Cutting Bathroom Wall Tiles

Tiling isn't too tricky a job and you can save money by tiling your bathroom yourself. You don't need a lot of expensive equipment or any special skills.

If you've never tried tiling before you might find it easier than you think. There are plenty of guides online and in DIY books for tiling.

Here we are just looking at cutting tiles.

When you've fitted all the whole tiles in your tiling project, you will more than likely have to cut some tiles to fit the size of your room and to go around the fixtures and fittings.

It's worth measuring each space where you want a partial tile to go individually as you'll most often find that walls, floors and ceilings are never totally straight. They could either have been built that way or the building could have moved slightly over the years. Don't forget when measuring that you will need to allow space for grout round the edges.

Safety First
Always remember to wear safety glasses or goggles when cutting tiles or drilling through them. Tiles can shatter and small shards can be dangerous if they hit your eyes.

There are several ways to cut tiles. Some require more equipment than others so you need to assess if it's worth buying a tile cutter. If you have a large tiling job to do, or are planning on tiling other areas of your home, then it could be a good time saving investment. Perhaps you could also borrow one from a friend, many people will have a tile cutter they don't use very often.

If you only have a small tiling job to do then a small carbide tipped cutter will do the job and it's the cheapest option. These are fairly simple to use. Mark a line in pencil where you want the cut to be, then score along the line with the cutter using a metal ruler to get a straight line. Next place matchsticks under each side of the score line, and press gently but firmly on each side. It should break cleanly in two. Tiles don't always break how you want them to though so expect a few breakages and make sure you buy extra tiles for your project. Porcelain tiles are especially tough so you might find you need to apply quite a bit of extra pressure to snap these. You can also get cutters with a wheel on that score the tile in a similar manner - imagine a pizza cutter and it's the same principal!

You may find you need to cut some awkward shapes. A tile saw can be useful for this. Hold the tile in a vice for sawing. Wrapping a piece of scrap material around the part of the tile that is being held by the vice will prevent scratches on your tiles.

DIY Resources:

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