First Ever Quote & it's Mosaics!!

[DJT75]

Hi, I've just been around to see some old chap who wants his new utility room tiled. It will be my first paying job if I get it so I want to get it quoted correctly.

The room is perfect for a first real job, newly skimmed perfect flat walls (advised him British Standards are 4 weeks before tiling), no furnitue, no skirting, no nothing & just normal 6x6 ceramics around 3 x 2m walls at a height up to just 1.2m.

However, he's now hit me with the news he wants a mosaic border one tile down from the top row & & an entire shower cubicle done in one of the corners.

So I know what needs doing without the shower, that bit is easy to price, but I'm having trouble knowing what to do about the mosaics. Although I've completed my 4 week course, we never ventured into mosaics, so I haven't a clue:

How easy they are to hang?
How do you hang them - surely the adhesive squeezes through all those gaps?
How long they take to hang?
How much I need to charge to hang? (compared to standard ceramics)
How much more work is involved cleaning & grouting?

Is a standard square shower tray 900mx900m? this guy hasn't bought one yet

If I'm tiling assuming a 900m tray - how high would you tile to accommodate a standard shower? (once the tray is in place - I would be tiling before it's fitted), or would you tile to the ceiling? Not sure what would look better when all the other walls at only being tiled up to 1.2m.

I imagine the Mosaics will be thinner than the ceramics, how does this affect how they join each other at the shower's edge? I haven't a clue what sort of screen/curtain he's having.

I imagine the border won't be straight forward due to the thickness too?


Sorry for all the questions but I came away from there as happy as larry - it appeared to be a perfect first job, now I'm thinking it could be a nightmare first job!!

Is there any other questions I need to be asking the guy that might help me, I haven't seen the tiles & am only assuming the mosaics are coming on square sheets.

Any advise anyone can give on any of the above would be greatly appreciated. I'm away on hols tomorrow night so need to get a quote in tomorrow if I really want this job (which I'm now not so sure about).

thanks

 

[White Room]

The tray needs to be in before you tile, he has'nt got the tiles yet so you won't know how thick the mosaic will be or what they will be glass, natural stone etc.
If the tiles are only 1.2 off the floor then tiles should fixed to the shower frame otherwise your'll have a gap behind the frame if it's fixed to the tiles.

 

[Diamond Pool Finishers]

four days tiling 😳 no comment !

 

[david campbell]

mosaics are very tricky,if the depths are different from the tiles work out how you are going to pack them out,i prefer using rapid set,tile the whole room upto mosaic height and do them last thing at night,or you can wedge them up with cut tile and fit at the end,when using mosaics use your fingers as lttle as possible and pat gently into place with a grout float,also glass mosaics must be done with mosaic-fix as i've seen them debond with a normal flexi!

above all take your time,take care and good luck

 

[DJT75]

ps. Not sure if I was clear but the entire shower cubicle (2 walls) will be in mosaics, hence my slight panic.

Not sure I understand your post gooner59?

Thanks for your comments whitebeam - he did say the mosaics were glass coming to think of it. Did think that about the shower tray but then he was told to get everything tiled first by his plumber so I figured they knew what they were talking about, but obviously not.

 

[david campbell]

the only thing you need in is the shower tray to start tiling,and make sure it's siliconed in prior to starting,get yourself a glass cutting blade for you wet saw!

 

[DJT75]

mosaics are very tricky,if the depths are different from the tiles work out how you are going to pack them out,i prefer using rapid set,tile the whole room upto mosaic height and do them last thing at night,or you can wedge them up with cut tile and fit at the end,when using mosaics use your fingers as lttle as possible and pat gently into place with a grout float,also glass mosaics must be done with mosaic-fix as i've seen them debond with a normal flexi!

above all take your time,take care and good luck

Being honest, would you do this as your first job without some mosaic experience gained elsewhere?

I'm confident to do all the other tiling, either leaving a gap for the border or putting the final row on top of the border afterwards (probably easier than leaving a gap). But the mosaic cubicle does worry me in how it will fit in with everything else.

 

[david campbell]

Being honest, would you do this as your first job without some mosaic experience gained elsewhere?

I'm confident to do all the other tiling, either leaving a gap for the border or putting the final row on top of the border afterwards (probably easier than leaving a gap). But the mosaic cubicle does worry me in how it will fit in with everything else.

probably not the best job to start with but could you talk the customer into breaking up the shower area with a listello,thus making your job a million times easier without worrying about matching up depths

 

[Diamond Pool Finishers]

mosaics are very tricky,if the depths are different from the tiles work out how you are going to pack them out,i prefer using rapid set,tile the whole room upto mosaic height and do them last thing at night,or you can wedge them up with cut tile and fit at the end,when using mosaics use your fingers as lttle as possible and pat gently into place with a grout float,also glass mosaics must be done with mosaic-fix as i've seen them debond with a normal flexi!

above all take your time,take care and good luck

we use ardex x77 all the time with glass pool mosaics no probs ,but we beat them down with heavy mosaic beaters from italy not grout floats

 

[david campbell]

we use ardex x77 all the time with glass pool mosaics no probs ,but we beat them down with heavy mosaic beaters from italy not grout floats

have seen them lift before with someone using bal flexible addy,the job looked like honeycombe on the shower floor with all the grout intact and the mosaics all lifting