Cutting Porcelin Tiles

apw99

I'm going to lay some porcelin tiles this weekend hopefully and am looking for tips on cutting.
i plan to use a hand-grinder with a diamond tip. Will that work out okay or will it splinter the tiles?
Also I got spacers with the tiles - shaped like an X - are they placed at the corners or stood vertically to create the consistant gap?
Any help appreciated!;)

Joey the lips

apw99 wrote: »

I'm going to lay some porcelin tiles this weekend hopefully and am looking for tips on cutting.
i plan to use a hand-grinder with a diamond tip. Will that work out okay or will it splinter the tiles?
Also I got spacers with the tiles - shaped like an X - are they placed at the corners or stood vertically to create the consistant gap?
Any help appreciated!;)

I am laughing.... You are a spacer.

The diamond tip on the grinder will work. A diamond cutter works well but as your a DIYER a diamond tip will work, you will just be a bit slow and might need a couple. Will it splinter the tiles. Most likely not but you wont know till you try. Leave the cutting till last it slows you down.

The spacers are x shape so you can bury them at the cross roads of the tiles but I watch the professionals and they stand them up so there is four at every corner. They then take them out when SET for neatness.

As you are using porceline I am sure you are using a flexable adhesives, not buckets and a flex grout.

Best of luck...

mad m

I seen an electric tile cutter in Mcquillians in city center, you put water in tray that is supplied with it so it does its cuts wet. I done a few of porcelin tiles with a machine like this and its aint half bad.....

I think it cost around €39......

Joey the lips

mad m wrote: »

I seen an electric tile cutter in Mcquillians in city center, you put water in tray that is supplied with it so it does its cuts wet. I done a few of porcelin tiles with a machine like this and its aint half bad.....

I think it cost around €39......

As the name suggests its called a wet saw and is the best instrament! but as this is a diyer i am guessing he does not mind slow once it works and is neat and what he has is slow, it works its neat if your careful and its cheap!

fintonie

Make sure the floor is level,
work out your starting position so that the cut on either side of the room are the same size or as close to as possible,
when mixing your adhesive don't mix to much so you have time to work with it,
draw a horizontal and vertical line at your starting point, as you lay the tiles these lines should help keep your tile gaps correct and show straight lines throughout,
the grinder will work fine just be carefully of kickback,
you will need kneepads,
when grouting don't let it dry to long or it will pull the arms off you when sponging it off

then have a nice cup of tea and bickie.

ctrl-alt-delete

Joey the lips wrote: »

I am laughing.... You are a spacer.

The diamond tip on the grinder will work. A diamond cutter works well but as your a DIYER a diamond tip will work, you will just be a bit slow and might need a couple. Will it splinter the tiles. Most likely not but you wont know till you try. Leave the cutting till last it slows you down.

The spacers are x shape so you can bury them at the cross roads of the tiles but I watch the professionals and they stand them up so there is four at every corner. They then take them out when SET for neatness.

As you are using porceline I am sure you are using a flexable adhesives, not buckets and a flex grout.

Best of luck...

In all fairness i think a diyer as you say will be more comfortable using a wet saw than an angle grinder, porcelin is a very hard material, and it is better to be cutting it with some form of cooling agent involved - i.e. the water in the wet saw.

If you do go down the wet saw route you will no doubt need to buy a better quality blade than the one that will come with the wet saw. I wouldnt say it will take long for the original blade to wear out.

As for the spacers, use them as they were intended, this is placed flush with the tile, where they intersect, they are the cross in the crossraods of the grout lines, this is the most sturdy way, you will use less, and they are easily removed once you don't push them down into the adhesive.

They do say you can bury them, but i never do.

A tip for you would be to cut all the tiles first, think about the job, the visual aspect. Do not go rushing into the job, if its diy you have all the time you need. Do not under any circumstances find the centre of the room and start from there.

The best thing to do is draw a line on your floor, parrallel off the longest straight wall in the area being tiled, from this, draw a square line intersecting it, you can put this line in the centre of the room if you like, make sure the lines are square - use pythagorean theorem ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_theorem)

when you have done this, dry lay the tiles down on the floor, using your spacers and all, working out how the tiles will work out when you reach all the walls and doorways etc - you want to find a starting point which means you dont end up with a dreadfull looking small cut along any wall, or in any doorway, find the best place to put them. Taking the time to do this will increase the final visual quality of the job.

I would recommend you dry laying all the tiles first, doing all your cuts included before you lay any down with adhesive. the tiles will be safe to walk on dry once the floor is clean underneath. Having done this you can then raise small sections at a time and then adhere them. I find this the best way of doing it for people not used to doing it.

Have a bucket of water and a sponge with you at all times when laying the tiles wet, use a scraper to run down the dge of each tile as you lay it, it will help keep them clean and will stop the spacer getting stuck in. Make sure you wash any adhesive off the tiles as you go, do not let it dry, it's much easier to clean and prepare for grouting as you are laying the tiles down.

any other info needed give us a shout, good luck, and above all take your time, do not rush or feel you need to rush. As another poster said mix small amounts of adhesive as you go until you get used to working with it.

You will enjoy it, and be proud of it if you follow the advice given,

Good Luck.

Carlow52

ctrl-alt-delete wrote: »

In all fairness i think a diyer as you say will be more comfortable using a wet saw than an angle grinder, porcelin is a very hard material, and it is better to be cutting it with some form of cooling agent involved - i.e. the water in the wet saw.

If you do go down the wet saw route you will no doubt need to buy a better quality blade than the one that will come with the wet saw. I wouldnt say it will take long for the original blade to wear out.

As for the spacers, use them as they were intended, this is placed flush with the tile, where they intersect, they are the cross in the crossraods of the grout lines, this is the most sturdy way, you will use less, and they are easily removed once you don't push them down into the adhesive.

They do say you can bury them, but i never do.

A tip for you would be to cut all the tiles first, think about the job, the visual aspect. Do not go rushing into the job, if its diy you have all the time you need. Do not under any circumstances find the centre of the room and start from there.

The best thing to do is draw a line on your floor, parrallel off the longest straight wall in the area being tiled, from this, draw a square line intersecting it, you can put this line in the centre of the room if you like, make sure the lines are square - use pythagorean theorem ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_theorem)

when you have done this, dry lay the tiles down on the floor, using your spacers and all, working out how the tiles will work out when you reach all the walls and doorways etc - you want to find a starting point which means you dont end up with a dreadfull looking small cut along any wall, or in any doorway, find the best place to put them. Taking the time to do this will increase the final visual quality of the job.

I would recommend you dry laying all the tiles first, doing all your cuts included before you lay any down with adhesive. the tiles will be safe to walk on dry once the floor is clean underneath. Having done this you can then raise small sections at a time and then adhere them. I find this the best way of doing it for people not used to doing it.

Have a bucket of water and a sponge with you at all times when laying the tiles wet, use a scraper to run down the dge of each tile as you lay it, it will help keep them clean and will stop the spacer getting stuck in. Make sure you wash any adhesive off the tiles as you go, do not let it dry, it's much easier to clean and prepare for grouting as you are laying the tiles down.

any other info needed give us a shout, good luck, and above all take your time, do not rush or feel you need to rush. As another poster said mix small amounts of adhesive as you go until you get used to working with it.

You will enjoy it, and be proud of it if you follow the advice given,

Good Luck.

One of the best tiling advice posts I have read. IMO the wet saw is your only man.
A key benefit of the dry laying is that u know u have enough tiles:)

apw99

Firstly thanks to all you folks who took the time to hep me - I really appreciate it...sound!

I am a DIYer but I'm not totally green, but as I say I have never laid tiles. I've just broken through a wall to double the kitchen so it is pretty big. I took the time to get a DVD from B&Q (not that I have much respect for B&Q) on tiling. It cost €2.50 and is absolutly brilliant. The only thing is it does not specifically cover porcelin hence my concern.

I marked out the room today and found the center. I then dry-laid the tiles to see if i need to move the centre-tile and lo and behold it works out pretty well balenced where it is except for one bit of wall which is a comprimise (as is life!).

Anyway I'm pretty well set up to.

One last question is about the sealing. The tiles are not sealed..I got 600mm x600mm porcelin for €9.95/m so what do you expect:D . The shop told me to lay them, dewax them with the 'wax-off', seal them BEFORE grouting, and then grout and then seal them again. Would you folks agree with this plan?

I think they will need to be re-sealed maybe every year or so but thats okay, I got a nice tile which I can afford on my budget so I got what I paid for and maybe a little extra.

The cuts are not too difficult so I will try the disc and if that does not work out I'll rent a cutter for a day.

Again fair play for the great responses;)

slimjimmc

Have you any way of guiding the hand grinder to ensure you can consistently cut a nice clean line without drifting off course? If not I'd think about using the proper tile cutter as it will have a fence guide to give you a clean straight line.

I'd be interested to hear how you got on with the job for future reference.

apw99

SliJimMc, I made some progress today. I got the centre tile and started working the line. I did about half of the kitchen and managed to get them straight. There is a kink in the floor which is where I took the wall out which has new floor leveller poured and this was tricky. hardest thing so far is getting the levels right. I made a stirring thing with a bit of threaded rod and a block link (you know the things for joining two rows of blocks??) which worked well attached to the drill, but the drill had a tough day!
Anyway, so far hardest part is the levels and I am half-way through the complete tiles (before cuts). I got a diamond disk and a pack of grnding disks in McQuilans today and will give the cuts a try. If I make a mess of them i will rent a tile cutter for a day. It's interesting but hard on the ol hands..I spend my day at a keyboard usually!
I'll keep you posted on whatever i learn (or fail to learn)!!
Cheers, APW

apw99

So folks - I got the tiles down. The diamond tipped disc worked a gem with the hand-grinder (4.5"). I had no problem getting straight cuts and it woked well, cut out the slots for radiator pipes as well. The first half of the tiles were not laid so even..but thats a learning curve, while the second half of the room went down really well. So overall I'm happy enough to date.
Now I'm ready to grout and I am looking for tips on how to get the grout neat and tidy. I have bagged(dry) grout bought and ready to go. Has anyone any tips on appication and finishing? Also what tools work best for getting clean lines on the grout? Any help apprectiated!:o APW

slimjimmc

Hi apw99,

If you haven't done so already, clean and seal the tiles first and let the sealer dry properly.

Here's a couple of good guides with pics and video
http://www.diydoctor.org.uk/projects/grout.htm
http://www.floorstransformed.com/applygrout.htm

Remove spacers.

Add powder to water a little bit at a time and make sure it's well mixed as you go to avoid lumps. You can mix it by hand but it's easier to use paddle mixer in a power drill. Keep the speed low, use a variable speed drill that allows you control the speed down to a couple hundred rpm otherwise you'll be wiping splatters off the walls and yourself.

Have an escape route, start furtherest from the door and work back so that you don't lock yourself in with newly grouted tiles.

tools : 1 bucket for mixing, 1 bucket for cleaning as you grout, variable speed drill, mixing paddle (make sure it's not to big for the drill chuck), sponge, optional grouting float makes job a easier.

apw99

Very good, it sounds easy enough (famous last words). I'm having a bit of trouble getting the wax off the porcelin tiles at the moment so grouting is postponed until tomorrow night. I need to seal the tiles again before I grout them I believe or else the grout might mark them, then once I grout i seal them one more time...hopefully the job will be complete at that. thanks fo the tips - the links were good.Cheers- APW