Case Study - Apex Tiling Services

Wednesday 07 November 2018

From commercial contracts to the domestic market

Apex Professional Tiling Services is a Trading Standards vetted East Lothian Trusted Trader, an established tiling business covering floor tiling, wall tiling, wet rooms, bathroom refurbishment, designer floors and underfloor heating installation across East Lothian and the surrounding areas.

Andrew started tiling in 2001, before starting his own business in 2006. He joined the Edinburgh Trusted Trader Scheme in May 2017, “to grow my business within the Edinburgh domestic market and build my business reputation” as Andrew was primarily working on commercial jobs.

Apex Professional Tiling Services has since transferred to the East Lothian Trusted Trader scheme, and its current profile and verified reviews sit there.

This has clearly been successful as, “due to the amount of work through trusted trader I have had to make applications for credit accounts with many suppliers to keep up with demand.”

Most of the job enquiries come through as email work requests from the Apex Tiling Services’ Trusted Trader page, while a few come through the Trusted Trader consumer line, which is based in South Queensferry.

“Membership of the scheme has exceeded my expectations”

Passing the trade on

Having started as an apprentice himself, Andrew is keen to pass on his knowledge to the next generation, and explains that being a member of Trusted Trader has helped him to do exactly that: “Due to the Trusted Trader Scheme my business has grown which will allow me next year to take on another apprentice, having already trained two apprentice tilers that have gone onto start businesses of their own.”

How Andrew found the scheme and the vetting

We asked Andrew for his general feedback about the scheme and vetting process. “The Trusted Trader website is professional, easy to use, very good from a trader interface point of view. The options provided within my section of the site including adding photos, page info, downloading logos and requesting vehicle stickers are all very good and easy to use.”

“Membership of the scheme has exceeded my expectations in terms of professionalism, amount of work, ease of control and ability to customise my own trader web page. I thought the vetting process was rigorous and in-depth.”

The scheme has a dedicated admin team to support the traders during the life of their membership, but also to help them through the initial Trading Standards vetting process, which made the process for Andrew “thorough, but finding the support team to be very helpful, professional and informative.”

We were delighted to hear that the scheme has met the objectives for Apex Tiling Services, and the search is on for Andrew’s next apprentice!

Andrew Gillen
Apex Professional Tiling Services

What the business does today

Apex Professional Tiling Services has been tiling since 2001 and Andrew Gillen has run it under his own name since 2006. The Trusted Trader profile lists the business as a tiling contractor covering floor tiling, wall tiling, wet rooms, bathroom refurbishment and designer floors, and Andrew is also an undertile heating system fitter, so the tiling and the underfloor heating beneath it can be handled by the same business rather than split between trades.

Andrew also works part time as a tiling instructor at the Trades Training School, which sits neatly alongside the apprentices he has trained through the business. Apex Professional Tiling Services has been a Trusted Trader member since 2017 and holds a rating of 5.0 out of 5 from 101 verified customer reviews left on the scheme.

Common questions

What does Trading Standards vetted mean?
The business and its owners have been vetted by Trading Standards before being admitted to the East Lothian Trusted Trader scheme, and Apex Professional Tiling Services has been a member since 2017. Trading Standards vet the business and its owners, they do not check, inspect or approve the quality of the work carried out.

What areas does Apex Professional Tiling Services cover?
Apex Professional Tiling Services works across East Lothian and the surrounding areas, taking on domestic tiling work as well as commercial contracts.

What tiling services does Apex Professional Tiling Services offer?
Floor tiling, wall tiling, wet rooms, bathroom refurbishment, designer floors and underfloor heating installation.

• View Apex Professional Tiling Services' East Lothian Trusted Trader profile.
• Read Apex Professional Tiling Services' verified customer reviews.
• If you would like to become a Trusted Trader, you can apply here.
• If you are a Trusted Trader and would like to leave a case study either as text or as a video, get in touch.