How to choose and brief a tiler in Malta

Tiling is the trade a homeowner in Malta meets first and understands least. Property is normally sold in shell form, so the tiling is yours to commission rather than something you inherit. Floors are concrete slabs and screeds, not joisted timber. Bathrooms are tiled floor to ceiling as standard, which roughly triples the tiled area compared with a half-tiled English bathroom. Terraces and flat roofs need waterproofing underneath the tiles. And there is no trade licence for tilers in the way a British reader might assume.

That last point is the one that disorients people. You cannot ask to see a tiler's licence, because there isn't one to see. What you can do is ask for two specific documents, and then write a brief tight enough that disagreements later are about facts rather than memory.

The two documents worth asking for

The BCA Construction Industry Skill Card

Skill cards for construction workers were launched on 23 May 2016, and the first phase covered four trades: plasterers, tile layers, assistant electricians and plumbers. Tilers were in from the beginning, which means a tiler who has been working in Malta for years has had a decade in which to get one.

To qualify, a worker needs a health-and-safety certificate plus a trade competency certificate from a recognised body — at launch that was a certificate of competence together with an eight-hour OHSA health-and-safety awareness course — or, for experienced workers, a Jobsplus trade test. Cards are colour-coded by level, with red for trainees. The card itself costs €15, a replacement another €15. The basic health-and-safety awareness course costs €30; the supervisory or professional course costs €120. Cards are renewed every five years, or earlier if the holder reaches a higher level, and more than one trade can appear on a single card. Qualifications earned abroad are vetted by MQRIC, which matters if your tiler trained in Italy, Sicily or elsewhere in the EU.

The Jobsplus trade test

The Jobsplus Trade Testing System lists Assistant Tile Layer at MQF Level 2 and Tile Layer at MQF Level 3. A candidate needs a minimum of three years' experience in the occupation and pays a €34.95 administration fee. The assessment is an interview, a portfolio, a theory test and a practical test; passing produces a Certificate of Competence and an MQF-rated award.

For an existing tiler with no paper behind him, this is the realistic route — and the fee tells you something useful. €34.95 is not a barrier. A tiler who has worked here for years and has never sat the test has made a choice, not been priced out.

Be honest about what the card does not yet mean

The skill card is not compulsory today. The BCA's own FAQs state that once the subsidiary legislation is approved, anyone entering a construction site will have to hold a card, with visitors issued a temporary visitor's card. That legislation has not been approved, so the obligation has not switched on.

The practical consequence: a tiler without a card is not breaking any rule you can point to, and one with a card has not been vetted by anyone on your behalf. The card tells you he has a health-and-safety certificate and a trade competency certificate or trade test behind him. That is a real filter and a narrow one. Third-party trade verification, such as the CheckYourTraders checks behind the tilers listed here, is a separate thing again and does not substitute for either document.

Brief the job in writing

Most tiling disputes in Malta are measurement disputes or supply disputes, and both are preventable on one side of A4.

1. State the tiled m², not the floor m². A 6 m² bathroom tiled floor to ceiling is well over 20 m² of tiling. Agree the number before work starts and agree how openings are deducted.
2. Name the tile and the format. Large-format porcelain is a different job from a 30×60 ceramic: heavier, less forgiving of a wavy screed, slower, and priced differently.
3. Name the adhesive and grout. Ask for the product name and the classification printed on the bag, written into the quote. Nothing in the sources behind this article sets a required class, which is exactly why you want the actual product recorded rather than "a good adhesive".
4. Say who supplies the tiles. If you buy them, agree wastage allowance, who checks shade and calibre on delivery, and who pays for breakages. If the tiler supplies, get the model and the unit price separately from the labour.
5. Specify waterproofing where it belongs. Wet rooms, terraces, flat roofs. Tanking happens before tiling and is invisible afterwards, so it has to be priced and signed off as its own line, not folded into "tiling".
6. Describe the substrate. Shell-form slabs and screeds vary. Agree who levels, who makes good, and what happens if the screed is out of tolerance once the old tiles come off.
7. Set a schedule and a payment stage tied to it. Deliveries to Gozo cross on the ferry, and a shortfall of two boxes mid-job is a different problem there than in Birkirkara.

If the flat is in a block, works touching common parts — risers, landings, shared terraces — are a condominium matter before they are a tiling matter. Settle that with the administrator before the tiler arrives.

What the published numbers actually describe

Tiler.mt's per-trade bands are per square metre of tiled surface, and include labour plus a mid-range tile unless stated:

The whole-property Floor & wall tiling rates are a different measurement: €66, €102, €168 and €300 per m² of property floor area across the four specification tiers. Use those to size a budget for a shell apartment; use the per-trade bands to check a quote for one bathroom.

The empty band is the honest one. No Maltese source publishes a labour-only tiling rate, so anyone quoting you a confident "market rate per m² for laying only" is quoting their own book, not a published benchmark. Get it in writing and compare it against two other written quotes for the same tiled m² and the same tile.

If it goes wrong

Consumer redress runs through the MCCAA. The complaint should go first to the Director General for Consumer Affairs, or to a registered consumer association, for mediation. If mediation fails, the Consumer Claims Tribunal hears claims on goods or services up to €10,000; if your loss is larger you must abandon the excess to use the tribunal.

Filing fees start at €9.50 for claims up to €580 and rise in steps to €43.50 for claims between €8,500 and €10,000. You do not need a lawyer. If you engage one, their costs fall on you even if you win — which is why, for a €3,000 bathroom, the tribunal is usually the proportionate route and the Civil Court is not. Appeals must be filed within 20 days.

All of this works far better when the brief was written down. A tribunal can weigh a quote that specifies 24 m² of tiled surface, a named large-format porcelain, a named adhesive and a tanked shower. It can do very little with a recollection of what was agreed on site.