From time to time we ask our learners to review our workshops. Read Adanma Wokoh’s critique of Basic Tiling.
One of my New Year’s resolutions is to learn something new, so when I saw that the Goodlife Centre was offering the chance to learn how to tile I jumped at it. Living in a rather old house where there always seems to be something to fix I started thinking why should I hire someone to fix things If I could do them myself.
The Goodlife Centre is situated 10 mins walk from Borough High Street station. On arrival at the centre we were welcomed with a cup of tea and some snacks before being we were led to our work stations and given our tools.
The tiling class was led by master tiler Perez who has been tiling for over 30 years and Goodlife Centre founder Alison. In the class there were 5 of us attending and at first I was thinking ‘what have I got myself into here’ as everyone seemed to know a lot about tiling already. However as throughout the evening everything was explained clearly and with demonstrations so it didn’t seem quite as daunting being a novice.
We started off learning to tile in a sort of back to front way. Apparently learning to tile is 80% preparation so this was done in order to get everything done in one evening. Each of us was given a fact sheet with the names of the tools we would need to tile and instructions. We started off with a square piece of plaster board and pre –cut tiles.
We were taught what the best tiles were for floors and walls, how to prep your walls and how to apply the grout to the tiles (apparently there is an art to grout application).
Next came the cutting of the tiles. Cutting tiles is almost half the work and during the class we were introduced to the various sets of saws and nippers that you would need to prepare your tiles before placing them. I was a little nervous (especially of the wet saw) but Alison and Perez showed us that it was nothing to be afraid of. I was pretty impressed with my efforts, it seems that I am a dab hand at cutting tiles!
I also got shown the correct way to drill a tile. Having never held a drill in my life with a little help from Alison I was happily drilling away. Since the class I have even managed to use a drill at home to put up some small shelves.
Once we had learned about preparation we went back to finish our tiles with some more grout, making sure the edges were pristine and our tiles were clean. As you can see below for my efforts I was very happy with what I produced.
Overall I really enjoyed my tiling class at the Goodlife Centre, although I won’t be attacking my bathroom anytime soon, it has given me the confidence to know I will be able to do it if I wanted to. For somebody who hated craftwork at school, after my experience I think I’ve even been bitten by the DIY bug so much so that I’ve convinced my Mother that we need to sign up for one of their upholstery courses.
With thanks to Guest Blogger, Adanma Wokoh.
Discover when the next Basic Tiling Workshop takes place for yourself.
