sand and cement fix by team of polish tilers, amazing - Tile Advice

[deankyall]

just want to share what i witnessed last week,i was working up in london ,well croyden,tiling the toilets in the new lidles,the floor area of the main shop 900m2 was already done apart from 145m2,all laid i was told in a week sand and cement,well i couldnt believe it,but at 12,0 clock 6 polish guys and 1 german guy turned up,2 started mixing the screed then one started shifting the pump around whilst one guy started screeding,freehand working to a datum line around perimeter wall,no spots or anything,anyway the others were shifting the tiles in,when the guy had done about half screed, one guy dropped back and threw dryers onto screed ,and then wet it with a watering can,then 2 more continued laying the tiles, when they got about 50 m2 down someone else dropped back onto it and vibrated it with a little machine with plastic rollers (they were all wearing screed shoes to walk on tiles)then behind him, one grouted with huge floor squeegie,then another behind him washing off,,when the screeding had been done those guys dropped onto the tiling too,and also set in 2 manholes,which were tiled,when the grout was dry they used sawdust and polished it up,and this was all done by 5 o clock, i was amazed,they then went and laid 200m2 of dietra,with mapei p4,mixed really wet,and finished about half 7 that night,the next day they laid most of this about 170m2 stick down ,and including about 3 manholes,and grouted most,then last day finished off ,fantastic and bloody flat too.and i was pleased with our 30m2 a day on the walls!!!! not grouted......credit to these guys,also they are welcome to it my knees wouldnt hold out.

 

[Mike]

good grafters i say, my mate, a plasterer said there's some polish plasterers working near here who carry 4 half inch plaster boards on their own :yikes:

 

[doug boardley]

Phil Hobson did a lot of Lidl work if i remember right, no doubt he'll have some input on this thread

 

[Colour Republic]

good grafters i say, my mate, a plasterer said there's some polish plasterers working near here who carry 4 half inch plaster boards on their own :yikes:

I've done that when I did the office systems in London. On one job 4 of us bumped over 1000 sheets up 9 floors of stairs as the service lift wasn't big enough to take full boards. Mind you I was 18 at the time. I often try and do it now with a nod back to those days but quikly give up

 

[steve187]

some pictures would have been nice, but you would of had to set the camera to fast action shots, in the old days my brother and I would lay about 25 yards a day of 6x6 quarries on a semi dry screed, all mixed by hand for £1.35 per yard.

 

[Spud]

I have seen this done quite a bit in germany its called ruttel boden which means vibrated floor, best I saw was 2 hungarian tilers do 1100m2 on their own in 6 days but that was ready mix and brick bond laid

 

[White Room]

good grafters i say, my mate, a plasterer said there's some polish plasterers working near here who carry 4 half inch plaster boards on their own :yikes:

I take it thats 8 x 4 sheets, that would be aprox 92.16kg for 4 sheets ????

 

[The Legend; Phil Hobson RIP]

Phil Hobson did a lot of Lidl work if i remember right, no doubt he'll have some input on this thread

Yep Doug, I have done my fair share of power vibro jobs. Over 70 stores in the UK 1,100.00 per store ( Aldi, Lidl, and netto) some abroad too. The german gangs were doing them over here, until I put my team up against them.

We built up a good reputation over the years, and the Germans were sent packing, anyone who attended my birthday party would have met the various members of the team (we had a few changes of faces over the years).

When we first started we had to prove ourselves, as the German teams seemed to have the market sown up. We kicked off doing our own screeding (semi dry) twenty five tons of ready mix per day, but soon enlisted Tony Cullen from Birmingham (he was the older guy with the mane of white hair at my party) he was a legend in screeding circles, he's still at it at 73yrs old.

We used to lay between 150/ 180m2 per day, we never used dryers as Dean mentioned, but laid into pure portland slurry. The shoes Dean talks about we called "snow shoes" and just spread your weight as you used the power vibrator, we had this method off to a tee, (just as well ) as we had to complete each store in nine days. That was 1,100.00 m2 of screeding and tiling, but also skirting, plinths, bucket sinks etc.

The work was very hard, I think one of the team members (tungsten tip) put a post on here, saying "ask Phil Hobson about hard work" in the post he said how we used to look forward to Sundays, as we only had to grout 600m2 in the day (a very easy day). Looking back we must have been mad, but the money was a great pain killer.:lol:

 

[peckers]

well im worn out just reading about the speed they can lay at! I now need a holiday im worn out

 

[Mike]

I take it thats 8 x 4 sheets, that would be aprox 92.16kg for 4 sheets ????

yes 8 x 4 sheets. i struggle with one :lol:

 

[The Legend; Phil Hobson RIP]

http://www.tilersforums.com/general-chat/32924-stupid-hours.html#post317417 This is tommy's (tungsten tip's) post, he got the grouting day wrong:lol:

 

[NZ_Tiler]

Here is a video of the method

Domning Rüttelböden GmbH & Co. KG ---- Rüttelboden, Certified Management System ZDH ZERT DIN ISO 9001, Ruettelboden, Ruettelboeden, Rüttelböden, Estrich, Keramik-Rüttelböden, Fliesen, ISO 9001, Zertifiziertes Management-System, Bauamt, Generalunterne

 

[The Legend; Phil Hobson RIP]

Spot on video, NZ Tiler that is very close to the method we used, apart from the pure portland peppering, (we used slurry) and the sawdust (we used 1:1 silver sand and cement dry mix to finish). The shoes, walking boards, Dixon polishing machine are bang on.

Brings back some memories for me, thank you, no wonder my right knee is bad. Although after 44yrs of that kind of work, I shouldn't complain. We had some good/, and some not so good times doing those jobs, one of the guys used to say on any particularly hard job,"never mind Phil, one day we will look back and laugh about this". He was at my 60th birthday party, as were many other members of the team, I asked him if he remembered the job in Wrexham? this was one were we still laying tile at 1.30am under the headlights of our vans. I asked him "can we look back and laugh about that job now?" he replied "no not yet"

Some very hard men worked on those stores, and I feel proud to have been a part of a very special ( band of brothers) that made up that team. Thank you for the reminder, (wiping a tear from my eye). Lol.

 

[The Legend; Phil Hobson RIP]

Here is the machine used in power vibro system. Raimondi Razor Diamond Blades, getting it done better, faster, cheaper