Real skills. Real stories.
Real people.

Kelby, Mike and Chris are joined by KT for a conversation about how much the tile trade has changed as materials have gotten bigger — and how the stakes have grown right along with them.

From 12×12 tile to long planks, large-format tile and massive panels, bigger material has changed the way installers handle layout, cutting, setting, tools and preparation. The crew talks about the surprises that come with those changes, why mistakes can get expensive fast, and how better products, training and communication have helped the trade keep up.

This is The Old Fashioned Tradesmen + KT — and you may be hearing more from her in future episodes.

Subscribe for more trades, tools, stories & shop talk from The Old Fashioned Tradesmen. New full episodes monthly.

Wet saws, tile cutters, and a little whiskey-fueled shop talk.

In Episode 5 of The Old Fashioned Tradesmen, Mike, Chris, and Kelby take a look at tile cutting tools past and present—from the wet saws we all grew up using to the cutters and equipment changing how the job gets done today.

Along the way, we talk about what worked, what didn’t, what we still swear by, and how the tools of the trade have evolved over the years.

And of course, no episode would be complete without Story Time with Magic Mike, where the conversation takes the kind of turn you probably won’t find in an instruction manual.

Pull up a chair, pour something good, and join us for another round of trades, tools, stories, and shop talk.

Subscribe for more trades, tools, stories & shop talk from The Old Fashioned Tradesmen. New full episodes monthly.

In “Red Chalk & Laser Beams,” the guys take a look at how tile layout has changed over the years—from tape measures, framing squares, red chalk lines and hand-built grids to lasers, large-format tile and today’s modern layout tools. Along the way, they get into visual centering, avoiding ugly sliver cuts, working around walls that are never quite square, laying out patterned and large-format tile, spacers, old-school tricks, and why even a perfectly straight laser line can still lead to a bad layout.

As usual, the technical talk comes with plenty of jobsite stories, hard-earned lessons, a few layout mistakes from years past, and an Uncle Mike story that proves some things look great on paper until a tradesman actually has to make them work in the real world.

If you install tile, work in the trades, or just appreciate the difference between straight, square, and actually right, this one’s for you.

Subscribe for more trades, tools, stories & shop talk from The Old Fashioned Tradesmen. New full episodes monthly.

What’s the fastest way to make another trade hate working with you? Walk across their fresh tile, unplug their tools, or leave your mess for them to clean up. Kelby, Mike and Chris talk jobsite etiquette—the everyday habits that make you someone people want to work around, or someone they dread seeing pull into the driveway.

From muddy boots and paint-covered tools to protecting finished work and cleaning up before heading home, the guys trade pet peeves and stories from both residential and commercial jobs. They also get into who to call when something goes wrong, phones on the clock, and whether crews looked out for each other more in the old days. Nobody’s pretending they’ve always handled it perfectly.

Uncle Mike closes things out with a story about working a little too close to a coworker after a night of draft beer. Consider it one more lesson in respecting the people around you.

Subscribe for more trades, tools, stories & shop talk from The Old Fashioned Tradesmen. New full episodes every first and third Monday of the month.

The finished work might be what everybody sees — but what’s underneath it can make or break the entire job.

In Episode 8 of The Old Fashioned Tradesmen, we get into the problems hiding behind the finished surface: rotten framing, bad substrates, moisture, questionable plumbing, electrical surprises, floors nowhere close to flat, and the decisions tradesmen have to make when they uncover somebody else’s mess.

When do you fix it? When do you document it and call the GC or homeowner? And when do you stop the job before someone else’s problem becomes your liability?

We also get into a few jobs we’ll never forget — stagnant shower water, structural damage, a mummified animal hanging from a 220 line, and live electrical wires abandoned inside a wall.

The lesson is simple:

The part everybody sees is only as good as the part nobody sees.

The Old Fashioned Tradesmen Trades • Tools • Stories • Shop Talk

Like, subscribe, and share if you enjoy the show.

New episodes available on the first and third Mondays of every month.

theoldfashionedtradesmen.com