Porcelain tiles

[Bilbo Baggins]

I am just about to have my first attempt at fixing porcelain tiles (600mm x

300m ones). Has anybody got any tips which may be useful?

I have bought a decent diamond saw for cutting and I am expecting major problems when it come to cutting around pipes etc. or drilling holes for bathroom fittings.

I also understand that I need special adhesive.

KW

[Grunff]

Yes, they are tough. I don't know what kind of advice you are after - cut them with a diamond disk, and drill them with a decent tile drill bot.

No, just normal tile adhesive.

[David]

I put up tiles that sounds very similar and found fixing them straightforward, no special adhesive required

I used a cheapo plasplugs electric tile saw and it did a very good job, cleanly taking 5mm strips off of the whole 600mm length, and I was only after the 290mm section. ...But as with any tiling job plan it so that thin cuts are not crucial to job.

Cutting around pipes will depend just where abouts in the tile the cuts need to be made. Again, this pretty much comes down to your planning of the layout, ideally you want the big holes to coincide with a join which makes life much easier. Where the pipes for the shower did not fall right on a join I only had to cut out maybe a 50x50mm square,then cut a small section for the pipes from this square section, which looks pretty unobtrusive. For the waste pipes from the sink I found it easier to half a complete tile, and then took out a couple of sections with the tile saw, but this is all hidden by the basin pedestal so you don't actually notice it.

Drilling holes for fixings is a bugger, expect it to take a long time, be patient, drill slowly and keep the area wet.

An electric tile saw is essential, when using the saw I found it useful to mark the cut line in pencil, If you do not fill it up with too much water the line should remain visible, this removes some dependence on the accuracy of the guide rail and also helps enormously if making small angled cuts.

Drilling holes was most definitely the worst part of the job, fixing and cutting is straightforwar as long as you plan ahead and take your time.

cheers

David

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'd say it's important to keep the water level correct if you want a clean cut with minimum blade wear.

Mark the tiles if needed with a Chinagraph pencil (wax) - that will survive water, but wipe off with a cloth.

[David]

Perhaps I wasn't clear here, but when using a standard pencil there is no problem with the line wiping away, rather the problem is that the line will be obscured by the slurry if an excessive amount of water is in the reservoir. By using enough water to keep the blade wet and topping up regularly, life is easier, and you don't get a shower everytime you make a cut. It is of course essential that the blade is kept wet when cutting the tiles.

cheers

David

[Dave Plowman (News)]

On mine with the level set to the mark it still throws out lots of water. If the water is clean, you'll see the mark.

However, for most cutting it's best to use the fence, and if needed at an angle to use the device supplied for that. Freehand cutting has the possibility of the blade grabbing and breaking the tile.

Since the blade is water wetted, I'm not quite sure how you could drop the level while still keeping it submerged?

[Grunff]

Not in this case; porcelain tiles are very, very difficult to break. But for ceramic tiles I totally agree.

[David]

Is this the min water level mark or some other mark? There is no correct level marked on the one I've used as far as I can recall, only min and max.. so anywhere between these marks could be taken as correct.

Unfortunately when cutting a few tiles the water rarely stays clean in my experience, Perhaps with ceramic tiles there may not be so much of a problem, but with the pocelain tiles we're dealing with here you quickly get a cream cloourted slurry as the tile is cut.

Agreed, If the guide is well set up it also makes reproducing the cut on a number of tiles much easier. For angles I cut them all freehand, no other devices were supplied with mine to help out any of this.

Freehand cutting has the

While I did a lot of freehand cuts, noneof the tiles ever broke, but porceleain tiles are pretty difficult to break anyway.

I wouldn't ever want to use it submerged, that really would be an excessive amount of water :-)

However, for example, you can run it with the bottom 25mm in the water or drop the level so that there only the bottom 5-10mm of the blade picks up the water, that's quite a difference.

Maybe its just my cheapo Plasplugs model, but If I fill it anywhere above half way it throws out an excessive amount of water, As I've said by running it close to the min level and topping up regularly the problem is not so great, Of course it doesn't dissappear completely , as you still have some water around.

cheers

David

[Pete C]

Hi,

If doing a lot of tiles it might be worth arranging a hose and siphon using small bore aquarium PVC, so the water is kept clean and level maintained.

cheers, Pete.