the ability to work on your own the ability to work well with others the ability to accept criticism and work well under pressure patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations knowledge of building and construction marking out an area to estimate the amount of tiles and adhesive needed (known as setting out) cutting tiles to size and shape with hand-cutters or bench-mounted tools preparing surfaces by levelling off with plaster, sand or cement fixing the tiles and applying grout before finishing off repairing or removing the previous surface before the setting out stage working with various building materials