Tiler CV Examples & Writing Guide

In the UK the job is called tiler or wall and floor tiler (sometimes tile fixer); in the US it is a tile setter or tile installer. Use the word the advert uses. This CV is for a lead tiler at a mid-size tiling contractor in the East Midlands who came up through an apprenticeship. Name and companies are made up. The numbers are the kind a supervisor tracks on the daily sheet: square metres laid, jobs completed, callbacks.

The reader is usually the owner of a tiling firm or a flooring contractor's site supervisor. They are hiring against a programme and a warranty, and they read a tiler's CV for four things.

• What have you actually laid, and where? Domestic bathrooms only, or commercial floors with a 1,300 m² reception area? Large format and thin panels are a different skill from 300x300 ceramic. Natural stone and glass mosaics need their own care. Name the tile types and the settings.
• Do you know wet areas? Showers and wet rooms are where callbacks and claims come from. Tanking membranes, shower formers, falls, flood testing, linear drains. One bullet with a shower count and "zero leaks" answers the biggest fear a contractor has.
• Speed and waste. Square metres a day on a stated tile size, and waste percentage on cuts. A tiler who is accurate about pace is easier to programme than one who claims to be the fastest in the county.
• Standards and safety. BS 5385 for installation, manufacturer specifications, a CSCS card, silica dust controls. Most main contractors will not let you on site without the card, and clerks of works and site managers will check flatness and lippage.

“Everyone writes 'experienced in all types of tile'. I want to know how many showers you have waterproofed, whether you flood test, and what your day looks like in square metres on 1200x600 porcelain. That tells me if you can run a bathroom on a hotel job or if someone has to babysit you.”

The job description in an advert says "install ceramic, porcelain and stone tiles to floors and walls". Copying it back proves nothing. Rewrite each duty with the material, the method and a number. Seven rewrites from real tiling work:

Tiling contractors read the skills list looking for product names and methods they use themselves. Group the list by type and use the real names; "waterproofing" alone is vague, "Kerdi sheet and liquid tanking, flood tested" is not.

• Tile and stone: porcelain, ceramic, large format (1200x600 mm and up), thin porcelain panels, marble, travertine, slate, quarry tiles, glass and stone mosaics, metro and handmade tiles with irregular edges.
• Wet-area systems: bonded sheet and liquid tanking (Schluter Kerdi and other manufacturers' kits), sand and cement and pre-formed shower bases, level-access showers, wet rooms, linear drains, steam rooms, flood testing.
• Substrates and preparation: self-levelling compound, tile backer boards, plywood overlay, uncoupling membranes (DITRA), crack isolation, acoustic mats, electric underfloor heating, moisture and flatness testing.
• Adhesives and grouts: cement-based C1 and C2 adhesives, large format and rapid-set adhesives, semi-dry sand and cement beds, epoxy, cement-based and ready-mixed grouts, sealers, movement joints.
• Setting out and standards: datum lines, laser level, pattern layout, finish schedules and drawings, BS 5385 and manufacturer methods, lippage and coverage checks.
• Tools: wet saw, manual cutter, angle grinder, hole saws and core bits, mixing paddle, levelling clip systems, trowels, grout floats, H-class vacuum and wet-cutting dust controls.
• Job skills: material take-offs, daily sheets, working with plumbers and electricians, clearing snag lists, customer walk-rounds on domestic jobs.

There is no licence you need to work as a tiler in the UK. A few qualifications and cards do carry weight, and contractors know the difference between a real one and a made-up one.

• NVQ Level 2 in Wall and Floor Tiling (or a completed tiling apprenticeship). The benchmark most commercial contractors and the CSCS card scheme use for a qualified tiler. List it with the awarding body and year.
• CSCS card. With an NVQ Level 2 you usually qualify for the Blue Skilled Worker card; you also need to pass the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test. Required on most commercial sites. Give the card type and expiry year.
• Silica dust training. Cutting tiles creates respirable crystalline silica, and HSE expects wet cutting, on-tool extraction and RPE; a training certificate shows you know these are not optional.
• PASMA and IPAF. Useful on commercial jobs where you tile from mobile towers or work near MEWPs. List the course and year.
• Apprenticeship. A completed tiling apprenticeship is a credential in itself; write the employer, the college, the trade and the completion year.
• Self-employed work. No contractor licence is needed. If you subcontract, you will be registered for the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS), and most contractors ask for public liability insurance. Membership of The Tile Association is optional and worth a line if you have it.
• Manufacturer training. Schluter, Ardex, Mapei, BAL and other adhesive and membrane makers run installer courses; list them as training, not qualifications.

Most tilers start as a labourer or apprentice: mixing, cutting, carrying, grouting and cleaning up while learning to lay. Contractors hire on reliability and physical readiness more than on skill, so the CV should prove those two things.

1. 1Get a CSCS Green Labourer card (it needs a short health and safety course and the CITB test) and put it in your career objective. Many commercial contractors cannot bring you on site without one.
2. 2List any construction, flooring, landscaping, warehouse or removals work with numbers: square metres of laminate fitted, pallets moved, days on a site. Related flooring work (carpet, LVT, laminate, wood) counts a lot.
3. 3Say what you can do on day one: mix adhesive to ratio, use a manual cutter, fix backer board, grout and clean, read a tape to the millimetre, lift 20 kg adhesive bags, work on your knees all day.
4. 4State the practical facts a contractor needs: driving licence, reliable vehicle, own basic hand tools, willingness to start at 7 a.m. and travel to sites.
5. 5Add any hands-on evidence: a bathroom you tiled at home with photos on your phone, a college tiling or construction course, a manufacturer workshop.
6. 6Keep it to one page and put availability and start date at the top.

• One to two pages. Most tilers fit on one; with 25 years, two pages is normal in the UK as long as jobs older than 10 years are one line each.
• Order: contact line with your CSCS card, 3-line personal statement with tile types and pace, experience with 4 to 6 bullets each, qualifications and cards, skills grouped by type, education (apprenticeship and NVQ first, then GCSEs).
• Photos of your work belong in a phone album or a link, not on the CV. A short line "portfolio of 40 completed showers and wet rooms available on request" is fine.
• No photo of yourself, no date of birth, no marital status; town and postcode area are enough. A short cover email is normal alongside the CV.
• Plain single-column layout, standard font, PDF. Larger flooring contractors and recruitment agencies use online applications that strip formatting, so keep it simple. Print two copies for walk-in applications; many tiling firms still hire that way.
• Mirror the advert's words once each: "wall and floor tiler" or "tiler", "large format", "tanking", "wet rooms", "adhesive", "grout", "setting out", "drawings", "CSCS", "NVQ Level 2", "commercial" or "domestic". Then run the CV and advert through the cvplex ATS checker to see what you missed.