Springo

Hi to you all

My husband Graham is a Wall & Floor Tiler and we are hoping to be in Austrailia by Jan 2005.

We would love to hear from peeps who have done there first year or so in Australia and there experiences working in the Building Industry, good and bad.

Any feedback greatly appreciated.

Julia and Graham

Springo

Anyone out there

would love some input on the above

Julia & Graham

cresta57

OK
The licence application is a nightmare bearing in mind I already had a positive tra, it still took over 9 months to finalise all the details and attend all the necessary courses. Add to that the additional expenses of getting skills approved [again] paying an assessor, attending a 3 day business course then the mandatory public liability insurance and the bleeding application fee and the cost of the licence. All adds up to about 2 grand. It's not cheap to become a legitimate sub-contractor.
Having said that it's all over and done with now and we're just stacked out with work. We being Deb and myself. Having a husband and wife team is certainly a talking point for the customers.
Wages wise we average between $30/35 p/m2 working for builders and we charge ourselves out at $30 p/hr each if we get any day work or have to fix any of the other subbies *****-ups [still can't write it though it seems to be the official term used here]
Top tips shop around for glue ["adhesive" term doesn't exist here] We pay $25 a bag from our new supplier it retails elsewhere at $35+ this is despite having a trade card. You only have to open your mouth and they add a few buck on for being the new pom in town.
Also be wary of who is responsible for silicon sealing It's usually paid as an extra item.
Tiles here seem to be manufactured to a lesser degree of accuracy. You'll need much larger joints than your used to.

Springo

Cheers Cresta57 for your reply

So all in all would you say it was a good move to oz. Work wise are you still happy doing your trade?

How does it compare to tiling in the uk?

How are you managing on $35 per Metre? Realistically can you manage a reasonably life style. We are hoping to be able to buy a property (No mortgage) when we settle. We are a family of 5. 17, 14 and 3 year old kids.

Thanks for the tips. We are looking at Perth.

Julia and Graham

cresta57

Hi Julia & Graham
Will get Sean to reply to this but 1st must say that of course he's happy he gets to work with me :scared: Would never have even considered working together in the UK.
I mix his glue, angle grind his cuts and threaten to divorce him on an almost daily basis. He sits and waits for tiles, glue or cuts and puts them in place, he hardly works hard
Debbie

Ps We go to work in a morning when I can drag him off the xpats site. So much for him being the boss

Springo

Debbie

Its sounds like you have a great team there.

At the moment in the UK Graham has me working in the tile shop. I think I would prefer glueing and cutting too. LOL

Looking forward to hearing Sean's reply.


Julia

cresta57

Sorry for the delay I forgot to do it straight away and lost the post.
We moved to Australia for a lot of reasons, not all good but that's another story.
For the most part we're all happy in our lives so far. I think the novelty value, rose tinted n all that wore off for me as soon as I started work way back in Feb. We had planned to have a 3 month break and had factored that into our finances accordingly.
Now I'm licensed I don't feel any different than before [apart from the fact a nice fat cheque arrived this morning]. Payment for work I'd done whilst I waited for the certificate to arrive . Yes I'm happy. I do this job because I like it and I'm bloody good at it after all this time. Compared to tiling in the U.K it's loads easier. For starters all the walls are plumb[ish no more measuring individual tapered cuts just set the jig and cut the lot Wet area floor's have a waste in them and cutting 100mm circles in 200mm tiles can be a little tricky but now I've got Deb fully trained up
Can't give a definitive answer how we manage on the rates as we're living with my folks in their house at the moment so we've no mortgage to pay. We have bought loads of furniture, beds, TV [after a 7 month absence] We're still saving a lot of cash so we must be doing o.k.
I guess on the whole we're doing more than just O.K. One thing we don't have many friends from the U.K here just a few couples. Most of our friends are Aussies and we tend to socialise a lot more with them as they're closer. [we're well out of the way up here]
I'm used to dealing with strangers and as they say they're only friends you haven't met yet. I find that if I go for a beer on my own I'm usually accepted into a conversation/discussion whatever pub I go in. I think that all comes with working in new places all the time instead of an office or factory. I like the Aussie humour it tends to mimic the banter we have on the sites back home. Where we are there seems to be a lack of snobbery. The little club I drink in is frequented by people from all walks of life and they mix together socially whatever their chosen profession. I know that's not true further down the coast but it is up here.
Wow a serious long post from me you did ask though.
Sean.

Springo

Hi Sean

Thank you so much for a great post. really thorough.

There doesn't seem to be many tilers that use this forum, it is really helpful for Graham to hear from someone in the same trade as to how you are doing.

I am so impressed with Debbie working along side you. Thats great.

Its great to hear that now you have your license you are feeling happy and settled.

Thanks again for taking the time to talk to us.

Julia