Every tile installation has a certain amount of waste water involved. We fill up multiple buckets of water for cleaning and mixing. This water gets thoroughly contaminated with the thin set we use to stick the tile to the floors or walls. It makes the water white or the color of your building products. Not something you want to just dump willy nilly all over your clients property. On a past job, we were able to see how the other tile guys dispose of their waste water.
As you can see, this tile installer dumped his waste water in the middle of his customer's driveway. What a rude way to treat your treasured client! CERTAINLY not a FULL SERVICE tile job!
We always try to dump all of our waste water in one spot, off the finished landscaping, under some leaves or pine straw. In the past that practice worked just fine, but very often we work at homes that have 100% landscaped yard and if we are doing a bunch of work (1000sqft+) It really becomes a messy proposition. "Why don't you just dump it down the drain?" AHHHH..WRONG WRONG WRONG!
So our new technique! A truly conscientious, professional level fix to waste water. We're always developing and through my favorite inspiration resource, Instagram (be sure to check mine out!) I learned the fix of all fixes from @Lunastileandstone.
This $30 investment now keeps our customers' yards completely clean! We dump all our dirty water into this 55 gallon bucket and we added a spigot about six inches from the bottom. We let it sit overnight and all the heavy sediment settles to the bottom leaving clean water that comes out of the tap! When we are done with the job, we scoop all the 'mud' from the bottom of the bucket and trash it.
Another technique we use is the 'let it marinate’ method. All of the dirty water used during the day is left over night. The sludge and heavy sediment sinks to the bottom of the bucket by morning. The first thing we will do in the morning is dump off the (cleanish) water on top of the five gallon buckets, revealing the sludge that has separated at the bottom. We scoop that sludge out and put it in a garbage bag. The remaining remnants of sludge is cleaned out and dumped in your paddle cleaning bucket. At the end of the job, you only have one bucket of water to deal with, the paddle cleaning bucket.
Most crews just concede to the fact that sludge all over the yard is part of doing tile work. Here at Hamilton Tile we find solutions and this is part of the 'full service' tile job I constantly boast about on this site. Would you like people to work at your home that respect your property? People that leave it better than when they arrived? Do you want guys working at your home that won't trash your largest investment? If you are sick of careless workers and want to step up to conscientious craftsmen, give Ben and Jason of Hamilton Tile, Woodstock, GA a call today! We're looking to rebuild the good name of the construction worker!
If you're a fellow tile guy, don't be afraid to snag this idea...your customers will thank you!
Check out the water filtration bucket in action below at a job in Roswell, GA.
12 Likes, 3 Comments - Hamilton Tile (@hamiltontilega) on Instagram: "Great idea @lunastileandstone ! Awesome way to keep the sludge off the landscaping. Dirty on the..."