Way back in the very early 90s I got a call from my very rich Uncle, who was a very successful property developer down this way. He wanted me to tile his dream home that he had been planning for the last 10 years. I'd always tiled his housing and unit developments in the past and the work and money was good and consistent even though Australia at the time was still in the grips of recession.
When the time arose for me to look at this "DREAM HOME" my uncle had built. I was in total amazement at the sheer size of the project.
The concrete slab alone was 3500m2 and at the time was the largest house to be built here in Australia.
The entire tiling project would engulf at least 15000m2 of the finest stone, marble, porcelain, and mosaics that I had ever laid my eyes upon.
For starters looking from the street there were pathways that led to the front entrance all in sandstone which led to the front steps which were a 30meter frontage and 12 rises high all with a wavy curve with riser lights 600 to be exact all had to be tiled in sandstone.
Above this were 4 1m diameter columns which held the portico roof up the size was emense you could park 12 cars uder and still have room for a trucks and deliveries and not get wet when it rained. These columns had to be tiled in 20x20 marble mosaics 8 meters high.
Inside the main floor was covered in 600x600 polished porcelain all on the 45 with borders and decorative inlays.
36 450x450x 6meter high columns adorned this inside space all with hand cut coved marble honed from solid blocks on machinery imported from Italy drilled and dowelled and applied in 2 halves to these columns.
There was 2 pools one inside one outside all tiled in glass mosaics with motifs at the bottom. 11 spa baths that had to be hand made waterproofed and also mosaiced.
12 huge bathrooms all done in the finest Itailian marble as was the main staircase 50mm thick hand cut and polished treads and rises.
It would take a whole forum to descibe everything but to keep along story shorter I did the whole job with myself and 1 lacky and it took just a shad over 5 years to complete the tiling I would work 45hr a week and was paid $35/hr EXCELLENT MONEY for the time and the condition of the building industry.
So there you have it a quick glimpse into my toughest job overcomed with alot of patience and persistence.
Feel free to ask about the project.
As this house was built in a time where digital photos were only a dream down here I could scan some and post but just bear with me I got quite a few albums to go through to find some. I'm not even sure if I've got any of the finished job but I know I've got some of the construction phases so you can get an idea of the size.
