Hi all, I am just about to start laying 300 x 300mm porcelain tiles on both wall and floor of a small cloakroom.
I bought a relatively cheap electric wet tile cutter, never used one before.
How do I cut out a small 1.5 inch square or round notch at the edge of a tile? i.e. to fit a tile round a pipe or other obstacle.
I could use the wheel to cut the two 'sides' of the notch but how do I cut the 3rd rear side of the notch?
With ceramic tiles I have always cut the two sides with a tile hacksaw and then snapped off the rear edge with a scorer / matchstick or similar.
Any other porcelain advice?
I believe I have purchased the correct cements & grouts. I'm using Ditra board as a base cemented straight onto well-screwed down floorboards. As recommended by my local tile proffesional - I still have my doubts about not using ply etc underneath.
For a pipe, drill a hole of the right size with a carbide coated hole saw. Then cut the two straight cuts to the end of the hole. You then have an off cut of the correct size to put behind the pipe as well, making the job look really neat. I use a bench mounted, low speed drill to make the tile holes, with a piece of timber underneath the tile.
...with a series of parallel cuts to the desired outline..less than about 3mm of tile will snap off, leaving a jagged edge hole. Judicious use of the side of the wheel will clean this up, and a hand polish with emery paper makes a very fair edge.
That's good advice - do you not need to water cool it at all? Also as I'm only gonna need one or two cuts it seems an expensive option for the DIYer.
How reliable are carbide drill bits (not hole saws) when drilling into porcelain tiles that are already laid? I have drilled into ceramic tiles before to fit towel rails etc. but the thought of breaking a porcelain tile after the job's all finished scares me. I'm beginning to think I should have just gold leafed the walls & floors to save money.
Firstly, bear in mind that floor tiles are significantly harder than wall tiles!
I did one recently, and merely cut two or three 'long' cuts into the piece to be removed - when the strip is little more than 5-6mm wide, it tends to snap out quite easily. I then just 'tidied up' the inner side of the notch using the wheel with a *very gentle* sideways motion.
The important thing is to have a minimum gap of about 5mm all round between the pipe and the edge of the notch. Once that's filled with grout it looks fine.
All a bit obvious really but -
I presume you're aware that you should start by marking the centre lines of the room and tiling out to the edges - in theory. It's worth spending a few minutes with a bit of paper to work out whether it's better to lay tiles along the centre lines or centrally over them, so you finish up with a half-tile plus a bit along the edges, rather than just the narrow 'bit'. Much easier to lay wider part tiles than narrow part tiles!
I'm also presuming you know how to mark tiles for sutting when it comes to doing the edges. I use 5mm spacers and have an offcut of wood a lean 10mm thick which I use against the wall/skirting, saves fiddling with spacers to get the correct measurement.
Make sure you got the right sort of trowel for flooring! I found widely spaced 'semi-circular' notches best, 'V' notches - even deep ones - aren't so good for flooring.
I tend to use spacers vertically between tiles and then remove them when the cement goes off. The tiles aren't perfectly square, you'll find some (very small) variations. If you use spacers as the manufacturers say, by inserting and leaving them in situ on the corners of the tiles, you'll tend to make any such variations worse over several tile widths. Use them my way, and you can actually leave them out if the tiles start to 'wander' off line. Once it's grouted, any small variations more or less disappear.
Try to gently drop a new tile tight up against the adjoining already laid tiles and 'pull' it away to insert spacers. That way you tend not to get too much surplus cement pressed up into the grout space.
Use a spare spacer to remove any excess cement that may have squeezed up into the grout line.
Don't try to lay too many tiles each time. Just put down enough cement for about 4 to 6 tiles. Trowelling the cement will tend to push up a ridge of surplus cement against the edge of already-laid tiles. Cut in along the edge of these tiles with a scraper to get rid of any excess cement before you lay any new tiles.
If you've got one, wear a pvc (waterproof) kitchen apron, those tile cutters spray water everywhere! You will get very wet!
Keep the bed of the cutter reasonably clean. After you've cut several tiles you'll find there's quite a build-up of debris on the bed of the cutter, tends to make the tiles a bit awkward to slide smoothly through the cutting blade, and the tiles will tend to ride up over any slightly larger chippings.
You'll find it easiest to use both hands to feed the tile, and that's right through to the end of the cut. Watch your fingers, especially if it's a narrow strip on one side, IYSWIM. A moment's lapse of concentration......
I've found a waxy pencil or crayon best to mark the surface of the tile; felt pen lines and ordinary pencil lines tend to get washed away by the water. I happen to have some coloured draughting pencils, and they are just that little bit waxy. Also use a colour that differs from the reddish slurry that forms after you've cut a few tiles.
Jeez, such a long answer - thanks. For the time it must have taken you might as well have come round and given me a hand :-)
I'm using the same porcelain tile on the floor as on the walls.
Yup - seems like good advice and cheap too.
Yes, although in a relatively small room I'll lay 'em out dry first.
Yup, got a round one for floor and V for walls. Although I need to have a look at Schluter to see what depth cement to use with Ditra board
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>I tend to use spacers vertically between tiles and then remove them when
Aah - spacers - I'm gonna have another go with these. I've always used cardboard box strips with good results - you can tweak it when things start to go astray.
I like that
OK
That's one thing that frightens me - the flexible floor cement sets in
15-20 mins - lots of small amounts at a time = lots of cleaning up buckets & tools
Never found it to be too much of a problem; I've recently used Unibond tile adhesive and grout from B&Q, as well as mix-it-up bagged adhesive and grout. Both lots stay fairly workable over smallish areas, although I found the Unibond has the edge over the bagged dry mix. Stays workable for longer. Just keep scraping your tools back into the tub, so to speak.
Also, spread adhesive only an inch or two beyond the area you're working, and then use a scraper to remove as much surplus adhesive as possible from around the edge of tiles you've just laid before trowelling the next lot of adhesive. I've always shot the surplus back into the tub without ill effect on the mix.
Hot water and a stainless pot scourer work well for cleaning tools afterwards.
Done quite a bit of floor tiling in my place - conservatory (which is big, big, big), bathroom, kitchen, emtrance hall - and until recently I'd always used the scraper or trowel to dole out the adhesive. Just recently tried a clean garden trowel to scoop the adhesive out of the tub. Worked a treat. Sounds so obvious when you think about it, but quite often the obvious doesn't always occur.
Missed this bit when I just replied. Are the tiles suitable for floor use? I know the sheds are selling a small selection of tiles suitable for floor and wall, but generally floor tiles are much harder and more durable than wall tiles.
Oh, and smooth, glossy tiles are a real danger used on the floor! :-(
Perhaps I'm being dim here. A tile is maybe 3mm/5mm thick so can be effectively regarded as a flat plane. So a square notch, for example to go round a door frame has two cuts at 90 degrees. If the angle through the thickness isn't 90 degreees it doesn't matter as long as it's on the underside of the tile?
What I'm saying is that for most purposes a tile is flat and only has two planes?
On Sun, 18 Feb 2007 22:50:12 -0000, "The Medway Handyman" mused:
I'm thinking that maybe you're thinking of a notch as a cut out of the corner of the tile requiring 2 cuts where the op was meaning like a notch to go round a pipe protuding from a wall so 3 cuts would be required if the pipe didn't happen to be at the edge of the tile.
With a tile saw you just make repeated cuts to the width required, then use the egde of the saw blade to square or round off the 3rd edge. Tile saws have a certain 'cutting' capacitiy on the edge of the blade.
This won't give an insert to go between the back of the pipe & the wall of course.
No, there's no need to water cool at all. I've used both carbide tipped & coated core drills with equal success, it takes but seconds. You go VERY easy while cutting the glaze, the rest takes a second or so. Carbide hole saws are surprisingly cheap too. Just don't use a hammer action, whatever you do. Slower the better. If the tile's already in place, put some masking tape over the spot where the pilot goes, in order to stop it dancing round the tile. Then, steady firm pressure is the go.
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