I've worked in some odd places in my life - from counting emeralds in a cutting laboratory to watching postmortems, so it should have come as no great surprise to me that I found myself working on-site at a refurbishment project for a casino.
The designer for the ceiling revamp was professional by degree and no-one questioned his decision to hang the ceiling tiles with purlons. No-one, that is, until the ceiling tiles began to fall and hit one hapless gambler on the head, knocking him out. Slap bang in the middle of the project, the ceiling design had to go back to the drawing board.
Arts
At this same project I may add, another inventive designer decided to lay such a highly-polished black tiling walkway through the casino that the tiles acted as mirrors for happy security guards looking up ladies skirts!
If not even the professionals can always get it right, I would suggest that we stay away from DIY. A tiling course is the way to go. In the end, it is more cost and labour effective to know which tools to use and how to utilise them, what grouting to use and when to use it and very importantly, how to lay the tiles straight and evenly. There's a lot more to tiling than the average person knows about, trust me.
There's a wonderful new tiling range which features flat pebbles and can be used for walls or floors. It comes backed with adhesive netting. For that sort of feature, you could perhaps get away with a bit of DIY, but certainly not for general tiling work.
Tiling is an art. And whether you want to make a career or a hobby out of it, go to the masters and learn - like any other art. You'll be glad you did.
At a tiling course, you will reach a new level of understanding about tiling. In general, you will be taught about the tools you require and be shown which each one is utilised for. You will learn all about:
o Substrates (which is the preparation or groundwork for tiling).
o Adhesives and grouts (you will need to know about, for example - how much to use and at what stage).
o How to lay wall and floor tiles of different sizes (shapes may follow at a more advanced course). A very important feature of your course will be how to lay tiles so that they fit into corners, around wash hand basin pedestals for example in your bathroom.
This is all important to learn because there can be nothing worse than a badly-laid tiled floor. It should be eye-catching in a pleasant way and add to the rest of your home décor, not subtract from it.
You could call in a tile-laying service and that would be expensive but DIY may be even more expensive because of all the slip-ups and wastage that come with inexperience. Preferably book yourself on to a proper tiling course and learn from a professional.
Tiling - The Need For Professional Training
Judy Wolvaardt