Given that you’re reading this, we’re going to assume you’re considering a change of career or perhaps looking to add an additional skill/trade to your existing business or skill set.

There are a number of different options available to you if you want to learn how to tile.

Work alongside another tiler

Some people will tell you that your best bet is to work alongside another tiler and learn from them. While this has the potential to work, often this is going to result in you spending a lot of your time doing the job of a laborer and washing buckets, mixing adhesives, and carrying boxes of tiles upstairs. This method of learning will often require many months or even years of working for free or very low rates of pay alongside an existing tiler – something that many people aren’t in a position to do due to mortgage and/or rent payments along with the other costs of living.

Many tilers don’t have the desire to spend large amounts of time teaching somebody; remember their time is money, so any time spent teaching somebody is time they’re not completing paid work.

That is not to say that all tilers will work this way. There are many genuinely helpful tiling professionals who work hard to help others learn; it's just finding them that can be difficult.

Local college courses

Some local colleges offer construction skills training, and some of those will offer tiling training. While all of these course offerings are different, a common similarity between them is that they’re often part-time courses, sometimes a few hours a week in the evenings. They, therefore, tend to teach at a very slow pace, and students can find themselves repeating the same skills and exercises over and over again every week. Often colleges can be short of resources so there may be a limited selection of tools and materials, and some even reuse dirty adhesive-covered tiles.

These courses can take many months due to the limited amount of time each week and are often only really teaching tiling basics. In our experience, they can be quite dated too – the tiling industry moves forward rapidly and there are constantly new techniques to use and products available in the market.

Private training centers

Another option is to attend a short intensive tiling course. We’re obviously biased, but there are some indisputable benefits of intensive tiling courses.

• Full-time learning – This is probably the biggest benefit. Committing a full day to learning something will clearly give you more time to pick up and perfect your skills. It also means you’re able to turbocharge your learning by fitting it in to a few full-time days all in one go, rather than 3 hours in an evening once a week.
• No wasted time – Because you have invested in your future by paying to attend a tiling course, you won't be wasting time carrying materials upstairs or washing out buckets. In the good training centers, you won't even waste time cleaning down previously used tiles.
• In-depth learning – Because your training provider has you for extended periods of time, they’re able to really dig into the detail and provide you with a deep understanding of the way in which different products and materials are supposed to be used and installed, along with the best methods for achieving lots of different results.
• Up-to-date instruction and techniques – Good tiling training providers will be fully up to date with the most modern tiling and background preparation techniques and will be able to teach you about all of the correct products available in the tiling market these days.

How to pick the right tiling training center

This is the critical decision. And it can be difficult to know what to look for. Here are some things that we think you should be looking for when selecting your tiling course.

• Try and find somewhere that specializes in tiling. Anywhere that offers multiple training courses in multiple different trades (a multi-skill center) will likely not provide you with as good a level of learning or as much in-depth knowledge as a training provider that is dedicated to tiling and tiling alone.
• Professional-level training – There are loads of courses out there that quite frankly are teaching DIY tiling. If you’re planning to do this for a living then that level of training isn’t going to be sufficient. If your tiling course isn’t covering some of the very basics of professional-level tiling such as anti-fracture matting, cement backer boards, acrylic primers, natural stone and impregnating sealers, and selecting the correct types of adhesive for specific situations and materials, then it isn’t going to be up to scratch for professional tilers.
• Experienced tutors to answer questions – Having direct access to experienced tutors is clearly an enormous benefit. You will have a massive number of questions as your tiling training progresses, and having an attentive tutor who can answer them all in an easy-to-understand way will be incredibly useful when it comes to achieving a full understanding of what you’re trying to achieve. Whatever course it is you choose, make sure you have the ability to ask questions.
• Look for genuine reviews – Try searching Google for reviews for your training provider. Make sure to read through a good number of them – these will be from people who have completed the exact course that you are looking at attending. This should give you a good feel for what to expect.
• Business knowledge – if you are planning on starting your own wall and floor tiling business, then it will be very beneficial if the tiling course you select includes some business knowledge and insider tips on setting up your tiling business, finding work, pricing jobs, marketing, along with how much you need to charge and therefore pay yourself. Simply knowing how to cut and fix tiles to walls and floors isn’t enough to be truly successful as a self-employed tiling business owner – you need to know how to deal with the commercial aspect of it too. Try and pick a tiling course that includes some business expertise.

In summary, make sure you do your research. This is likely a big step for you, and requires a large commitment of time and money. It is important to make sure you’re booking onto the best and most suitable tiling course available to you. We wish you the very best of luck with whatever you choose!

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