A Bad Day Tiling is Better Than a Good Day at Work

Here's the crew out at a shower in Berkery. All smiles.

Happy tiling!

A Bad Day Tiling is Better Than a Good Day at Work

Fred Z Does it Again; Fireplace Surround

While Fred Z can be found out at The Pool doing the seasonal coping repair, or trying his hand at brick pavers; recently he finished this fireplace surround in travertine mosaics.  Now that we have the photo, we are sharing it with you.  You like?

Fred Z Does it Again; Fireplace Surround

Brick pavers; Yes we do that!

Here's Fred on a lovely May afternoon in a lovely flower garden putting in a brick paver path. Atta boy Fred.

Brick Pavers; Yep we do that!

Brick pavers; Yes we do that!

New Project Award: Norfolk & Southern

Midwest Mosaic is going to work for Warren Buffett! 

We just received a subcontract from Ohio Valley based Dunlop & Johnston to provide tile and and installation labor at Norfolk and Southern Railroad's (NYSE:NSC) Bellvue, Ohio facility.  The project features two pairs of employee bathroom and showers plus a washroom in the perch of the yard switching tower.  How cool is that!?

At nearly 4000 square feet, the project will keep a crew of three working for about a month.  Onward job creation!

We are pleased to add Mr. Richard Fajardo to the project to assist compliance with two programs; 1) Ohio Bureau of Worker Compensation Drug Free Workplace and 2. E-Rail Safe, a Homeland Security program. Fajardo writes on HR and management matters at Motivated Innovation, and is an expert in these things.

In 2007, as a bet on the impending recovery, Buffett acquired a stake in NSC through his flagship fund, Berkshire Hathaway.  Mr. Warren knows a good value when he sees it. While the recovery may not be as strong as he anticipated, we knew we had a good value all along, and we're glad to have caught his attention.

New Project Award: Norfolk & Southern

Feature Project; The Tower of Shower (Video)

About the time you were finishing off the last of your Thanksgiving leftovers and were beginning to put up your 2011 Christmas lights, we put the finishing touches on this edition of the Musings Feature Project, The Tower of Shower.

It is now April 2.  The clients, who wish to remain anon, have been happy customers for going on four months now.  Wow! how the time flies. Meantime we have been out doing what LOTC's (Low-Overhead-Trade-Contractors) do, spending time in the field, getting dirty, getting tired, and just plain having fun not having to report to the same old cube day after day to pick up doing the same old same old.

Since the time of Yule, the crew and I have been out in the mud the blood and the beer; finishing up the Mouse House, adding first one Kroger now on the third, as well as stops at the Historic St Patricks, the Bakery Building, and a reprise at the Manor.

As in our last feature, the Forsyth-Vaquero, we bring you loads of content; photos and video. Enjoy.  And be sure to hit the like button above and leave comments below.

Credits:
Design by Mary Glowaki, AIA
Photos by Tina Gionis, MFA
Tiles by Marca Corona, Italy
Distributed by Virginia Tile Company, Livonia MI

Linear Drain; You Know You Want One!

Two Story Niche

Spacious, No!?

Video Reveal


Before Video


Link to Customer Feedback (here)

Happy Tiling!

Feature Project; The Tower of Shower (Video)

The Perfection Premium; Can You Afford it?

500-400-20=80.

I have two tile layers.Both have Own tools and are fully capable of running large tile jobs and leading tiling crews.

I have two identical projects; new school buildings within the same school district.  The projects are located within my area of operations and close to both leaders' homes. Both men lead similar crews such that one could not differentiate the outcomes of one crew from the other based on individual or group abilities.

Now leader one is quite mercenary hard working and well loved by his crew. He wastes no effort in all that he does toward goal accomplishment, completing tile work.  He harbors no wasted effort in his crew and similarly he is always teaching his speed tricks, and how to focus on completion as opposed to quality. As you can imagine, his work is not without defect.  At the same time he is ever professional and expects the same from his crew, so his quality control is still quite tight.  Its just that he has developed an intuitive understanding of where he and his crew may bend on quality

Leader two on the other hand is more quality oriented and demands near perfection from his crew. He is ever critical about the work of his fellows. Rarely gives positive feedback. 

Leader one uses 400 mandays to complete his school, leader two 500 mandays.  Leader two has a zero-punch list, he requires no additional effort going back to fix his work, while leader one requires 20 mandays of rework to remedy defects in his work all of which are but minor nuisances.

The 80 manday difference is what I call the perfection premium.  Can you afford it?

The Perfection Premium; Can You Afford it?

The Crew at Kroger Mt. Vernon

Here's the Crew on Mosaic's third Kroger project in nearly as many months.  Left is Casey and right is Eric.  Eric's a 15 year veteran of tile setting while Casey is the noob.  A quick study he, Eric and I are teaching him the weirding way.

Casey's a quick study.  Gets it the first time.  Humble and accumulating own tools. Gotta love that. Eric did high end custom homes in Stone Oak during the housing boom.  Not so much of that to be had these days so he's glad to be with us, we feel the same.

Both fellows are from Toledo's North End.  Woodward HS products through and through, they enjoy regaling me of triumphant stories from the 'hood.  Wish I could video tape them to get you some reality TV type content for you.  Warning though some of it is R-A-W raw.  We sure laugh it up on our commute back and forth each week to this store in Mt. Vernon, OH.  You just have to be there.


And where is the boss??????????

Off for a scoop of ice cream?

Back to work you knuckleheads!

Happy Tiling!

The Crew at Kroger Mt. Vernon