Floor tiling tips

[kd]

I am about to start a ceramic tile flooring job in my bathroom and I have

8mm radiator pipes coming up through the floor. What is the best way to deal with these to get the best result? Is it feasible to actually drill a 12mm diameter hole through the tiles and then drop them onto the floor to create the best finish or will I have to cut the tiles and fit them to the pipe? (The distance from the pipe to the wall is about 3").

The same is required of the walls. I have fitted a new shower mixer and want the best results around pipe work. The tiles are a small mosaic look on large tiles

[ben]

Drill the tiles and drop over pipe but for a neat finish, hope you have a good drill bit? Trying to cut a floor tile to push into the pipe is very hard to do without a machine tile cutter. If the hole looks unsightly or larger than the pipe you can get shrouds to fit over the pipe and cover the hole, bit like those chrome rings they have for propping the kitchen worktops up.

[cs]

I've tried a few different things, the last time with central heating pipes coming up from the floor to the towel heater I used a tile saw to saw out a strip the width of the pipe, round the area around the pipe with a file, and put the cut-out strip (nibbled/filed to fit) behind the pipe. It looked neat enough but the next time (if I can disconnect the pipes) I'll go back to drilling 3-4 holes with a small tile drill, not bother too much about the finish of the tile itself, and put a chrome/white/copper ring (made of plastic but still looking neat) around the pipe to finish it off neatly.