tiling faster

[hearted]

hi i have started tiling for a company but i am not that quick as im expected to tile between 6 - 10m2 a day plus grout and clean. do you have any tips to make me quicker ie cutting around sockets etc. im laying about 4m and feel they might let me go i find laying adehisive down around objects slows me down alot and find myself putting it on the tile first. its not like i have a blank large wall every day.

[Sir Ramic]

Its not good to rush , your speed will come in time.
As for cutting around switches etc, what is your method that you use now ?

[doug boardley]

as Sir Ramic says, speed and quality will only come with experience, concentrate on the quality so that it becomes second nature and the speed will follow with repetition.

[hearted]

do you think using a smaller trowel will help as i cant get into the gaps where all the sockets are and waste time putting glue on tiles, this makes it more messy so i then spend more time cleaning

[Sir Ramic]

Hard to say as we cant see the areas you are tiling. I tile small kitchens regularly and have no issues with the trowel size.

[hearted]

hi i also have a problem as the sideboards come away from the wall and my tiles start to side down, i cant get any batton in to hold them. i find myself going back and pushing them up until the adehsive starts going of. there must be away to beat this

[Gall.B]

hi i also have a problem as the sideboards come away from the wall and my tiles start to side down, i cant get any batton in to hold them. i find myself going back and pushing them up until the adehsive starts going of. there must be away to beat this

Experience and time will overcome these problems, perhaps you need more training before yor ready to be onsite, what type of addy are you using anyways?

[hearted]

my training was in workshops on bare walls, bit differant in the real world i think onsite doing the job is the best training but could do with some advise as i know everyone will have gone through what im going through. more tips can help push me along.

[Martyn Leeds]

I presume you're on-site & you're using 6x6 ceramics?
if you've no time or space for a baton, just tap a nail in, or a screw. They should hold it until the adhesive starts to grab.

As for spreading the adhesive round the sockets, sometimes its not possible to get in the tight spaces, just trowel what you can & put your adhesive on the back of your cut tiles round the sockets.

As for speed.
Have a nosey at what the others do & see if there's anything obvious.
eg. Setting out - apart from centering the cooker hood space, go full tile from certain sockets, window cills etc..

[charlie1]

Hi hearted,

There are several ways you can improve you speed! Work smart, not fast but as the others say this will come with experience!

Do's,
1, Plan well, even down to where you place your tools, usually when I'm finished with a tool, it goes straight back in to van (i don't want to have to get it back out again
2, Work clean so less mess to clean later.
3, Don't cut one tile at a time, mark a few and do them together
4, place your tiles strategically, your tiles have to go from where ever they are when you arrive on job to on the wall, you don't want to be moving them all the time!!!!

Don'ts
1, Spend too much time marveling at the 1 or 2 tiles you have set, it's good to have quick look now and then though
2, Drop adhesive on the floor, work on your trowling technique!!, personally, I plaster then comb as I find this cleaner and quicker, others do different though
3, Spend too much time talking to customer.

[Gall.B]

my training was in workshops on bare walls, bit differant in the real world i think onsite doing the job is the best training but could do with some advise as i know everyone will have gone through what im going through. more tips can help push me along.

As Charlie says orginisation is key and all his points are good ones, keep calm and soldier on most of it is common sense.

Have you never had any on-site experience with a Tiler? would have helped significantly before your in at the deep end and learning on the job.

[Bri]

Hi hearted,

There are several ways you can improve you speed! Work smart, not fast but as the others say this will come with experience!

Do's,
1, Plan well, even down to where you place your tools, usually when I'm finished with a tool, it goes straight back in to van (i don't want to have to get it back out again
2, Work clean so less mess to clean later.
3, Don't cut one tile at a time, mark a few and do them together
4, place your tiles strategically, your tiles have to go from where ever they are when you arrive on job to on the wall, you don't want to be moving them all the time!!!!

Don'ts
1, Spend too much time marveling at the 1 or 2 tiles you have set, it's good to have quick look now and then though
2, Drop adhesive on the floor, work on your trowling technique!!, personally, I plaster then comb as I find this cleaner and quicker, others do different though
3, Spend too much time talking to customer.

Some great advice here, Hearted. Whatever you do, DON'T rush!!! Quality is the most important factor, that's what builds your reputation.

[hearted]

i have worked with other tilers but on private jobs and there seems to be no reason to rush, but i worked alongside a tiler in my new job and he tiled a whole bathroom in just over 3 hours and told me that this is expected in this job. he did have a blank canvas and just a few outside cuts but that was far quicker than i have seen before, he was in another room so i could not watch, thanks for the comments i think the key is dont make work for yourself as he was also very clean

[charlie1]

I would love to see what a 3 hr full bathroom tiled looks like!! How many m2?, how many different walls? floor too?

[Stewart]

As above for me too, speed comes with experience and a quality finish always leads to more work in my opinion.....

[hearted]

3 walls, no floor about 7m2 thats grouted aswell, he started at 12pm and finished a 3.30 but he stopped for dinner at 1 to 1.30 and it looked good with the green mosiac border he put in

[Sir Ramic]

What adhesive are you using ?

[Dave]

Bing Bang Bosh springs to mind..

Take your time.. neat and tidy tilers get work.. Bing Bang Boshers get the door..

[merit]

i mainly do top end domestic ,prep everything up first for ease of tiling,but a normal size 20 m on walls 5 on floors
takes best part of 3 days,most of the walls and floor first day,all tiles on second ,grout wall and floors next,that way i know all ady has gone off so no probs ,seen tilers fully tile a bathroom in a day walls and floor grouted as well,not using bagged adhesive ! we all know what happens there ,speed comes with time ,quality comes with a bigger invoice

[deanotile]

2005_0316Image50016.jpg2005_0316Image50019.jpg2005_0316Image50023.jpgThis type of work is known as house bashing. The tilers are known as splash back kings and some of them are good at what they do. House bashing is an art form imo if you want an exampled of a 3 hour bathroom this is one.* *
*sorry i think no 3 is a different room

[Gall.B]

Nice work Deano, 7m2 in 3 hours shouldnt be a problem to a tradesman if the preps right.

Most splashbacks I have ever done in an 11 hour day on an M.O.D. site was 9 @ 2.5m2 each, 2 sockets in each and 2 trims all done and grouted and as we know the M.O.D. dont tolerate poor quality. Half the reason this was possible as Charlie said be organised. Best of it was I did after the Contracts manager upped the price cos nobody wanted to do them.

[tilerjason]

i had the same problem when i first started , i was laying around 4m2 to and the other guys were doing between 10-15 m2, but the company understood that i was new to them and new to the way they tiled, i found out that planning and setting out was a big help, i also found that buying a 110 electric cutter and a geni was a massive time saver especially in kitchens around sockets and a porcaline drill bit for showers. most of my tiling was done on sites(new houses). i also found that because i took my time i kept my standards where as some of the other guys had work being pulld every week which they told me was the most important thing, never loose your standards , i ve worked with them for just over a year now and lay just as many m2 as the other guys but now charge the company to go out and rectify other tilers work

[TF Ed]

lots of good tips and advice above but the best advice i can give is dont worry too much about being fast, obsess about being good!! fast gets you a few more quid, being really good gets your recommendations, builds a solid reputation and allows you to charge more because your in demand...

obviously there'll be the exceptions to the rule who are very fast and very good but you get my overall drift.

ed

[deanotile]

working on site can be the making of a tiler or it can be the braking of a tiler. imo tiling is a very different game on commercial work especially on the housing side, you do not have the luxury of time and most of the time you do not have a say in the products used, so it is a case of do the best you can with what you've got.
*the tiling contractor will want an acceptable job don in an unacceptable time frame and for as little money as he can get away with. so in this situation you have to improve you speed without compromising the finish, this really dos take time, it is the repetitiveness of the plots that can save a lot of time. if you memories the setting out in each house type you can save hours in a plot, things like setting up your tools so everything you need is at hand and working clean also save a lot of time but working clean is not just keeping the tiles clean, things like nipping in to a box or bucket instead of just on to the floor and putting the scrap offcuts* straight in to a box or bucket can help. in kitchens that have been fitted by some of the less consensus wood butchers there may be issue with work tops being out of level so find the highest point and put a datum line around the kitchen at the top of the first tile up and peg all the tiles to that line(wedges are the best for this imo) if there is a gap and your tiles are slipping down you could try putting a metal rule on the worktop to bridge the gap until the adhesive grabs. with the sockets in a kitchen i tend to fix the full tiles around all the sockets on one wall then mark all the cuts at the same time saving me time running backwards and forwards to the wet cutter (assuming there is power on in that plot)* if not it is back to basics or cordless tools. i think the best advice i can give you is to attack the hardest walls first so you have some easy work to look forward to for the afternoon.

[Sir Ramic]

Great stuff from Deano, takes me back to my younger days.