Tiling history?

[Wingn]

How's everybody managed to get into tiling and how did they find their journey? Time served? Late start through a course?

Done the apprenticeship route after school myself. You learned to cut, then grout, then tile. Suited me well as you constantly needed to improve to progress. Was handy having someone nearby to keep you right and give you a telling off. Also meant you could get plenty of experience without it costing you time or money, and opened up a good source of contacts. Know a few people who done a course and put their name on the side of a van. Sounds daunting, but was it a fairly easy transition?

[garretridge]

i did the course at NETT 2 years ago and got my van shortly after it then i did friends and family first then in at the deep end a few weeks later. it was scary at the start but i think it has made me a better person for it now it just comes second nature but always learning something new every day!

[cass]

I was the same as above,noy easy to start with but as long as your not taking anything thats to complicated its ok,i done allot of bathroom floors and splash backs to start with untill i gained confidance, learning more with every job we all have to start somwere

[Mike]

I was the same as above,noy easy to start with but as long as your not taking anything thats to complicated its ok,i done allot of bathroom floors and splash backs to start with untill i gained confidance, learning more with every job we all have to start somwere

I started about 12 yrs ago for myself then for friends and family, all self taught, been doing it as a second job for about 10 yrs but now redundancy has given me the chance to go it alone. on a course in warrington at the moment to learn a bit more and towards getting my nvq. back to proper work on monday! tiling of course!!

[365drills]

I'm not a tiler (as in trained) but picked up a lot of skills at age 14 when my dad built his own house and I hung about with the trades instead of going to school.

Now I know enough to be dangerous! - But not enough to actually tile a bathroom full on. And I attend five tile training colleges to give talks about drilling holes.

Maybe I should spend a week on one of the courses !!!

[Mike]

I'm not a tiler (as in trained) but picked up a lot of skills at age 14 when my dad built his own house and I hung about with the trades instead of going to school.

Now I know enough to be dangerous! - But not enough to actually tile a bathroom full on. And I attend five tile training colleges to give talks about drilling holes.

Maybe I should spend a week on one of the courses !!!

armeg came to pts in warrington the other day, good stuff but a bit expensive when just setting out. are your drills cheaper ?

[marke]

served me time with me dads firm then just as i was about competent enough...just , the old fool went a died on me so was thrown in the deep end with all his work made some mistakes , free learning i liked to call it lol, and just kept going tough times at first i really didnt enjoy it to much to be honest but was all a whirlwind that was about 9 years ago now,, and i can say without a shadow of a doubt i have become a better tiler from reading this forum some really good stuff on here.. So cheers TF and all its canny contributors

[doug boardley]

I started off with plastering, the firm I served my time with was only a small outfit, probably 7 of us full time plus subbies. We basically had to learn everything, block/brickwork, roofing, stonework, groundwork, landscaping, plastering. I seemed to have a flair for tiling, so they always put me with the subby that used to do our tiling until I was competent enough to do it unsupervised.... nearly 30 years ago now