Cutting a tile in situ

[David WE Roberts]

Hi,

I am replacing a shower tray.

The old one had sloping sides the new one (plus platform) will have vertical sides. As the tray was let in to the tiles I need to straighten up the sloping cut on one of the tiles to make it vertical. I would prefer just to cut it in situ but this seems to have a potential for ending in tears.

I don't have any spare tiles - I could just hack the tile off and use a white replacement but would prefer to keep the existing tile if possible.

So - score gently with an angle grinder (hah!) then cold chisel off?

Prise off the wall intact (hah!) cut and refit?

I really need a way to 'nibble' a tile edge whilst it is fixed to the wall.

Has anyone found a good way to do this, or am I just likely to waste a load of time bugggering about and then end up replacing the tile anyway?

Cheers

Dave R

[John Rumm]

Dead easy with a multimaster (or clone) and a carbide segment saw. I have even cut rectangular sections out of the middle of a tile for a shaver socket using one of these.

Just plunge cut in, and extend to whatever extent you need:

[NT]

die grinder or angle grinder with continuous rim disc, but I'd cut through as far as poss, chiselling is asking for it.

NT

[Arthur 51]

You could use an ordinary ceramic tile drill to drill holes in a vertical line to within a couple of milimetres. Then use the same drill to mill the rough edge smooth. Cheaply done if you have a steady hand.

Arthur

[gazz]

Is there anything a multimaster can't do?

your gonna tell me it would have stripped the woodchip wallpaper off the front bedroom... even the bits covered in gloss paint in seconds rather than the hours it took me with a scraper, window scraper razor knifey thing, hammer, chisel, sds drill etc,

i even tried to get my pet rats to have a go at it, they've done a good job stripping the paint off the downstairs bedroom walls, i painted too soon over fresh plaster, so once the paint layer is peirced, it comes off in chunks, which of course the rats love doing,

In some places i'm sure they have been standing on each others shoulders to get their teeth under the paint, as none of them can reach up 1 and a half feet alone,

But they took a few sniffs of the walls up there and refused to help me, why couldent they make the woodchips smell of peanut butter, it'd have been stripped by them in no time,

[John Rumm]

Plenty, but it is good for mopping up a collection of jobs that are hard to do by other means...

Can't say I have ever tried a mm on that. A big sharp scraper with changeable blades however seems to do the trick.

Filling knife and a jar of sunpat?

[Stuart Noble]

I wonder how many tiles the carbide blade would have cut before giving up the ghost.

I may need to find a way to cut round the edge of a new slate hearth which was laid on the original 1920s hearth tiles.

about the size of the photo, but the old tiles and floorboards are currently flush, so I could use matching timber to "extend" the floor boards (albeit by reducing the thickness) but obviously I can't be whacking the tiles that close to the slate. Can't help thinking it would have been a five minute job before the hearth was laid, and is now likely to be a sting in the tail sort of a job.

[Steve Firth]

Not much to be honest. It's up there with the angle grinder as "much more useful than you think when you buy one".

Mine has been used to remove anti-foul from boats, chase in wiring, cut tiles, chop out rot from window frames, shape filler, and shape soft brick for arches and columns. It's been damned good at each task.

[John Rumm]

Don't know - I am still using the one that came with the machine. Hacing said that - I don't use it that often. Its good for tiles in situ and raking out old grout.

Would you need to whack them if just extending the boards over?

You could do a hardwood inlay, neatly mitred at the corners, to separate the new tiles from the existing boards. It would save it looking like you extended the floor boards and could not quite match them ;-)

Often the way... "better not to start from here"

[Stuart Noble]

The tiles have got to go because they're flush with the top of the boards, and I reckon I need at least 10mm depth to fill in with wood

I might end up doing a softwood inlay, which might be fun :-)

[John Rumm]

Ah, ok, thought you were keeping them - my bad.

If they must come up, then rake out the grout (aforementioned carbide blade), and clobber gently from the side to see if you can shock them loose!

Or design some sort of wood trim to cover the lot ;-)

[Stuart Noble]

Or get an adjustable fender to cover the lot, possibly with little leatherette seats at the corners and toasting forks.

[mark]

I would use some wide masking tape centred along the desired line of cut. Mark it with a thick black marker pen along the line of cut. That's so you can see the line when the dust is being generated . Then with a diamond bladed angle grinder cut fully through the tiles. In the corner you will need to push the grinder blade in quite deep so as to get the cut-line completed.

mark

[David WE Roberts]

Don't know why I went 'hah'.

The tile was fixed on a deep bed of plaster so my small angle grinder cut a nice straight notch up the tile and was able to sink into the plaster underneath which allowed me to cut right up to the edge of the tile. Because the tile was supported underneath it didn't crack. After all the usual over thinking, plus pricing up of Dremmel tools, turned out to be a doddle.

Thanks for all the advice.

Cheers

Dave R