What have you used for spacers before

[martinw]

had one of those days today!!

our center ran out of spacers for the first time and i quicky ran down local shop to get some before delivery arrived. anyway on dinner me and the 5 assessors were laughing at what they had used if they had ever ran out of spacers on a job before and one assessor (who will remain nameless) actually used 22pence spaggety from supermarket and claimed for the size job that he done he would have saved a good £30 quid. others popular answers were string.

after thinking that they were all crazy i though that i would see if any of you guys had and strange objects that they have used for spacers when ever caught short?

 

[DHTiling]

hi martin..do you mean rob..i think i remember him mentioning it...
i have used...cardboard......matches.......not spaggetti..lol lol...:lol:

 

[Perry]

nails, rivets, i use model making matches anyway they are better than the plastic spacers most guys use

 

[martinw]

well that confirms things 100%, your all blinking mad:yes:

 

[brian c]

cardboardfrom tile box.if im caught short with spacers i have cut them in half before.

 

[White Room]

I found an old window blind being thrown out on a job it was made up of very thin strip's of wood slats took it apart and used full strips into tile joint's worked a treat

 

[IvegotsTILE]

Cardboard box stripped,matches,rivets anything when you've just run out.

 

[Fekin]

Yep, tile boxes torn up, nails and broken shards of tile glaze when the nails ran out, which was a bit tricky :lol:

 

[dptiling]

i have heard of that before .but it was quite damp on the job and the
spaghetti swelled up and the fella spent ages trying to get it all out :lol:

 

[ryanbrown]

You can get little rubbers that are designed to sit on the end of a pencil.
The taper off like a wedge and these work well for edges.
Better than rubi wedges - because there made of rubber they stay fast even in corners with nothing to support it underneath.

 

[rob hutchinson]

:joker: I've also used pallet strapping cut into small pieces - ideal if you are looking for very tight joints when using rectified / calibrated square edge tiles..............................oh and by the way Martin, the spagetti was 23p...Lol

 

[Perry]

used harboard for larger joints before now run timber through a saw and cut it up as well

 

[Raja]

my professional snooker eyeeeeeeee:lol:

 

[sWe]

I'm new here, and I'm Swedish, so please excuse me if I missinterpret something. I also don't know what's common practice in the UK, but I'll try to not make that much of an arse of myself Here goes...

I tend to work free-hand, but spacers have their uses. Have you tried rope/string? 3mm string for walls, 5mm string for floors, or some such, depending on customer/construction requirements.
Wet the string with a bit of water first, just enough to make it damp. You don't want yer precious, reusable string to get all lumpy with old adhesive, and the damp will prevent that. Do the first row,check the spacing with a piece of string, then "lay" the string "on top" of the first row, and "fasten" it with two or three tiles on the second row. Repeat. Remove the string and rinse it when you run out of string, or when the wall is done, or what ever feels appropriate. This method is tried and true, spaghetti is not

It works well on small surfaces, but is especially handy when working on very large surfaces, such as public baths, where deviation in the straightness of the, um, grouting, or whatever it's called in english, becomes very visible. Using plastic spacers when doing 8m*20m walls with 10cmx10cm tiles is not an attractive option, as you might need to compensate for deviations in the size of the tiles or some such. Using rope/string is also alot faster once you get the hang of it.

Cheers from land of blond babes and cheap furniture.

/sWe

 

[DHTiling]

hello and welcome to the forums....... thanks for your input.....

 

[Gazzer]

Cheers from land of blond babes and cheap furniture.

/sWe

Poundland Essex??????

 

[reaper72]

cardboardfrom tile box.if im caught short with spacers i have cut them in half before.

This is a BAD idea as the weight of tiles could crush the cardboard and when u return to grout,you could have a full wall of slipped tiles,you'd never catch me using **** like that:lol:

 

[brian c]

stick to your glue gun m8:whatchutalkingabout

 

[White Room]

I'm new here, and I'm Swedish, so please excuse me if I missinterpret something. I also don't know what's common practice in the UK, but I'll try to not make that much of an arse of myself Here goes...

I tend to work free-hand, but spacers have their uses. Have you tried rope/string? 3mm string for walls, 5mm string for floors, or some such, depending on customer/construction requirements.
Wet the string with a bit of water first, just enough to make it damp. You don't want yer precious, reusable string to get all lumpy with old adhesive, and the damp will prevent that. Do the first row,check the spacing with a piece of string, then "lay" the string "on top" of the first row, and "fasten" it with two or three tiles on the second row. Repeat. Remove the string and rinse it when you run out of string, or when the wall is done, or what ever feels appropriate. This method is tried and true, spaghetti is not

It works well on small surfaces, but is especially handy when working on very large surfaces, such as public baths, where deviation in the straightness of the, um, grouting, or whatever it's called in english, becomes very visible. Using plastic spacers when doing 8m*20m walls with 10cmx10cm tiles is not an attractive option, as you might need to compensate for deviations in the size of the tiles or some such. Using rope/string is also alot faster once you get the hang of it.

Cheers from land of blond babes and cheap furniture.

/sWe

Have heard of this before from a tiler who's father has somethink like 50+ years experiance tiling. Would use some kind of string on the long runs of tile's, Mind you only heard about once and never seen anyone use this method.

 

[knightonthetile]

spaggetti is actually quite good as emergency spacers. when your done tiling you can eat it , saving another £5.00 on a big mac

 

[GazTech]

Have heard of this before from a tiler who's father has somethink like 50+ years experiance tiling. Would use some kind of string on the long runs of tile's, Mind you only heard about once and never seen anyone use this method.

He will have been the son of a bricklayer :lol:

 

[sWe]

Have heard of this before from a tiler who's father has somethink like 50+ years experiance tiling. Would use some kind of string on the long runs of tile's, Mind you only heard about once and never seen anyone use this method.

Using string is real old. I'm not familiar with the english terminology for this, but in the old days, when tilers used damp concrete and cement (of a creamish consistency) to install tiles, using string as spacing guides was quite common. Or so I've been told atleast. Under certain circumstances, using the concrete-cement method is still used in many countries (don't know about britain), mostly for out doors tiling, and REAL large floors in industrial buildings etc, because it's so damn strong. It's messy, heavy, and takes alot more time than modern methods, but if it's done properly, and without rushing, you certainly can't argue with the result. Personally, I avoid it, to much effort involved, and the results are comparable to standard methods.

 

[Rosco0110]

Can you tight fisted buggers just buy a few bags o spacers to keep in the van.
This is hilarious, string,, cardboard, spaghetti!!!! Youll be trimmin your toe nails with a stanley and using that next.:joker:

 

[wivers]

I was gonna use my winky as a spacer once but it was a 5 mm joint and mines only 2 mm

 

[Raja]

I was gonna use my winky as a spacer once but it was a 5 mm joint and mines only 2 mm

getting worse than me :lol: