all depends on the contacts you have though as to what work comes your way too.

On the other hand, I quoted one job up, basic £30 psqm for a very easy porcelain floor and got the job there and then.

You will always find customers just wanting cheap cheap prices though.

[bootsmckiber]

,I've found that over the last few years all the home repair shows on t.v.have made tiling look like any Joe can do it,People will phone around and go with a lower bid but like the saying goes,"you get what you pay for"I only adjust my prices for friends or when there's mega-footage involved,I've found over the years that people who try and nickle and dime you over your setting price aren't worth the bother because money is an issue to them not quality,once you get some good gigs under your belt,and a good rep around the supply store's you'll find the people who are willing to pay top buck for a good job,or should I say they'll find you,take lot's of pictures,know your products well and twitch your head two or three times at the end of every sentence when talking to a client,you'll do fine,good luck.
Mike

[Ultimate Tiling]

The course I was on had 12 people on it but even before anybody spoke you could rule 3/4 out of a tiling career by looking at them.
As the course went on maybe 3 or 4 found tiling quite easy to pick up the rest struggled to keep up.
Then the business side, not everybody is cut out for running their own business and keeping work coming in.
Still if every one on the course does his own, family and friends jobs thats a few jobs out of the system.
Quality I would have thought should pull people through but this quality doesnt have to be only got from doing 30 years tiling, some new tilers must produce some top class work if they have the knoledge and skill to produce it.

[lotar]

You can't learn anything on a short course, ( you may manage a kitchen ) these centres are killing our trade , they should be raided by the fraud squad.

Craig

[pjtiler]

You can't learn anything on a short course, ( you may manage a kitchen ) these centres are killing our trade , they should be raided by the fraud squad.

Craig

you cant say things like that round here mate
even if your correct

red card

[kilty55]

i actually learned as much as i could on my short course,guys who are genuinly willing to work hard at changing career and have the skills to develop as tilers over a period of time will infact be good news for the trade,fair play to anyone whos willing to bin a career,,re train and risk a lot of security to go and follow what they want out life,no one should be shot down for trying to better themselves.i agree though definately out all the people coming through training centres no way will they all be tilers so although there may be a large amount being trained i doubt very much if they are saturating the market.

[pjtiler]

the ones who dont make it as a tiler could always start there own tiling school
now there an idea

[kilty55]

heehee i like the subtle digs popping up about tiling schools,might make good reading that one of the reasons i decided to do my course was after using a fully qualified tiler to do my bathroom,not a terrible job but lets just say a bit of a half hearted effort and was charged an extremely large amount of money for it as well.just because someone is qualified and has more knowledge doesnt neccesarily mean they apply it on the job.

[Grace'sDad]

caus of most of the muppets around preston charging naff all

Oh Oh. I've been found out!!! (sorry)

[LM Ceramics]

mark you make me laugh lol

[garythetiler]

every one has to start somewhere why ban courses that are giving good advice and training you may lose one job to a new bloke because he has under cut you but you can bet your bottom dollar he wont do it twice once he has realised just how hard your money is earned in the tiling trade we need a tougher period to get rid of some of the dead wood in the industry if its any comfort from what i am seeing alot of the polish guys are returning home due to unfavourable exchange rates and better job prospects at home

[tkm18]

every one has to start somewhere why ban courses that are giving good advice and training you may lose one job to a new bloke because he has under cut you but you can bet your bottom dollar he wont do it twice once he has realised just how hard your money is earned in the tiling trade we need a tougher period to get rid of some of the dead wood in the industry if its any comfort from what i am seeing alot of the polish guys are returning home due to unfavourable exchange rates and better job prospects at home

Is there that much of a differece between tilers form other countrys flooding the market and 2 week coursers flooding the market??

They are both doing the exact same thing in my opinion.

[whitebeam]

every one has to start somewhere why ban courses that are giving good advice and training you may lose one job to a new bloke because he has under cut you but you can bet your bottom dollar he wont do it twice once he has realised just how hard your money is earned in the tiling trade we need a tougher period to get rid of some of the dead wood in the industry if its any comfort from what i am seeing alot of the polish guys are returning home due to unfavourable exchange rates and better job prospects at home

I have heard the same about polish guys, It could be were,ll be going there for work.

[Uttiley]

If you want to make up to £45,000 grand a year as a wall and floor tiler like the advert says in the national press it is quite simple just start a tiling course company.

Then if you want to make even more money you can start an electricians course company and so on and so on it could turn out to be quite lucrative no doubt.