I have to tile a kitchen and bathroom for a relative, and will need a tile cutter as there are some awkward corners to deal with. Looking in the Screwfix catalogue for something suitable I see that they have a range running from about £30 to £150. The thing is this is a bit of a one-off job so I want to spend as little as possible, on the other hand I obviously don't want to get anything that is completely useless. Has anyone here used any of these things and, if so, do you have any recommendations?
I used a £10 scratch and snap cutter for tiling the kitchen and bathroom floors, and it worked fine. This included cutting half tiles for a tiled skiting board all the way round the rooms. The only issue was that the floor tiles were too strong to use the snap action part of the cutter, so I snapped them by clamping in the jaws of a Black and Decker workmate along the scratch, and thumping the tile with my palm. I had very few wrong breaks. I've watched someone using an electric tile cutter, and my cheap scratch and snap was much faster. I've since used the scratch and snap cutter for tiling a couple of walls, and it still works fine. I still prefer snapping even the wall tiles in the workmate though.
A few floor tiles needed more intricate shapes cut out to go round pipes and door frames, and I used an angle grinder (also £10) to do those. Actually, the angle grinder was free because it broke just when I finished (switch got stuck on) so it went back for a refund. The most difficult was two circular tile cuts to go round the toilet wastepipe. I bought a packet of
5 tile cutting jigsaw blades and it took them all to do it in the ceramic floor tiles. They were really meant for wall tiles.
Thanks for that. I only have to do wall tiles, so from what you say they should be relatively easy. I think I will go for the cheapest electric cutter, with tile-cutting jigsaw blades to deal with any intricate shapes.
Slab of strong timber, steel straight edge, small G Cramps, an ordinary glass cutter and a pair of carpenters' pincers for 'nibbling' out the corners. Nemo.
I lashed out £30 at B&Q and got an electric one. It works so well on wall tiles that I can't imagine what the £150 ones offer! Certainly good enough for a one-off job. The cutting wheel dips into a water bath to keep it cool and lubricated, and it makes lots of slurry in the water that needs to be cleaned out from time to time. Also, it will only cut straight lines, so I used a circular cross-section blade (like a wire with carborundum particles stuck all around it) in a fretsaw frame for curved cuts. I have only worked on wall tiles, but I'll know more about floor tiles in a week's time!
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