New starter - Tile Advice

[AFCWhole]

Hi all,
I am after some advise...I am mid 40's, have worked in an office environment my whole working life...I bloody hate it and have been thinking of retraining and starting up as a sole trader doing domestic tiling.
I am pretty good at DIY, have tiled my own house etc.
And so to my questions:
What courses would you recommend? There are a few 5 and 9 day courses out there?
Is there a lot of work (I appreciate this depends on location, number of tilers in the area etc - but generally), and finally,
What can I realistically expect to earn working for myself ?
The problem is that I have an income to protect hence why I have put this off for a while, making it even harder to make the switch.
Any advise would be really welcome.
Based in East Sussex
Thanks in advance.

 

[eddcottee]

Im mid thirties (well, 37 and almost 38, but mid sounds better than late)! I did a 5 day course with UK Pro Tiling Training in Hartlepool about 2.5 years ago. Im based in Suffolk so Hartlepool was a trek, but so worth it. They also do a 10 day course, but I did the 5 days.

As soon as I finished the course, I went straight out onto small jobs, kitchen splashbacks etc and was charging £180 a day. Since then, i've slowly upped the pricing to £250 per day, then £280 per day and at the moment am charging a bare minimum £300 per day and couldn't be busier. (I'm booked up now until February and Januarys jobs are at well north of £300 per day). All that said, it's good at the moment and all tradesmen are busy. At some point, I would expect a downturn, however I shouldn't expect i'll have to go below £300 a day again.

It's hard work, stressful, time consuming and confidence knocking to begin with. There were a number of times I got in a strop and said to myself "I can't do this". It can make you want to cry with frustration at times! But if you are prepared to work hard and are strong willed enough to get through the very tough learning curve at the start, it's great.

I am fortunate in that I don't need to earn a fortune, so I probably average 4 days per week because I want to do it that way. I drop my boys off at school and pick them up twice per week, with the Mrs doing the other days. Generally I work 9am until about 3.30pm. When I worked for somebody else full time, I rarely ever got the chance for school drop offs etc and honestly, that is worth so much. Their sports days, I dont work, fancy a holiday, just book it into my diary and dont have to ask permission from a boss. The flexibility is great.

My back aches, my legs and arms ache, sometimes im nackered and still sometimes get frustrated as you're always learning and always making mistakes. To start with you will be working all week then out at weekend mornings pricing up jobs. It's now 8.25pm and I'm here online, reading up on tiling things and still trying to learn.

So in summary, its rewarding, can earn really decent money, hard, dirty work which will punish your body but there is no way on earth I would go back to employment.

Hope that helps!

Edd

 

[AFCWhole]

Please contribute to this thread if you have any new information or can even just reiterate what has been said already.

Im mid thirties (well, 37 and almost 38, but mid sounds better than late)! I did a 5 day course with UK Pro Tiling Training in Hartlepool about 2.5 years ago. Im based in Suffolk so Hartlepool was a trek, but so worth it. They also do a 10 day course, but I did the 5 days.

As soon as I finished the course, I went straight out onto small jobs, kitchen splashbacks etc and was charging £180 a day. Since then, i've slowly upped the pricing to £250 per day, then £280 per day and at the moment am charging a bare minimum £300 per day and couldn't be busier. (I'm booked up now until February and Januarys jobs are at well north of £300 per day). All that said, it's good at the moment and all tradesmen are busy. At some point, I would expect a downturn, however I shouldn't expect i'll have to go below £300 a day again.

It's hard work, stressful, time consuming and confidence knocking to begin with. There were a number of times I got in a strop and said to myself "I can't do this". It can make you want to cry with frustration at times! But if you are prepared to work hard and are strong willed enough to get through the very tough learning curve at the start, it's great.

I am fortunate in that I don't need to earn a fortune, so I probably average 4 days per week because I want to do it that way. I drop my boys off at school and pick them up twice per week, with the Mrs doing the other days. Generally I work 9am until about 3.30pm. When I worked for somebody else full time, I rarely ever got the chance for school drop offs etc and honestly, that is worth so much. Their sports days, I dont work, fancy a holiday, just book it into my diary and dont have to ask permission from a boss. The flexibility is great.

My back aches, my legs and arms ache, sometimes im nackered and still sometimes get frustrated as you're always learning and always making mistakes. To start with you will be working all week then out at weekend mornings pricing up jobs. It's now 8.25pm and I'm here online, reading up on tiling things and still trying to learn.

So in summary, its rewarding, can earn really decent money, hard, dirty work which will punish your body but there is no way on earth I would go back to employment.

Hope that helps!

Edd

Thanks for this Edd, super useful and really appreciated.
Great to hear a success story.
I have seen a course in Bradford, YTA Training - I think I will give this a go (helps that I have family in Leeds that I can stay with).
I will start with the 5 day course and go from there - hopefully this will be sufficient to get me up and running.
Jason.

 

[eddcottee]

Please contribute to this thread if you have any new information or can even just reiterate what has been said already.

Please contribute to this thread if you have any new information or can even just reiterate what has been said already.

Thanks for this Edd, super useful and really appreciated.
Great to hear a success story.
I have seen a course in Bradford, YTA Training - I think I will give this a go (helps that I have family in Leeds that I can stay with).
I will start with the 5 day course and go from there - hopefully this will be sufficient to get me up and running.
Jason.

Good luck mate. A lot of people will tell you it simply isn't enough and you cant just start tiling after 5 days of training.

I would agree with that, you can't. But it gives you enough that you can start off with only taking on small jobs, still earning money and work your way up to the bigger and better paying jobs.

So don't be put off by negatives. Most of them are from people who are annoyed, having spent 3+ years of their lives in college / as a tilers mate, doing all of that learning and not taking the leap of faith sooner. I would probably be annoyed at someone doing a 5 day course and "calling themselves a tiler", but do you know what, sometimes luck favours the brave!

As long as you take your time to do a good job to start with and do hours and hours of research on decent forums / sites like this, you'll be fine.

Crack on mate and I hope it does you well

 

[Kevbos]

Please contribute to this thread if you have any new information or can even just reiterate what has been said already.

Hi all,
I am after some advise...I am mid 40's, have worked in an office environment my whole working life...I bloody hate it and have been thinking of retraining and starting up as a sole trader doing domestic tiling.
I am pretty good at DIY, have tiled my own house etc.
And so to my questions:
What courses would you recommend? There are a few 5 and 9 day courses out there?
Is there a lot of work (I appreciate this depends on location, number of tilers in the area etc - but generally), and finally,
What can I realistically expect to earn working for myself ?
The problem is that I have an income to protect hence why I have put this off for a while, making it even harder to make the switch.
Any advise would be really welcome.
Thanks in advance.
ictures can be added.

Tiling is not the easiest job in the world , I think you either take to it or you don't!! There are many different types of tiling and I'd suggest starting of with the simpler tiling to begin with !! But I will say just doing a course is not best way to learn .you will get the basics , try and learn from a tiler that has been tiling a while !you will see the right and wrong things alot quicker !every adhesive and grout acts differently !! And you could learn some very expensive lessons if not careful !!