How is the tiling industry serving us fixers.?

[Polishtradesman]

Ok. So some of you think that downturn on the market is migrant foult. I do not think so. East European are doing lot of good work here, much more positives then problems. Europe is our place as well as French, Germans, Italians. Roosvelt and Churchill gave us under Stalin occupation, actually under 45 years occupation and that has ruined our countries. When it was econamical grow everyone was happy that migrants doing lot of work, that British can make more money. There is lot of British doing profit in Poland (eg BP, Tesco). So what wrong that migrants are here??!! Maybe it is socialists idiots foult. Socialists have ruled this country for last years, they gives lot of benefits to people who really dont deserve it. Law is so stupid that people choose to do nothing instead of working. There is so much demoralization in country which gives so many opportiunites, that is strage, that is socialists foult, they made people lazy, now when it is very important to do cuts, here is so many strikes, citizens get used to consumption. You need another Margaret.

 

[andy8758]

I always get into trouble expressing opinions.....

IMHO the UK (or GB to use the out of fashion phrase) is a relic of its Commonwealth. We still believe we are better than other nationalities and are definitely elitist and probably racist. That is a generalisation, and I apologise (before you all gang up on me) to those who have more open minded opinions, but before you place yourselves in that category, ask yourself these questions:
Do you judge peoples intelligence and ability by their qualifications or by the person they are and what they can achieve?
Does it actually matter at all who lives in this country?
Do you judge people by their origin or by their standards?
Is it more important to have a job well done or a job done by a person born and raised in the UK?

I have 6 O levels, 2 A levels, and a number of professional managerial qualifications. My wife has no qualifications, left school at 15 and has done manual work all her life. She is actually more intelligent than me, and has a much greater knowledge of many things - but I can write it better than her.

I have been involved in professional tiling for just 2 years. I am perfectly happy to tile, perfectly happy to compete with any other tiler for work, and accept that I am probably never going to achieve the skills that I have seen displayed by some other tilers. I watched a tiler from Poland at work recently - I still have an awful lot to aspire to achieve. That will not stop me from tiling, and making a living from it. We are still in a recession. Times are hard. You have to be prepared to work harder for less earnings - there is nothing to achieve by bemoaning the influx of tradesmen/women from other countries - who incidentally are also in recession.

My sole whinge is about people (from anywhere) who undercut my tiling business by taking on tiling work they are incapable of doing. I am currently writing up a quotation for a customer who has a partially tiled bathroom - 3 tradesmen said "oh, I can tile" then bodged it. Polished porcelain that is not level, excessively lipped, the cuts look like they were hammered, the grout lines are all different sizes, the corner tile grout lines are crooked and 1 tradesmen spent a whole day partially completing a window reveal. So thats 1 (English) plumber, 1 (English) carpenter and 1 (English) tiler who have bodged and failed to complete a relatively small tiling job. This has nothing to do with where a person is from and everything to do with greed and over confidence. But I guess that is one of the effects of our recession.

 

[user123]

I always get into trouble expressing opinions.....

IMHO the UK (or GB to use the out of fashion phrase) is a relic of its Commonwealth. We still believe we are better than other nationalities and are definitely elitist and probably racist. That is a generalisation, and I apologise (before you all gang up on me) to those who have more open minded opinions, but before you place yourselves in that category, ask yourself these questions:
Do you judge peoples intelligence and ability by their qualifications or by the person they are and what they can achieve?
Does it actually matter at all who lives in this country?
Do you judge people by their origin or by their standards?
Is it more important to have a job well done or a job done by a person born and raised in the UK?

I have 6 O levels, 2 A levels, and a number of professional managerial qualifications. My wife has no qualifications, left school at 15 and has done manual work all her life. She is actually more intelligent than me, and has a much greater knowledge of many things - but I can write it better than her.

I have been involved in professional tiling for just 2 years. I am perfectly happy to tile, perfectly happy to compete with any other tiler for work, and accept that I am probably never going to achieve the skills that I have seen displayed by some other tilers. I watched a tiler from Poland at work recently - I still have an awful lot to aspire to achieve. That will not stop me from tiling, and making a living from it. We are still in a recession. Times are hard. You have to be prepared to work harder for less earnings - there is nothing to achieve by bemoaning the influx of tradesmen/women from other countries - who incidentally are also in recession.

My sole whinge is about people (from anywhere) who undercut my tiling business by taking on tiling work they are incapable of doing. I am currently writing up a quotation for a customer who has a partially tiled bathroom - 3 tradesmen said "oh, I can tile" then bodged it. Polished porcelain that is not level, excessively lipped, the cuts look like they were hammered, the grout lines are all different sizes, the corner tile grout lines are crooked and 1 tradesmen spent a whole day partially completing a window reveal. So thats 1 (English) plumber, 1 (English) carpenter and 1 (English) tiler who have bodged and failed to complete a relatively small tiling job. This has nothing to do with where a person is from and everything to do with greed and over confidence. But I guess that is one of the effects of our recession.

Where's the 'love' button for this?

 

[teo]

True that.
But i think its down to the huge amount of people competing for the same job.
I haven't been here long enough to know if its always been like that, but i can't believe at the huge amount of tradesmen/women there's around.
Also i think most workers that have been made redundant from the big boys are starting self employed and trying to get jobs that way; can't blame them but that can lead to undercutting of prices, which IMHO is never a good thing.
I don't think tradesmen/women here hate foreigners ( i am one, and on average found people very polite with me) but i am sure they don't like the fact that foreigners usually work for less, thus leading to the "undercutting" and falling down of wages.
I was laughing when i was looking at the jobcentre website and seen this advert "Looking for an experienced builder that can do carpentry, plumbing, electrics and plastering, qualifications required. wage of 8 pounds an hour" nearly fell off my chair.....why anybody in this world with all those skills and qualifications (if someone like that will ever exist) would want to live with a silly wage like that?
Times are hard, and since we basically don't have anybody that protect us, the only way to do it is to not undercut, always price a job accordingly, making a living out of it and not making a "striving" out of it (if that make sense).
At the end of the day, if you are skilled you should get a "skilled wage".
I never underprice (not a tiler by the way, i do it just for people i know cause i want to learn it, and i think the best way is learning "on site") and obviously loose plenty of jobs, but its the customer loss if they dont get me; instead of putting the price down i offer more, but for the same price...this way no one is competing on prices but on quality!
As usual everything should be done with a huge chunk of common sense.
hope all of the above make sense.

 

[doug boardley]

Personally I think there's too many British Standards and not enough Building Regs in our industry, I think it's time that we were brought into line with other trades and have very little ambiguity about how to do a job correctly.

 

[Stewart]

As a pro tiler with over twenty years experience, I find the industry in general has been and still is lacking any credibility. Until the trade is regulated in much the same way as gas and electric, it will continue to be a free for all, with the "anyone can tile" attitude, for many years to come!

 

[andy8758]

As a pro tiler with over twenty years experience, I find the industry in general has been and still is lacking any credibility. Until the trade is regulated in much the same way as gas and electric, it will continue to be a free for all, with the "anyone can tile" attitude, for many years to come!

First off - I love your signature quote - heard it before but love the meaning, you are my quote of the week.

I cannot help but feel that successive Governments (all main parties have had their say and their way in the last 3 years) consider all tradespeople are too highly paid, and encourage lesser skilled folk to undertake some of the easier tasks for less pay. This is good for Governments because rich businesses get richer, and provide more financial support for poor political parties so they can stay in power longer, and enjoy directorship when booted out at next election..... oh hell, whats this got to do with tiling:lol::lol:?

 

[Gall.B]

Ok. So some of you think that downturn on the market is migrant foult. I do not think so. East European are doing lot of good work here, much more positives then problems. Europe is our place as well as French, Germans, Italians. Roosvelt and Churchill gave us under Stalin occupation, actually under 45 years occupation and that has ruined our countries. When it was econamical grow everyone was happy that migrants doing lot of work, that British can make more money. There is lot of British doing profit in Poland (eg BP, Tesco). So what wrong that migrants are here??!! Maybe it is socialists idiots foult. Socialists have ruled this country for last years, they gives lot of benefits to people who really dont deserve it. Law is so stupid that people choose to do nothing instead of working. There is so much demoralization in country which gives so many opportiunites, that is strage, that is socialists foult, they made people lazy, now when it is very important to do cuts, here is so many strikes, citizens get used to consumption. You need another Margaret.

I dont have a problem with migrants working here, what I have a problem with is Companys replacing there workforce with cheap labour and tossing them on the scrap heap. as I said there is no protection for the folk who have worked here all there lifes. I also have a problem with migrants claiming benefits for children that are not even in the country, its not just lazy natives that are up to this!
There are lazy people in every culture & country it is a myth the migrants work harder than us just cheap thats all, I have a problem with MOT and taxing my van when foreign vans have been hear for years now.

Us Scots need another Margaret like you need manother Adolf!

 

[rooders]

One of the things which annoys me are the 2 day courses... 2 week courses ect that present people with a certificate and say congratulations your now a tiler. It took me 4 years as an apprentice working long days before i could honestly say i was a professional tiler.previous to that i was working on sites full time 8 years before i even started tiling. I wish people would show more respect for tilers and recognise it is a real trade, and done properly it is bloody hard graft.

 

[Gall.B]

As a pro tiler with over twenty years experience, I find the industry in general has been and still is lacking any credibility. Until the trade is regulated in much the same way as gas and electric, it will continue to be a free for all, with the "anyone can tile" attitude, for many years to come!

What makes you a pro then Stewart?