In which case I'll probably never be that fast.
I do tiling as part of a wider portfolio of home improvements, I don't just do tiling.
It does seem though that tiling is going to be a sizable part of my work in the future.
Here are some tips that I found useful though.
Floors - consider taking up the skirting and plinths etc before tiling. These can be trimmed or replaced. I do this if the customer is happy for both floor tiles and laminates.
This allows you more latitude when cutting the sides. On our refurbishment I've been tiling before the skirtings are down. Some Silicon after the skirtings have been painted works very well, or if you prefer just don't have grout lines against the skirtings.
Prepping - proper prepping saves stacks of time. Most seasoned tilers here will hear nothing new in this one but on Friday I struggled with a solid wall that I really should have put more time and effort into prepping. All the loose stuff was off but the wall had been rendered with a banana shaped float, then skimed on top. It took ages to get the tiles flat. Then later that day I started to tile a wall that I had replaced the plasterboard on for this very purpose. The old plasterboard had been tiled onto and was shot. I managed to tile at about 3 or 4 times the speed and was very happy with the results.
Ditto for the shower cubicle I did yesterday. I spent some time getting the walls straight. I used aquapanel for both sides of the corner to accept a quadrant shower cubicle. One side replaced a sheet of plasterboard, and the other was battened on top of the outside wall. This wall was completely wrecked as an old Mira shower mixer and the associated pipework had been chased into it! It wasn't particularly straight to start with.
The battens I put up were fine, it was the existing stud work on the adjacent corner that caused me some problems. One joist sat about 3 to 4 mm below the line of the other joists, so I had to pad it out with gripfill before screwing the aquapanel to it. This worked a treat.
As for angle grinders. I don't like the idea of using them for precision cuts. I'm not saying it doesn't work - it clearly does for some.
I managed to get one of these little used for £100. Belle Minitile.
The local builders merchant fancied going into tool hire, got his fingers burned and sold off some of their hire gear. This particular piece of kit had been used about 3 times when I got it.
