Tilers cover the walls, floors, and other surfaces in kitchens, bathrooms, supermarkets, hotels, and restaurants, among other locations. As a result, they may be involved in new building and residential and commercial renovations.
Responsibilities
Throughout your apprenticeship, you may help:
- talk to the client about the materials they want to use
- repair or remove old tiles and surfaces
- prepare surfaces by levelling off with plaster, sand or cement
- mark out the area to estimate the amount of tiles and adhesive needed
- cut tiles to size and shape with hand-cutters or bench-mounted tools
- fix tiles in place and apply adhesives before finishing.
Salary
- Apprentice tilers can earn £17,000 per year.
- Trained wall and floor tilers with some experience can earn £25,000 – £30,000
- Senior wall and floor tilers can earn in excess of £30,000
- Self-employed wall and floor tilers set their own pay rates.
Working hours
You will typically work 42 to 44 hours per week including evenings and weekends.
Working environment
You could work at a client’s home, at a client’s business or on a construction site.
Your working environment may be dusty, noisy and physically demanding.
You may need to wear safety clothing and use safety equipment.
Qualifications
Qualifications you can achieve as an apprentice tiler include:
- Level 2 Wall and Floor Tiler – Entry requirements for this level include some GCSEs, usually including English and maths, or equivalent, for an intermediate apprenticeship. This qualification takes 30 months to complete.
Skills
On a tiling apprenticeship, you’ll learn:
- to be thorough and pay attention to detail
- the ability to work on your own
- the ability to work well with others
- the ability to accept criticism and work well under pressure
- knowledge of building and construction
- the ability to work well with your hands
- the ability to organise your time and workload
- knowledge of maths
- to be able to carry out basic tasks on a computer or hand-held device.
Career path and progression
With experience and extra training, you could become a site supervisor, clerk of works, estimator or contract manager.
You could also work as a trainer and assessor on tiling courses, teach at a further education college, or set up your own business.