Brinno Time Lapse camera initial review.

I purchased a new time lapse camera today and I'm having a blast experimenting with it. Let me be up front with you, It's a ton of work to do content marketing! I'm talking about taking photos, making videos, how to's, doing commentary...Why do you think not many companies do it so well if at all? Imagine the effort involved in messing with cameras, getting the right shots, hours of editing and the struggle of making your content into something people want to read/watch. Now imagine doing that with water and thin set on your hands, focusing on your tile lay out and proper installation practices and interacting with clients... It's tough to work and create content at the same time!

This Brinno TLC200 Pro seems to be the solution to this problem. It's a set it and forget it type of tool. Say it with me, "Set it and forget it!" What's not to like? 

My inspiration for the purchase was a pole barn builder from the Midwest I follow on Instagram @RRbuildings. He builds these barns and uses this time lapse camera to catch all the action. He has a considerable following and his reviews are on point, so check him out! He's my hero because he's changing the game by providing tons of content of his work so there's no mysteries!

Another killer aspect of this tool is its simplicity of use. I took the footage today and made the video this evening. Not complicated at all! It runs about $128 too, so if it's destroyed or lost on the job site it's not a huge loss. Not to mention it's an improvement on just using your phone or GoPro for time lapse because the batteries last for weeks. I used it all day and I'm still at full power. I like it so far, but the real test is a year or two down the road. Let's see what kind of content I can produce with this thing!

Here's my first try...

Click the link below if you want to try one for yourself.

A good tile installer is KING...& other revelations you've never thought about.

“I had no idea tile work was so technical and such a process” my recent client said to me.

“It’s fine everyone says that!” I said, shaking my head.

It’s true, most people have no idea about the thought, the labor, the planning, that goes into high end tile work. Often times, I feel people will compare the tile guy to the framer, the sheet rocker, the electrician, the plumber… It’s all the same, right?

WRONG.

Tile installation is leaps and bounds different than any of the other trades that are involved in building houses for MANY reasons, and in today’s blog post I’m going to attempt to differentiate my trade from all the rest and explain why the tile guy, at one time, (and maybe this is even making a comeback) was the KING of the jobsite.

1.       There are so many different applications for tile it is nauseating. Most of the time I tell people that I’m a tile guy, they automatically come back with, “Oh, I have a floor at home that’s awful” or some other flooring related tile comment. Flooring is one small portion of what you can put tile on. Walls, showers, fire places, outside, inside, back splashes, kitchens, bathrooms and they all have different installation practices that we must be knowledgeable about. Look through this site...No two jobs are the same!  A 400-page TCNA manual is our bible for installation and a frame of reference for you on the amount of knowledge necessary to get a lifetime install. Now compare this to a sheet rocker…Not downplaying what they do, but hey, put this sheet rock up and finish it. Pretty straight forward in comparison. When you have a customer, who wants a custom shower, not only do we have to build a custom plumbing fixture that takes 1100 inches of water per person, per year, from the shower head and directs it to the drain…without a leak inside the finished home…but we also must be experts at adapting different material to the space. Which leads me into my next point…

2.       The plethora of different materials, all with different expectations. Ok, framer, take this WOOD and frame this WOODEN house. Again, not downplaying the other trades but wood basically costs what it costs. Whereas every tile is different. They have Porcelain, Natural stone, glass…all different sizes and prices which take different levels of preparation and oh, you want that glass in your shower, you’ll have to buy an extremely expensive thin set! Oh, you bought a cheap porcelain, well now your tile installer gets to wrestle with getting it to set flat. The WORLD of different patterns as well that all take a different amount of effort and time. A 1” hexagon set to a pattern inside a shower pan is a whole different ball game than a 12”x12” porcelain straight set on a floor. It’s ALL DIFFERENT so pricing varies from one job to the next and justifying the added cost to your customer can be a nightmare. Whereas a sheet rocker, painter or framer can make up a square foot price and go from there. Any tile guy who works by the square foot is crazy because of the variety of different tile and what it takes to put it in. One quote can vary so much from the other because of things like, is the other guy using the hand book method or is he a fly by night type, a basic, builder grade, ‘looks good from my house’, type…Yes, your friends project cost X to tile with Y tile, which is completely different from the tile you chose and where you want to put it! Not to mention the possibility that your friend’s installer was of the unscrupulous brand mentioned earlier…

3.       The number of different tools and set up time it takes to build with tile. Setting a floor with 12”x12” tile is the baseline, easiest thing for a tile guy…takes basic tools and you can do high volume in a day, BUT NO ONE CHOSES SMALL TILE! We recently installed a 3’x2’ tile…enormous tile. Let’s bust out the $3000 dollar saw! Not to mention you can’t efficiently go to two different jobs in a day like say, the electrician can. The electrician grabs his tool belt and different tools and can move from job to job without any issue in one day. Every job the tile guy goes to there is at least a one hour of set up time. Four buckets of water to fill up, saw set up, lay out…It’s not even worth it because by the time you move from one job to the next, you chew up half the day. So generally, when you set up a job…. you stay till that job is done! We bill mostly by the day even if we only work 5 hours, because we are generally stuck at that job. You’re not going to pick up and move to another job because the actual act of setting up again is daunting and you don’t get anything done. Not to mention separating your brain from one technical project, to a totally different complicated project.

All this for a small one day job!

4.       We depend on the conscientiousness and competence of the other trades. All the guys at the beginning of a project have it easy! Anything that doesn’t turn out right, ah, let the next guy fix it. Hopefully, a good builder/general contractor will catch them slipping and require them to make it right…but more times than not they don’t catch it and keep the project moving to meet a deadline!  The tile guy is always the last guy in when not only most of the money has been spent on other things, but also, we must fix all the work other less fastidious/aware/critical/discriminating trades have done. The framer leaves a stud that’s proud or not plumb, the tile guy will fix it. The sheet rocker doesn’t finish the walls correctly or leaves a bump or finishes the corners leaving a bunch of buildup…. The tile guy fixes it. The plumber puts the drain in the wrong place, can’t the tile guy fix it? The painter gets paint all over the floor where tile is going…. Don’t worry the tile guy will use a day, rent a machine, and grind it all off! The tile supplier cheapens out their process and makes a warped tile, guess what, the tile guy will make it right! The concrete crew leaves a wavy floor with dips and dives and the customer wants tile on the surface, well the tile guy will have to spend time flattening the floor and break the news of the unexpected expense to the homeowner! Every trade that kicks the can down the road or doesn't do their work to a high level...the tile guy takes care of it. It’s a harsh existence so with our system we use our plumber who we know is competent, we do our own framing because tile guy flat/plumb/square is different than framer flat/plumb/square. It really speaks to the degradation of the trades in the USA that “every man for himself” attitude. Of course, homeowners have no conceptualization of how each trade working together is so vital to a beautiful, high end finished product. So, ultimately having a tile guy that is well rounded in ALL trades is what differentiates us from the electrician who only must worry about one aspect of the building process.

Just a bit thinner than the other one! Don't worry we'll make it right!!!

Just a little bit different sizing! Don't worry we'll make it look right!

"We want this deck tiled and my builder told me it was ready!" Sorry, but basic codes (if they were read) would say that 2"x8" aren't rated for this span and we need to re-enforce them...just an extra $5k. Thanks framer!

Every. Single. Time. What, the other trades don't clean up after themselves? Don't worry, we'll get it!

We'll just shim these walls for a day and make it right! Don't worry about crowning your studs boys or making the walls plumb, We'll spend the day fixing it!

In closing I hope you can think of your local tile guy as the special entity that he really is. (if you have a good one) Not only is he a finish guy, who must have that eye for the details, but he also has to be a rock hard, strong minded worker who produces. Not every trade has to combine those traits…

I’m so hard on builders, general contractors and the like because they are ultimately the end all be all. The buck stops with them. If they don’t pay attention to the framer and hold them to a high standard, it trickles down to us. If they don’t hire competent sheet rockers and painters, it trickles down to us. Oops, the trim guy dropped his hammer on your tile floor, we must replace it, for example.

This post leaves me feeling vented and feeling good because I know my own importance on a job site. Everyone else can kick the can down the road, but the buck always stops with the tile guy. Our work sells houses and draws the eye. We really are the king of the job site. As I mentioned earlier, we’re part builder, part artist.

So, when you’re hiring your next tile guy… understand he or she is not like all the rest of the trades. We are the ultimate producers and you aren’t paying for the persons’ labor, but you are paying for their eye, their painstaking, scrupulous finishing touch. Tile is permanent, it’s not fixable, replaceable, paintable…It’s meant to last forever…You don’t like a paint color, change it…you don’t like a fixture…take it out put a new one in…. you don’t like a light switch, change it! You don’t like your shower…. have fun living with it or paying an exorbitant cost to take it out and replace it. So, spend the extra money, spend time planning and plotting…and make sure you buy something you can see yourself living with for an extended period. Also, make sure you hire someone you trust, with credentials an extensive portfolio, and someone who stays on top of current trends and installation practices. You’ll be glad you did.

At Hamilton Tile, we are

CTI CERTIFIED TILE INSTALLERS

WE USE THE HAND BOOK METHOD

WE HAVE 20+ YEARS OF EXPERIENCE

JASON IS A TRADE SCHOOL GRADUATE

WE HAVE AN EXTENSIVE PORTFOLIO

WE GIVE DETAILED PROPOSALS EXPLANING THE SCOPE OF THE WORK

WE GIVE SECOND TO NONE CONSULATION SESSIONS

WE THINK 10 STEPS AHEAD AND 20 YEARS IN THE FUTURE.

Another excellent tile bathroom in Kennesaw, GA

Our latest bathroom remodel in Kennesaw, GA was a real doozy. A dual bathroom remodel in the same house. Incredible clients. High end work and we are very proud of it. The downstairs shower had a tileable linear drain, and we custom made the shower pan tile. VERY large tile inside the shower and Jason was able to make these walls nice and flat for a small grout line and a lip free tile installation. Our plumber really did a great job putting in this large fixture! I love the sleek, cleaning looking soap niche, which really puts a great touch on this shower. Not to mention the natural light from the window, edged with Schluter Quadec profiles. The floor is a 12"x24" tile from Tile House in Marietta. Cindy, again providing excellent design service and consultation for the outstanding owners of this home.

A small improvement! I love the before and after!

A sleek inset box edged with Schluter Quadec profiles.

The upstairs bathroom was also a design gem. The bathroom floor was a flat finish 12"x24 porcelain tile that looks like natural stone. To contrast the floor the two inside walls were a gloss 12"x24" porcelain of the same line. What a great detail! The back tub surround wall was a handmade mosaic as an accent! Again, a sleek, large inset box for all their soap needs.

Our plumber also installed this luxury bathtub and we edged the floor with a tile trim topped off with Quadec profiles. Very sharp!

These were a couple of nice jobs for a couple of people that we really enjoy working for. There are more projects in this home that we will be completing and we completed the tile in Bob's daughters house as well. 

During the time of this remodel I added a new member to my family. Baby Rosalie Maria Santos was born on September 10th, 2017 and Bob, the owner of this home, made her a great welcome gift that I was so excited and happy to receive. He is an excellent wood worker and quite capable. He is a true artist and the fact that we pleased him with our work really means a lot to us.

Now let me be a proud papa here a little bit....

Baby Rosie.

Look at that cutie!

Look at this incredible train set Bob made me! Homemade gifts are the best. Especially from a talented person!

He even made a gift for Jaiden's birthday! His wooden art is incredible as well!

Call us today for a superior bathroom remodeling experience. You will be happy you did!

An East Cobb bathroom remodel coming together for the finish.

This is a wonderful job filled with natural stone tile work in East Cobb, GA. My client Anne was certainly a design centered client who wanted a high end finished product. Again, a homeowner who was cautious about who she hired due to a history of backwards, basic, minimum standard workers who would leave her high and dry with a finished product she didn't love. So, Hamilton Tile came in and gave her what she deserved and left her feeling like she made the right decision.

We start with the guest bath floor which was a real gem. There was an extreme amount of prep to get this floor flat enough for a large format tile. It dropped two feet in front of the tub by as much as a 1/2". What a caddy wampus setup! Again, workers during new construction casting aside all the rules and putting something together that workers in the future would curse them for! (under my breath of course)

We went in with a 12x24 natural stone tile, 1/3rd offset with a small grout joint. With tile trim around the perimeter. We used silicone to caulk all of the plane changes, (wall to floor, tub to floor) and a high grade Prizm grout. (oyster grey.) We went ahead and sealed it for good measure! Of course there is carpet in the other room, so an important factor with a tile install is, will your tile installer unite the carpet with the new tile? It's an important question to ask because not all tile installers will. It requires that we put on our carpet guy hat, bust out the carpet kicker, carpet trimmer and tack strip and go to town. It's all about the details and putting the carpet back together is what we mean when we say "full service."

After I had completed the floor, Anne alerted me that I did a great job by offering me another job in the same bathroom. She wanted some artisan tile work done around the mirror. This job was a bit more complex because it required extensive consultation and planning. This part of a tile job is what we pride ourselves on. The fact that you can sit down with us,  tell us what you want and we can verbalize the pros and cons and what to watch out for is invaluable. We decided how the artisan tile would install around the mirror, discussed the positioning of the mirror, managed expectations, laid everything out and after the mirror was installed we put the tile up. It really turned out great making this area really stand out.

As you can see, our portfolio is constantly growing, which signals the fact that we are a business that is consistent, conscientious and customer service focused. Be sure to check out the Five Star review of this project on our Google review profile and I wish you calm seas on your next remodeling project.

The best bathroom remodel in Marietta, GA

Back again with another tile update from Hamilton Tile! This bathroom for the Mayhew's in Marietta, GA was a tile emergency. Their previous shower was built so incorrectly it leaked to the point of rotting out their house. The old shower was your basic, builder grade, minimum standard, blowout special that we see so often:

So, looking at the photos can you understand why I'm so hard on builders? This is why when you find a good builder you should keep him around. It's not as if they don't know that a shower has to be water proof, a shower sees more water per year than your roof...A LOT MORE. Shoddy building all over Atlanta creates a living for us, but this degree of obsolescence is unethical. Many builders are just plain shady. There I said it!  This is why I put this information out there, because ultimately when hiring a contractor you have to watch out for yourself! If the price seems to low, it probably is. If your contractor can't tell you why he does things, he probably doesn't know. If he doesn't cite ANSI or TCNA standards...He probably doesn't care and he's making it up as he goes..

This shower leaked enough to rot out this engineered beam. It could have been much much worse than this. We ended up doing some creative framing and plating the beam with 2x10's. You can see the mold and the damage this improperly built shower perpetrated. It had no pre-slope and the tile was set directly to sheet rock. It was a real GEM!

Nothing we couldn't handle:

In this video we get to putting things back together....Not below standard, or minimum standards...but LIFETIME standards. Schluter Systems, Trade school graduate, 20+ years experience.

We ended up eliminating the tub and building a wall for the fixtures. Notice the cleanliness, getting a high end finished product starts with the basics that we learned in shop class. Keep your space clean and organized, that way your customer is happy and you get to keep all your fingers and toes because you're going to have an accident free job.

I see many of the 'pros' using ledger boards for their first row...Here's a note, If you're pan is level all the way around from the start...you don't have to cut your bottom row of tile. They all go up the same size all the way around.

Using a leveling system for large format helps get a lip free install! The leveling system is the green wedges you see in the photo. You embed a clip in the thin set under the tile and insert a wedge to pull everything flat.

A big difference from start to finish. This was a rewarding job for us not only because we're pursuing a passion but because we got to work with people that were invested more than monetarily in their project. We had done work in this house previously and from the start of this job the Mayhew's were involved and excited. Just the fact that they visited this website makes all the work I do on it worth it. Some guys dread working around intrigued clients, mostly because their work is not above board. We love the engineer types because they care as much as we do which adds a whole other level of satisfaction. Like we always say: "If you care about how your project is built, WE WANT TO WORK FOR YOU!" Thanks to the Mayhew's for having us.

Be sure to check out the positive review:

Hamilton Tile Google Review

Hamilton Tile Houzz Review

 

Be sure to check out my process video!

New to video making, but it adds a new wrinkle so you can really get a taste of what we do. I'm sure the hundredth one will be ready for Sundance. As Scott Adams says, it pays to have a good talent stack and videos are now just another piece to the puzzle. Enjoy!