Tom Verstaen crowns himself Belgian tile-laying champion

by Staenis | 20/01/2017

The successor of James De Smet, proclaimed Belgian Tiling Champion in 2015, is now known! His name? Tom Verstaen. The 25-year-old tiler from East Flanders received the most points from a professional jury for the tiling that he created in two days on the Stone & Tile 2017 exhibition floor in Ghent.

Young champion tiler turns out to be an ambitious entrepreneur

And whether Tom Verstaen was nervous about his participation in the Belgian Tiling Championship in Ghent. So much so that it was very difficult for him to sleep the night before! Initially, the 25-year-old East Fleming thought that a silver medal was the highest achievable for him, but as the two-day competition progressed, Verstaen saw his chance and (nearly) took the gold. Anyone who wants to call on the brand new tiler champion in the coming months is out of luck, because the busy bee from Olsene is currently brooding on other plans...

Startups

If you would like to see the 2017 Belgian tiling champion live at work, you have to be in Kortrijk these days. Not on some construction site that is, but behind a desk in a building where he falls under the wings of Start it @ KBC. Start it offers support to entrepreneurs to develop their start-up. One of those entrepreneurs with an innovative idea is therefore the same young man who won the gold medal at the past Belgian Tiling Championship during Stone & Tile 2017 in Ghent in mid-January. You will find out the exact reason why Tom Verstaen fell into the coaching process of Start it @ kbc, but first go back to the BK Tiles. It was not the first time that Tom Verstaen took part, because during the previous edition in 2015, the twenty-something from Olsene in East Flanders also took his chance. If I remember correctly, I finished fourth. At that time that was the highest achievable for me, because the competition then had much more experience than me, who only occasionally placed tiles.

Second time lucky?

Also during his second participation, Tom Verstaen did not really aim for the highest scaffold. For me, Wim Verkinderen (who eventually won bronze; editor's note) was the clear favorite. The other candidates would compete for silver and bronze, I thought. When I was told that Thomas Standaert has twenty years of experience as a tiler and is also a teacher, I saw my chances of a podium place shrinking seriously.

At the end of day one, however, confidence grew and Verstaen started to believe more and more in his chances of a first Belgian title. I was very well prepared, had practiced hard at home on the part of the assignment that we were given in advance. The hardest part was the wavy arc we had to cut freehand from that thin Kerlite sheet. The fear of breakage was good in everyone. The difficulty was also in getting the glass mosaics to connect nicely. According to the jury, my bow was perfectly symmetrical and that performance may have earned me the title. In any case, it was very close, barely one point ahead of Thomas Standaert, who scored better in the free exercise and was rightly rewarded with the prize for creativity. Personally I learned a lot during those two days, it was worth it for that alone.

Own company

Where did Tom Verstaen actually learn the tiler's trade? After three years of training at Syntra West, I had a taste for it. Because I wanted to gain even more knowledge, I sent an email to Peter Goegebeur, who was my teacher in the last year. He literally took me everywhere: during the many workshops he gave all over the country, but also to the meetings of Fecamo and the WTCB. I got to know Tinne Vangheel of the WTCB and Veerle Boel of Ghent University, these people have also helped me a lot.

The man sitting in front of us appears to be at home in many markets. After training in car mechanics and welding at the VTI in Deinze, Tom Verstaen followed an evening course in electricity, plumbing, plastering, painting and therefore also tiling at Syntra West. I am someone who likes to take on new challenges. The advantage is that I can do most things myself, such as renovating a bathroom from A to Z. I often did this together with my father, who is also active in construction as a self-employed person (Karweidienst Bart Verstaen; editor's note). Because I wanted to start my own company, I was forced to stop last year.

The Staenis grid

A surprising invention preceded the establishment of that own company, called Staenis. Tom Verstaen does the story. The idea came about last year after a bad experience I had with the realization of a screed. It was anything but flat, as it turned out during the installation of the tiles. To correct it, I had to put it partly in the mortar instead of gluing it, with the result that the client was - quite rightly - concerned about the fact that the tiling work took so long. That evening I spent the whole time at home worrying and I came up with a system to easily place a perfectly even screed: the Staenis grid. The TETRA project on 'insulated interior floors' of the University of Ghent has shown that there is no uniform solution to prevent dish formation in screed floors. There are different environmental factors that can have an influence on each site, and for that reason different installation regulations apply. The Staenis slat offers the solution for a perfectly even screed in many circumstances!

Many benefits

Placing such a grid in the floor construction is very simple, the spiritual father assures. After it has been set to the correct height in no time at all, you can place the screed in it and fixed landmarks are created on which people can tow. The Staenis grid divides the surface into squares of 0.25m², resulting in minimal tensions. As a result, the screed will only warp or become convex to a minimum. There is also the option to place the grille flat or at an angle.

Recycled plastic without glass fiber has been chosen as the material, which has the advantage that you no longer have the problem of the reinforcement meshes in the cement screed pulverising. Another thing: a quick-drying screed already starts to harden after a short time. This is not a problem with our timetable, because it can be used very quickly. After placing the grid, you can have the screed placed in a bathroom in fifteen minutes. The first reactions from the market are therefore very promising, says Verstaen. Logical when you consider that our system enables a traditional screed floor that is ten times as flat as normal and remains just as smooth afterwards.

confidentiality

A week after his inspiration, the inventor of the Staenis grid carried out a first test. The result was astonishing, never before had I installed such a flat screed!

When it turned out that no such system existed on the market yet, the twenty-something from East Flanders knew what he had to do: apply for a patent to protect his invention as quickly as possible. In the end, it took me several months to get it all sorted out. That was not a fun period as I wanted to share my secret with others, but at that moment I still had to keep my lips tightly closed. The first person I told in confidence was Peter Goegebeur and he responded very enthusiastically. Once the patent was in order, I could also talk to other parties to look at possible areas for improvement. This is how I come to new findings every week.

International ambitions

Once all parts have been produced, we will place test floors with different thicknesses and have them tested at Ghent University. We will also install test floors with underfloor heating, on which tiles from 30x30cm to 100x100cm will be glued to check whether everything works properly.

Assuming that this innovation catches on in Belgium, can the success be replicated beyond the national borders? That is the ambition, yes, Tom Verstaen does not beat about the bush. That is why we immediately went for an international patent. Initially we will focus 100% on the Belgian market, but after that we also want to take our product abroad. Why not, in the end this system can offer the perfect solution for many problems. The plan is to make this the new standard, to easily exceed even the strictest guidelines of the BBRI.

Via Bert Uittenhove and Peter Goegebeur we came into contact with BITA, Belgian Innovative Tile Academy. At the request of BITA, the Belgian Innovative Tile Academy, we will provide training to tilers and chappers who want to learn how to work with our system.

Online sales

We hear that the first copies will be on the market this fall. The mold must be ready in a few months, so that production can start two to three months later. It is already certain that we choose a Belgian manufacturer.

The plan is to only offer the grates via a web shop and to have them delivered to the customer's home or site from one central stock, as Coolblue or bol.com have been doing for years. We also want to innovate in the construction world in terms of logistics.

For a good understanding: Tom Verstaen does not do this alone. After all, there is a second person who has put her shoulders under this innovation project. Daisy Bohyn, a good friend he has known since primary school, is an interior architect by training and then also obtained a diploma as a product designer. She is my ideal business partner.

Rosy future

There will be no time in the coming weeks and months to showcase his skills as a Belgian tiler champion. At the moment this project is taking up all my time, I am really working on it day and night. And it doesn't look like that will change any time soon. Of course it is a pity that I will probably be much less active as a tiler. Nevertheless, I want to continue to dedicate myself to the tiler world. In Belgium, some work is still needed to upgrade the craft of tiling. That's why I'm extra happy with this new project. Daisy and I know where we want to be within three years, then we'll see how things go. Failure is not an option anyway, we believe in the product too strongly for that. As young entrepreneurs, this is of course a challenge that also entails risks, but we firmly believe that we will write a success story with this product. Wait and see!

If you want to stay informed about their innovative product, you can visit www.staenis.com.

podium places

For the second edition in a row, the biennial Belgian championships, organized by Fecamo, were held during and at the Stone & Tile trade fair in Flanders Expo Ghent. Younger and slightly more experienced tilers, eight participants in total, competed for the coveted title for two days (on January 19 and 20, 2017). In the end, it was 25-year-old East Flemish Tom Verstaen, tipped beforehand as one of the favourites, who received the highest total score from the jury members. Thomas Standaert ended up in second place and was rewarded with the prize for creativity. Wim Verkinderen completed the podium with a bronze medal. The Walloon 'youngster' Quentin Magnier was the first junior student to finish in fifth place.