starting out in tiling

[wildcard]

Got 2 more weeks left at diamond & i"m about ready to start looking for work.My only concern at the moment is my speed,as i"m sure it was with all you experienced tilers when you first started out.I was talking to my mate whos a sparky,he has just had his bathroom tiled including floor & the tiler did it in a day .What also shocked me was that he charged him a day rate,i won"t put the amount up without admins permission.
There was mosaics & patterns involved in this install aswell!
Even though i am not looking for full time tiling work i certainly could not compete with this sort of speed & charges.I was hoping in pairing up with someone from my course or elsewhere just in the early stages to make things quicker.
My last point is the grouting process,i know your not supposed to grout the same day,even if your using an adhesive that allows you to grout in 4 hrs,you would have to finish tiling at lunchtime.
Be interested to hear your thoughts & opinions.Thanks all.

[timeless john]

If it helps - I've been tiling since Hadrian built his Wall and even now I couldn't tile a bathroom in a day!
When I started in the early 70's one chap who was showing me the way forward (I'am not saying teach for obvious reasons) tiled a 24sq yard bathroom in less than a day! With 100mm brown wall tiles. When I was asked to grout it, it meant raking all the black adhesive out of the joints, cleaning adhesive off the tiles and removing half a dozen pieces of brown cardboard 'tiles' that were the division spacers in the boxes!!
A certain speed will develop with time and your prices will reflect that increase with experience.
However you cannot expect the customer to pay for your inexperience and in my opinion you have to cost the job on a metre basis and fix it -however long it takes to do the job - to a very good standard.

[simon1]

Its more important to get the job right and to your highest standard each and every time, as this will reflect on the referals from customers, word of mouth is VERY important. a bad job gets around quicker than a good one.

You will get faster over time don't worry.

[Scott]

Doing it in a day is fine, but how did it look???? You need to walk before you can run, i been tiling for years but still not a fast tiler. There are some guys on here that can really put the meterage up in a day.

As long as your customer and more importantly YOU are happy with it, you being your own worst critic. Speed will come with experience and time.



Good luck with it when you finish!

[bradburytiling]

i know a few guys like that who can tile a bathroom in a day, and grout it ...they do council contracts and get paid a low amount per metre, but i think they must get so used to working at that pace when they do their private work on the weekend they get a day rate and "throw it up" as fast as possible...i used one of them once to tile a bathroom floor for me as i busy with another job...i didnt use him again..and he always askes me why i get all the decent jobs with decent tiles...im not saying all people who do concil contracts are like that but the ones i know are.
I say the same as above work at a pace your comfortable with to create a job your be happy with and the customer even more so, price yourself accordingly.

[wildcard]

Yeah i take on board all your comments,the last thing i won"t to do is rush & give somebody a shoddy job.I have just got to appreciate i will not make as much money to start with.

[whitebeam]

It will be a big learning curve to start with

[Daz]

I often look back at my first jobs and wonder how they took me so long. Your speed will improve significantly without you realising, just focus on quality and when you price a job make sure that it is at a price that you will be happy to do the job 'cos if you don't, you will regret getting the job and be tempted to compromise the quality.

I walked from a 40sqm floor last week 'cos the customer had a price that was £10 per sqm less than me and I knew that I wouldn't be happy doing the job at that price. Quality first, then speed.

[brian c]

this subject of tiling a whole toilet in a day DOES MY HEAD IN.IMO this is why i am not as busy as i should be.One man doing all cuts and mixing etc takes a lot of time and energy and personally i cant do it.

[doug boardley]

as all the above, your speed will increase with time and familiarisation. A lot of decisions you make, ie setting out, what tools to use etc, will take time initially, but as you gain more experience, these decisions will become second nature. Good luck and never forsake quality for the sake of speed

[faithhealer]

hi wildcard, I am by far not the speediest of tilers and will never make the money some do but I have a good reputation now and have a couple on months work booked in. Can all fast tilers say that?

[enduro]

When i started i was sooo slow but made a good job. I never thought i would speed up. The problem you will find is when you first start is....Your worried about the setting out....worried about the fixing....worried about the grouting, but when you have done a few jobs you will not worry so much about these things and slowly you will speed up. Its not a race, take your time, work nice and clean and it will come in no time. Bet your be on here in a year laughing about this post...

[Scott]

Just a little note, you will always find that some jobs will take forever on domestic regardless of how quick you can tile. These will be small horrible little bathrooms and ensuites where you have no room to move, nowhere for your tools and only the narrow landing to store your gear. On top of that the customer will undoubtedly pick 600x400 large format tiles that you can barely swing around in the room. You, like the rest of us will learn over time to loathe these rooms as they can take a full week to tile the whoel 15mts

[wildcard]

Thanks for all your replys,i"m only going to take on work i know i can handle to start off with.

[jamie B]

when I started out as an apprentice on a big firm of tilers speed was positively encouraged!..but they were big meterage jobs with acres and acres of straight runs....as you go on you will get faster AND know how long things will take just from experiance..there's a difference between rushing and speed!..customers don't want an heroic feat of speed ..just honest great quality finish and sensible prices!..you'll crack it, just take it as it comes..price realistically and never rush for fear of being too slow..Quality first!..best of luck mate!

[mikethetile]

as all the others . speeds not important but quality is

im not quick and couldnt do a bathroom in a day, except for 6" whites for the council then they have to be up and finished in a day. without lippage etc

but in the average council house theres about 6m2 in total and few cuts, so its not that impressive

[Ken Bruty]

The only tip I can give you after everyone else has covered everything is, take only what you really need in the room with you, put all your essential stuff around you so you don't have to keep stopping to get things, and get yourself into a rhythm, and the speed will come when you have got the quality right first. Try and get the best equipment you can afford to, and best of luck, happy fixing. Oh yeah, keep a small bucket of water near you so you can wipe adhesive off the tile faces, and in the grout joints, as you will probably get a bit messy with it to start with,

[facetile]

Hi everyone. got to agree with most of you guys here, more haste less speed.

Totally unrealistic to tile an entire bathroom within a day and at the same time maintain good standards IMO.

Quality has to come before quantity