One of my 1st jobs

[petenicholls]

Hi all,

After a few jobs for friends and family I've uploaded some picture of one of my first jobs for a "real" customer. All comments, good or bad most welcome.

Some learning points for myself from my first few jobs.

1. Practice cutting tile trim. I'm sure it's easy once you've got your head around it, but don't waste time and trim on the job getting it wrong.

2.Preparation is key .Don't use cheap products. I had to remove the old tiles and do a fair bit of prep work on the featured slashback. I Used a cheapish readymixed plaster to fill removed socket voids which took an age to dry. Lesson learnt. Am I right in thinking that rapidset would be most peoples choice for doing such repair work?

3. Silicone sealing can't be rushed. Especially white sealant on black tiles (has to be perfect)

4. Tidy and clean as you go (something that was drilled into us at Chase Tiling Academy) Creates a much better working environment and looks good for the customer too.

On a final note, a big thanks to Phil at Chase Tiling Academy for running such a good, enjoyable course. Learnt a hell of a lot and helped me overcome problems on jobs with relative ease.

Pete

[bigandy]

hi all,

after a few jobs for friends and family i've uploaded some picture of one of my first jobs for a "real" customer. All comments, good or bad most welcome.

Some learning points for myself from my first few jobs.

1. Practice cutting tile trim. I'm sure it's easy once you've got your head around it, but don't waste time and trim on the job getting it wrong.

2.preparation is key .don't use cheap products. I had to remove the old tiles and do a fair bit of prep work on the featured slashback. I used a cheapish readymixed plaster to fill removed socket voids which took an age to dry. Lesson learnt. Am i right in thinking that rapidset would be most peoples choice for doing such repair work?

3. Silicone sealing can't be rushed. Especially white sealant on black tiles (has to be perfect)

4. Tidy and clean as you go (something that was drilled into us at chase tiling academy) creates a much better working environment and looks good for the customer too.

On a final note, a big thanks to phil at chase tiling academy for running such a good, enjoyable course. Learnt a hell of a lot and helped me overcome problems on jobs with relative ease.

Pete

first of all congratulations on completion of your first proper paid job!

I could nt find or see any pictures! Although this might be me as i am not computer friendly.

Tiletrim what are you using to cut it? What type of cuts you struggling with?

As for the plaster yes i would agree! Cheap products are definately ot worth the hassle!i do use rapid set but also have some bonding knocking about.

Silicone can be one of those things you can either do or ot after nearly fifteen years i still have the odd off day! But will be trying corner tape soon!

Once again congrats and as they say practise makes perfect!!

[petenicholls]

Cheers for your comments Andy. The pictures should be in an album in my profile.
Regarding tiletrim. I've got some tiletrim cutters but have found that they tend to crush the trim before they cut so i've now bought the good old trusty mitre block. Think i'm ok with the cuts now but I was getting confused when doing internal and external cuts around the window reveal. And whether to cut the trim from above or lay it flat. I don't think the cutters helped to be honest as I struggled to get the ajoining trims flush with each other.

[bigandy]

Personally i only use cutters to cut the trim to rough lengh and use the mitre and junior hacksaw(metal blade for finer cut)
will have look for pic now

[Oli]

Looks good mate,

[faithhealer]

Well done Pete, those tiles suit the height of the window, it doesn't always work out that way so watch out for bad cuts when you are quoting.(you might be able to advise on different size tile or build window sill up to improve appearance.)