"I know thats the proper way, I was just testing you" - TilersForums.com

[diamondtiling]

Over the years there must have been a time when you saw a tiler doing something that made you think "Oh, so that's how its done"
It does not matter what it is, there is always something that you have done for years or maybe for the first time and then you see it being done correctly and you wonder why you did not "think of that"

I will go first.....................................don't laugh,


I did my first tiling Job in 1985 and it was for myself, it was in my kitchen and I was fitting very expensive 3mm thick, 150x150mm white tiles over every surface, when they were all fixed, well at least when they all stayed on the wall I had to grout them so I bought a tub of ready mixed brilliant white grout smilewinkgrin
After reading the instructions I decided that I did not want to buy a rubber squeegee for £1.99 ( I was only on £29 a week) so I improvised and used a sock.........over my finger.

After I had worn out 5 socks and my middle finger I stood back and admired my work, I then spent 4 hours or so trying to smooth it all off.
Friends duly turned up at parties etc and admired my masterpiece and I got commissioned to tile their houses (for peanuts as I recall.)
It was probably on the 5th house that a mates Grandad turned up and asked me "what the flip are you doing son with that sock?" He then went to his Ford Cortina estate and got me a squeegee, "ere, use that ya clown" he said.

I flippantly replied that mine had snapped and that I had one on order.

"yeah right, of course you do" he said, "and your charging our Susan £60 for this tiling?"

So come on, don't be shy lads and ladies, we wont laugh...........much.

:lol::lol::lol:

 

[Time's Ran Out]

For me it was also a grouting highlight!
On floors we always used to rub the grout mix off with clean sawdust and on the walls the white cement was buffed with a clean white cloth.
When I first worked for another Tiling Co.- after my apprentiship - I couldn't understand how the other tilers were all away after lunch and I hadn't finished the grouting.
Well it transpired that they all used a sponge and water to wash the grout off while I was still polishing.
At that time Dom I was on £15 a week.

 

[brinkley]

i grouted a floor once in adhesive

 

[simmy08]

fortunately i bypassed a lot of mistakes and silly antics thanx to this forum.:hurray:

 

[Scott]

I guess i was quite lucky as i watched my dad to cover most of how it was done. I have to say i do know lots of DIYers who have used the finger to grout and when they see me use a proper float they go 'oh so THATS how its done, you should have seen the blisters etc...'

Great thread though Im sure i can think of one howler even if not related to tiling

 

[albyshellshear]

Mine is not tiling related but in the bakery trade there were howlers made nearly every day, but one of the most common was having the sugar and salt buckets next to each other, the amount of times a whole batch of cream cakes have gone out on delivery before anyone realised the cream was full of salt. The other was forgetting the yeast we would work a whole batch of dough 2020lb of dough into 3oz barm cakes or cobs, usualy about 2 hours work before somebody would shout stop theres no yeast, my god 2 hours work wasted never mind the cost of scrapping the lot funny now but imagine how we felt at the time. My first and probably the most expensive was when I worked at a cake factory after leaving school , I had to supply the girls working on the conveyors(lines) with the ingredients dice the ham grate the cheese and mix the egg and milk which was done upstairs on the mezenet level and taken down in a lift, pushing 2 x 45gallon drums of egg mix into the lift on a dolly trolly the wheel caught in the door gap 90 gallon egg tidal wave in the lift. :lol: They had to get the lift engineers to open the shaft so the cleaners could clean up, with it being summer 76 it was hot and the egg and milk went off very fast stunk for weeks.I got some stick for that I tell you :mad2: you quickly learn there is a right way of doing things after doing it the wrong way made you the laghing stock of a factory.

 

[wayne]

i just got back from a job i made a howler on. dust sheeted everything up and removed all tiles from walls. cleaned up removed sheets then went to undo couple of screws left in wall. guess who dropped screwdriver into new tray and made a 10mmx5mm chip in it

 

[diamondtiling]

i just got back from a job i made a howler on. dust sheeted everything up and removed all tiles from walls. cleaned up removed sheets then went to undo couple of screws left in wall. guess who dropped screwdriver into new tray and made a 10mmx5mm chip in it

Ouch..........:yikes:

 

[Scott]

i just got back from a job i made a howler on. dust sheeted everything up and removed all tiles from walls. cleaned up removed sheets then went to undo couple of screws left in wall. guess who dropped screwdriver into new tray and made a 10mmx5mm chip in it

Sounds like a call to plastic surgeon!

 

[The Legend; Phil Hobson RIP]

My 1st experience in grouting, at the tender age of 15. In those days the flat brush was used to apply the grout, the joints were pegged and then cleaned off with wood wool (tiles came packed in wood wool). The first time I was left on my own to grout, my tiler said "I have to go to the yard" you grout the walls. We used snowcrete back then, which is just a white opc. I got stuck in and soon had grouted about 25m2, I had only put the snowcrete on. Not knowing I should have taken it off as I went, at dinner time the apprentice joiner asked if I wanted a sandwich from the shop. As you can probably guess, I had my dinner, then went back to the grouting. Grout rock solid:yikes: you can imagine the tilers reaction:incazzato: I never did it again

 

[jay]

first experience with industrial epoxy grout very young just about bullet proof didn't need to wear gloves , nearly every finger had a birds eye on it (worn out) and hands remain sticky for days .okay for smoking only need one finger no fun going to loo for no twos :mad2: