1. Do it right the first time.
Laying tile is all about perfection and speed. Your net gain is based on the quality of your work, and how much you are able to get done. It is often hard to know how to balance these two. Doing it 'right' the first time ended up usually working better for me because it would keep me from costly mistakes. For example, grouting a bathroom right takes about an hour or two. Redoing a poorly grouted bathroom takes twice that because you have to first grind down the first job and start over. The initial effort to do it the right way will save you the headache later on of chiseling out tile and hard thin set.
2. Two workers are better than one.
I found that two people working together are more apt to stay on task, to do a better job, and to enjoy the task at hand. The vast majority of tile work is monotonous, brunt work. This goes a lot easier when you have two people working together for morale, and teamwork. Also there is a good amount of brain work, and calculating, this also goes better with two minds to tackle tricky layouts, etc. When tiling, it is good to have one person on his knees, spreading thinest mortar and laying the tile, and the other making thin set, bringing in boxes of tile, spacers, etc. and making necessary cuts. The whole job can be done alone, but it is certainly quicker with two.
3. The costlier the tile/stone, the more careful you have to be.
The above picture is travertine, which was as advanced as I got with tiling. I was already pretty quick with regular tile, but my boss was adamant that I had to slow way down for this delicate stone. He was right. Not only did it cost a lot more, but it was also much tricker to lay, and far more delicate. I can't wait to see gold, transparent gold, roads. I wonder how hard that stuff is to lay down.
4. Each step done well
As you can probably tell, I am a 'process person' which means I tend to focus on the process rather than the outcome. One thing that was very apparent to me was how much easier it was to tile when each step in the process was done 'right'. Meaning, if the sub flooring was put down level, then it was much easier to get the tile level. If the excess thinest was wiped off when laying the tile (while it was still wet), then grouting was a piece of cake. The real disasters occurred when little things, like a high spot in the sub floor, or a cut that was a little off, where allowed to remain, and then caused big delays later on as we tried to compensate with more thinest, more grout, etc.
5. Wear kneepads.
Or you'll get camel knees. Also don't forget to get up and walk around after being on your knees a while.
6. Worry about perfection before worrying about speed.
My boss was also adamant on this point. He was right. Speed comes from a lot of time doing something. Perfection is the sort of thing you have to focus on, especially in starting out. If your like me, you have to remind yourself of this one, because I usually believe that I should be as fast as the fastest, and as good as the best, without any of the hard work/sweat/tears that those other guys have gone through. Yeah right!
7. The glory of tile is enduring beauty and order.
I might expand this to include the beauty of all construction done well. In a universe where death and decay (read entropy) are the general rule, a little order in the chaos is comforting, even glorious, and well worth a little hard work to achieve.
