Do you remember when ....

[Spud]

Nothing wrong with the old methods , still the most economical way of fixing tiles in my opinion 10 sqm floor fixed in sand and cement at 25mm bed depth will cost under £20 for the sand and cement
how much would it cost for levelling compound and adhesive with that type of build up 20 bags of leveller and 2 bags of adhesive around 300 pounds

 

[Simons70]

Nothing wrong with the old methods , still the most economical way of fixing tiles in my opinion 10 sqm floor fixed in sand and cement at 25mm bed depth will cost under £20 for the sand and cement
how much would it cost for levelling compound and adhesive with that type of build up 20 bags of leveller and 2 bags of adhesive around 300 pounds

Not just cheap method but never have the flat and level tiles with adhesive like with sand and cement after vibration....

 

[enduro]

I remember when builders paid you on time..... :lol: only joking!!

 

[Andy Allen]

I remember when builders paid you on time..... :lol: only joking!!

Thats going back some years........2 shillings a yard was the going rate..lol

 

[Brian the Tile]

I remember when builders paid you on time..... :lol: only joking!!

Bloody hell enduro that must have been a long long time ago

 

[SJPurdy]

I still carry my old tipped chisel and pin hammer, in the spare tools box, on my van!
In my garage I even have an old notched trowel that has ~6mm notches spaced every ~25mm - it used to be the norm and the tiles didn't fall off.

 

[afright]

Would carry a tilley lamp as lot of jobs had no electric it was a pain riding along on my moped with my tool bucket strapped on the back and the tilley lamp swinging on the handle bars my, boss only supplied one mantle a week so if it went then it was down to you to buy them,also remember using pitch for the joints,did a few battery rooms at telephone exchanges,did not have a pitched pot had a old copper boiler,one day left it on to long melted the bottom the pitch caught alight and set the ceiling alight.

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Would carry a tilley lamp as lot of jobs had no electric it was a pain riding along on my moped with my tool bucket strapped on the back and the tilley lamp swinging on the handle bars my, boss only supplied one mantle a week so if it went then it was down to you to buy them,also remember using pitch for the joints,did a few battery rooms at telephone exchanges,did not have a pitched pot had a old copper boiler,one day left it on to long melted the bottom the pitch caught alight and set the ceiling alight.

Problem with Tilley and camping gaz lamps were they would sweat the walls and if you were grouting the white cement wouldn't go off. On damp dull days we often had to create a wind to help it dry enough to polish off.

 

[The Legend; Phil Hobson RIP]

I don't remember any of that ha ha.

 

[Time's Ran Out]

You used candles!

 

[The Legend; Phil Hobson RIP]

Lol candles would have been a luxury.

 

[Time's Ran Out]

..... Matchsticks were used for spacers.

 

[afright]

I used dried spaghetti as spacers in the 70s.

 

[Andy Allen]

Anyone use spinks tiles....they would come with perforated cardboard sheets that you broke off to use as spacers....

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Anyone use spinks tiles....they would come with perforated cardboard sheets that you broke off to use as spacers....

Sphinx I believe, Dutch company.
Visited their stand at Interbuild in 1984 and won a long weekend in Paris!

 

[Andy Allen]

Thats the ones......spelling not my strong point lol
Used loads of them on the building sites when I was starting out. .

 

[Houston]

Like the 3/4/5 triangle , the water level is a tool worth investing in !
When I bought my 3/4/5 triangle I wondered how I was going to get the 15 foot length in the van!
And how many times has the water level been cut to syphon off diesel ?
Can't get more accurate than gravity to keep your tiles level.

My uncle made my square from straight edges we used, it's at least 20years old but doesn't get used now but a good investment for someone starting out and still bang on. The water level is a favourite of mine and still in use.

 

[afright]

Candy tiles another name from the past,the first floor tile cutter my firm got was a box frame with a platform with what was a bike chain and you turned a handle with the tile on the platform thru a fixed wheel but you would still have to tap the back of the tile with the pin hammer to break the tile.

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Candy tiles - made somewhere down in Devon I think.
Absolute $hi£e Calypso range were dished and almost untileable.

 

[Spud]

Candy tiles = B.C.T still made in Devon

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Candy tiles = B.C.T still made in Devon

There you go - still soak up the moisture like blotting paper, and glaze usually chipped or missing on corners - Nowt changes still rubbish!

 

[the diving tile]

First time I used rapid set about 30years ago for Valfix north London, after 3 hours being able to walk on what you fixed that morning was a trill, now I hate the bloody stuff.

 

[afright]

Before rapid floor tile adhesive was out on the market ,got a few jobs with a butchers tiling a couple of his shops over night,we used Ardex 2 part slc to fix the tiles those tiles stayed down for over 20 years

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Before rapid floor tile adhesive was out on the market ,got a few jobs with a butchers tiling a couple of his shops over night,we used Ardex 2 part slc to fix the tiles those tiles stayed down for over 20 years

Cowboy!:smilewinkgrin:

 

[afright]

Cowboy!:smilewinkgrin:

My firm got the ok from Ardex saying it would work and it did,also done a truckers rest room at Dover docks 100 sq yds, 4 of us banged that out in a day that was down for a long time and it got heavy use.

 

[ttt tiling]

good grief John , I thought I was getting old

 

[Time's Ran Out]

good grief John , I thought I was getting old

What was the reference point that confirmed the 'old' label?

 

[Old Mod]

... You had to break the ice off the drum to get to your tiles, you used sawdust to polish the floors and you got 10shillings a yard for fixing tiles with sand/cement!

By those were the days!!.
Who else used to push their bike up the cobbled streets and eat Hovis jammies.

[MENTION=11380]timeless john[/MENTION], Well I found it John! Wow what a read! Think I'd forgotten most of what's been mentioned :lol:
feels like a lifetime ago, well I spose it was! Haha
using Silver Sand and Sawdust to clean floors, great technique, where did it go? I remember the first lesson I was taught, how to carry my mentors tools and make Tea, haha. Then it was to make his staff and find water. Then the most important piece of maths I ever learnt, never mind my A level maths, 3/4/5! Haha
I learnt a lot from a team of Tilers that worked for our contractor, 3 generations of Irish Tilers. There was "Old Man Billy" his son "Billy" and of course his son "YOUNG Billy!" The old man was in his mid 70's so he knew a trick or two! (Makes me smile thinking about those guys!) of course even "Young Billy" was older than me.
Miles and miles of 'Heathers & Fire Flash' and nearly as many 'Pilk's Dorset and Four Square' haha
laying miles and miles of 'Crystal Whites' laying a whole box in the crook of your arm and fixing them at a rate of knots. When the muscles in your thumbs were the size of biceps and EVERY work shirt u owned had holes in from shaping tiles with nippers. When 'tanking' meant using 'Bal Grip!' Does it still smell like 'wet nappies?' Haha
god life was simpler then! Oh well. **yawn**

 

[Time's Ran Out]

'laying a box in the crook of your arm and fixing at a rate of knots' - was certainly the method used by my mentors father!
I then had to remove all the cardboard box spacers that he'd fixed to the wall instead of Donkey Brown tiles.
Worse still trying to get Bal Tad out of the self spacing joints while grouting.

 

[afright]

I think in the 70s Johnson's had the main market in this country that's all I seemed to fix, my old firm would have an artic lorry each month,also unload once a month 17,000 quarrys stacked loose on edge used to hate seeing those lorrys parked outside the yard at 7 in the morning even on a rainy day.

 

[Time's Ran Out]

I was very fortunate as I started with a small family business and the son took me under his wing from day 1. Always on a job from 7.30 till finished and never made the tea once. The building boom of the early 70's meant I was tiling within 6 months. Always did the labouring and fetching/carrying but that enabled more tiles to be fixed by others and more money! After all £15 a week was a lot of money when you paid £5 a week rent.