The old ways

[Keith]

Hi all. Just heard about an italian tiler in my town (Hull) thats very experienced and does things the old ways,such as:- spreading sawdust on the floor to soak up the moisture. Does anyone have a few old tricks up their sleeve to share with us? Sure would like to hear them.

[charlie1]

I remember when I started tiling, ohh well over a year ago now, I used to use a manual saw to cut out the bottom of the door facings, those where the day's. I now use a fein.

No seriously that is very interesting, I would like to hear about more of the old way's.

Wait till pjtiler wakes up and we will hear all about them.

Good post

[Sir Ramic]

Ah the old days, happy days.
Most floor tiling back then was Quarry floors, Dennis Ruabon, Platts, Wooliscroft type stuff. Sawdust was used mixed with water to dampen it and then after we grouted with sand and cement, the sawdust spread over the floor to clean off. When the tiles were clean dry sawdust was spread over and that polished off. you had to do it right otherwise the sawdust would stick in the joints.
Tiles came with nibs on the edges called self spacers, then the changed to universal tiles with a bevelled edge to act as a self spacer, 2 edges would be glazed. This would do away with having to have Re`s ( round edge). There used to be Rex ( round edge external) for corners and lots of others.
When fixing skirting tiles you would have "sit ins" or Sit ons" and internal/external angles.
Tiles were cut with small hand scribers ( still available) and everyone would have a cutting board in the van. This was a board with an upstanding edge, like another strip of would screwed at the edge. This would enable you to cut all tiles to the correct size .
Quarry tiles were cut with small hammer and small cutting chisel, freehand!!! then the tile was tapped from the back to break down the line.....yeah missed plenty of times and hit my fingers.
Floor tiling was done by laying a sand and cement screed and a slurry of cement poured onto the floor and then tiles tapped into the bed. We could screed far better in those days than the screeds i see now .
Squeegees (grout tools) were hand made with old rubber tiles that you could find back then, or rubber strips sandwiched between 2 pieces of architrave. Sponges were salvaged from old 3 piece suites.
oh yeah and every apprentice knew every chip shop in every town

[deanotile]

I can tell form that you were there. One of the things my uncle taught me was in the sawdust instead of water if you put raw linseed oil when you spread the sawdust on the floor and rubbed it in to the tile it would levee them looking mint. This was on quarry tiles glazed tiles as you say just put water in the sawdust. Grouting was don using a wet slurry of sand and cement and brushing it in to the joints then get a semi dry mix and sprinkle it all over the floor when you rub it of the joints are full and the tile is totally clean.

[deanotile]

Back in the day there was not any of this newfangled tile trim there were bull nose tiles glazed edge tiles or you had to mitre the edge of the tile using your tile nippers and a rubbing block oh how I miss them days. (Not)

[deanotile]

I will bet a lot of you new tilers don’t know the origins of BAL but BAL was set up by H&R Johnson’s to develop new adhesives for the new backgrounds that were being used such as gypsum plaster and plasterboard. The trend was changing from tilers fixing straight in to sand and cement screed and render to fixing on to the sub-straight after it had cured. There are a few reasons for this one was dry lining and the over whelming demand for cheaper materials and fixing methods.

[Pawelzik]

"Is the screed still too wet for tiling" was tested by laying a newspaper on the screed with a brick on it. After a waiting time of 1 night resp. 24 hours the newspaper was looked at if it is wet = screed contains still too much moisture.

[Keith]

Thanks for the replies tilers. Great to hear about the old ways. Just a thought? Were the horse and carts sign written?

[Spirit]

The carts were, but had trouble getting the paint to stick to the horse

[Dave]

Having to soak your wall tiles in a tub before you could fix them with sand&cement mix to get a good hold or the tiles soaked the moisture from the cement bed and fell off again........

[pjtiler]

when me and Michael Angelo tiled the Sistine chapel in Rome we had to make our own Mosaic from broken plates and Potts found in the local potters skip

[pjtiler]

quarrys use to arrive on site loose on flat back trucks
which took all morning to unload and cut your hands to ribbons