The day I stopped tiling the way my dad taught me 20 years ago

I grew up watching my dad do bathrooms, always starting tile from the corner and working outward. Took me about 15 years of remodeling in Seattle before I realized that method left me with skinny cuts at the tub or doorway every single time. Finally watched a guy on a job site in 2019 snap a chalk line down the center of the wall and lay out spacers first to check. He showed me how shifting the whole layout just a half inch either way could save me from those tiny slivers of tile at the edges. Now I always dry lay the bottom row and mark reference lines before I mix any thinset. Cut my waste down from about 15 percent to maybe 5 percent per job. Has anyone else had to unlearn an old habit from a relative and find a better way?

3 comments

3 Comments

flores.emma7d ago

Buddy of mine learned drywall from his old man and spent years fighting with tape and mud before a pro showed him how to use a banjo. He still gets riled up thinking about all those wasted weekends.

beth_park7d ago

Nah, learning the hard way builds character. All those weekends fighting with tape taught him what not to do. Banjo's just a shortcut, takes away the craft.

jason_stone597d ago

Yeah I used to be all about the hard way too. Thought the struggle was part of learning. But last year I watched @flores.emma's buddy run a whole room with a banjo in half the time it takes me with tape. Clean corners, no bubbles, no mess. Changed my mind real quick. There's plenty of craft left in setting up the joint's and finishing the edges. The banjo just takes the grunt work out of it.