Today is the start of the PITT Wall Tiling Course and it is the third course that I have attended and reviewed at the PITT training centre in Newcastle-Under-Lyme. As always the welcome is great and I'm immediately offered a coffee and short break before starting the course. I find this first 20 minutes an ideal time to break the ice with the other course delegates and find out what they are wanting achieve and what if any tiling experience they've had.

This course has a few less members on it than the floor tiling course which I reviewed, which to be honest I prefer as it gives that feel of greater individual attention and focus.

As with the other courses. PITT tiling instructor Jason takes us through the health and safety requirements of the course, the availability of first aid and fire exits are also covered in full detail. Then we have a quick introduction to PITT, their training courses and the staff who take the courses.

With many training courses no matter what the subject, members are often a little nervous or apprehensive. Jason obviously understands these feelings and lightens the atmosphere with a little group introduction which swiftly leads into the first demonstration.

This course is obviously designed to teach people without any tiling knowledge the fundamentals and best practices of the tiling trade. But even though I've plenty of experience of tiling, there's often things I've either forgotten or become distanced from through lack of use. One of those is the manual cutting of tiles; I always use a dry cutter or a wet saw.

But Jason (Jase) has taken us all back the an even more manual approach to cutting tiles, a method I've not used for many years; with just a tile scribe and our hands. The technique is very simple and with normal glazed wall tiles surprisingly effective.

After mastering the manual tile cutting we are then taught the correct and most effective way to use nippers. Now as we're newly enlightened to the tools and techniques, we need some practical tasks to hone those skills. Sure enough Jason starts by getting us to cut a few key cuts, U cuts and later on curves of very degrees of difficulty. For the course delegates this has proved to be an excellent learning process and introduces them to one of the tilers indispensable tools.

Norma has laid out a fresh buffet lunch full of healthy variety (all included within the cost of the course) and this gives all the course members a chance to discuss the course so far. I can tell the others are very excited about what they've learned this morning with many of them not realising such tools were available.

After lunch we're practising more difficult cuts and the use of a rod saw. Jason also shows the course how to make a center cut out of a tile with a lock boy and carbide hammer, these I again I haven't used for a while. But nonetheless they still useful tools and techniques to use and understand, especially if you get caught out with electricity.

The final section of the afternoon is a lesson on the most important area of tiling work, setting out. We're are taught how to set out the room, but only up to a point as Jason doesn't want any brains too overloaded. I was glad to see that PITT teach a method very similar to what I currently use, and I've never failed to get a room well set out.

As with the other lessons there's a lot of time allowed to practice these lessons. With anything new you need to practice to make full sense of it all, and I was glad to see the other course members working in their bays, marking their datum lines and finding the highs and lows of the room. From what I could hear, many didn't expect there would be some much involved with tiling; this comment was echoed many times through out the week.

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Conclusion

For more details on the PITT Wall Tiling Course click here. You can also leave feedback on this course here PITT Wall Tiling Course Feedback

I'd also like to invite all tiling course providers to contact the Tiler Register to get their courses reviewed as all providers are welcome to the same review process.


Review by Dave M. Carr
[e] dave@davemcarr.co.uk
[w] www.tiling.davemcarr.co.uk
Professional Floor Wall Tiler Nottingham

Tags: pitt, wall tiling, tiling courses