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Bill V, Mongo or anyone--interviewing tile guy

15 years ago

What should I ask a tile setter before hiring him? He comes as a referral from a friend of mine. And, the lady at the tile place highly recommends him. Even so, my GC is skeptical and wants to use the person he usually uses. I want to get another quote and possibly use this guy. Are there tips for things I can ask him to gauge is level of competency?

Thanks.

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Comments (2)

User
15 years ago
We've gutted the bathroom & instead of a bath/shower combo we're having a tiled shower built in. Before talking to any tiling guys or contractors, I read through a lot of the posts that centered around building a shower so I'd be familiar with the "basics". Then when talking to the contractors or tilers I'd ask them to explain their process step by step. Additionally, I inquired about what products they used (so I could read about their quality in the forum). Most importantly though, I listened to my little voice. For example, I had one contractor who was really anxious through the whole meeting. It felt like something just wasn't right but I couldn't put my finger on it. His bid came in really high and when I inquired about it, he said "let me sharpen my pencil" and lowered it by several thousand! At that point I knew for sure that I didn't want to use him, but to convince my DH, I checked on the status of his contractors license & found out it was not active.

It took some patience, but I finally found someone we're both very comfortable with, a contractor who is definitely not the cheapest, but his work is perfection. You are doing the right thing, I wouldn't go with someone just because my contractor wants me to. You should get multiple bids, and follow your intuition when deciding on who will get the job. Good Luck!
bill_vincent
15 years ago
Go to the gallery side of this forum, and print out the tile FAQ thread. Go through it, and highlight parts that would pertain to your installation. Then ask him questions that you have the answers for sitting right in front of you and see how he answers.
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