Than Cutting Tiles At Home

3 ways to cut tile at home
Methods and tools for cutting and fitting tiles with your own hands to the required dimensions. How to use a manual tile cutter and an angle grinder to cut tiles.

Cutting tiles angle grinder

Sometimes there are cases when you need to cut a narrow strip of tiles 0.5–2 cm, and an ordinary tile cutter does not take it, because his legs are too wide.

In such cases, you need to draw a notch line with a pencil and make a gash with an angle grinder with a diamond disc. But if you try to cut it off in one go, the narrow strip will break off in parts. Therefore, you need to smoothly and without pressure walk the angle grinder along the markings to get an incision about 2 mm deep. You need to walk along the mowing line with a disc, and not directly along it, then the width of the already narrow strip will not decrease.

Using the same method, running several times along the same seam will cut a narrow strip. The second and next time you can drive the angle grinder faster, but try to press it to the opposite side, then there will be no chips.

It is better to do this work by weight, so the vibration will go into the hands. When you already see that the strip will soon fall, it is advisable to put something soft so that it does not break.

Tile cutting with an angle grinder with a special diamond-coated disc on tiles

Be sure to wear glasses when working with an angle grinder.

How to cut tiles without a tile cutter

If you only need to cut a few tiles, it doesn’t have to be spent on a tile cutter. You can use the tools at hand:

• Glass cutter.
• Drill. It should preferably be with a victorious tip, as it will scratch the tile better.
• Nail.
• Construction knife.

Attach a metal ruler to the notch and draw once with a glass cutter or drill. A deep scratch should remain on the enamel. If you use a knife, but you will need to carry out several times.

Place the tile with the cut at the corner and press down on its edges with a sharp motion. The cut will not turn out perfectly flat, unlike the tile cutter, but you will not have to spend additional money.

How to cut porcelain stoneware

It is believed that porcelain stoneware is the hardest material from which floor tiles are made. You can trim it in the same way as a regular tile.

Sometimes simple floor tiles are more difficult to cut than porcelain stoneware. There is a hardened tile, on which, after cutting with a tile cutter, an incision in the glaze is almost invisible. And even a diamond disc does not take it on an angle grinder. The notch turns out to be torn, like after a tractor. In such cases, use an angle grinder and file a 2–3 mm groove from the back to mark the fracture location.

Angle Grinder

The cutting tool in the angle grinder is a diamond disc with a maximum diameter of 23 centimeters. The power of the tool must be 2 kW or more.

Paving Slab Cutting Process Angle Grinder:

• Strong fixation of the element.
• Cutting along the marked mowing line, occasional sprinkling with a small amount of sand is allowed to facilitate the process. It is desirable that the rotational speed of the disk is a maximum of 3500 revolutions per minute. During cutting, they move away from themselves, making sure that the cutting depth along the edges is greater than in the middle of the element.
• When working with an angle grinder, it is forbidden: to hold the tile overhang without reliable fixation (it is best to fasten it on a hard, even and stable surface with a clamp), work without using personal protective equipment, cut with a tool with any damage, worn out parts, etc.

Cutting features

Before cutting the tiles, you need to prepare very carefully. And we are talking not only about measuring and marking the concrete elements themselves, but also about the place of work. It is advisable to set aside a special place for safe cutting of tiles, which will be located at a sufficient distance from the rest of the material and the already installed coating, as well as machines, various objects, etc.

When dust gets on the wet surface of the elements, the dust spoils it much faster: for example, if the cut tile differs in color from the already laid one and dust from it falls from above, there is a risk of the need to completely change the coating.

To cut the tiles properly, you need to correctly measure. Usually, about 10-15% of the stock is added to the obtained figures (then you can cut off the edges and remove the excess). For tiles of the original shape, the margin is increased.

They cut the tiles strictly according to the intended mowing line, trying not to press hard on the material, since the tiles can fall out of hands or break into pieces. In a situation where the process of cutting an angle grinder is difficult, you can sprinkle the tiles with masonry sand in a small amount.

Things to Consider When Cutting

Cutting paving slabs, in essence, consists in processing a concrete product with a thickness of 2 to 8 centimeters in such a way as to end up with an element of the desired size and shape without damaging it and making neat edges. You can saw the tiles in different directions: across or along, diagonally or curly.

We must not forget that concrete has a fairly dense structure due to the peculiarities of the manufacture of tiles by vibrocompression and the introduction of crushed granite into the material. Therefore, all work must be carried out with a special tool, accurately and correctly.

The main stages of tile cutting:

• Careful product marking
• Cutting by the chosen method
• Accurate processing of the cut

The complexity of the cutting work and their volume depend on the pattern being created, the shape of the tile itself. Rectangular and square elements are simply cut across the markings. But when creating ornaments from tiles of complex shapes, different colors, you will need to apply certain efforts, because here you need to achieve the maximum clarity of the cut.

How to cut a tile with a glass cutter or an angle grinder?

With a glass cutter, you can make a straight cut in the material quite quickly. To do this, perform the following operations:

• Outline with a pencil (felt-tip pen) the line along which they are going to cut the tile;
• Press a square of material to the table with one hand, and with the other, directing the glass cutter towards oneself and holding it at an angle of 90 °, hold the tool with pressure along the intended mowing line;
• The trimmed plate is placed on a wooden block (or on the edge of the table) and with a blow of the palm, break the tile along the cut’s mowing line.

Scheme for cutting tiles with a stele cutter.

In addition, difficulties arise in its application when performing a curly cut mowing line. Now let’s look at how to cut a tile angle grinder.

To use it in facing work, you need to purchase a diamond disc, which allows you to use this universal tool for cutting tiles both along straight and curly lines. Compared to an electric tile cutter, an angle grinder is more mobile, but loses to it in terms of cut quality. After cutting the tile with this tool, you need to clean the sections with a file or sandpaper. Use an angle grinder like this:

• A cut line is drawn on the plate;
• The tile is fixed in wooden clamps, or it is pressed with the foot and an angle grinder is cut;
• The edges of the cut are cleaned with a file.

The use of a manual machine at work

Tile cutting scheme with a manual machine.

Such a plate cutter is used to cut plates with a thickness of no more than 5-6 mm. The tool has a quite reasonable price and makes it possible to relatively easily and quickly cut the required number of tiles. It is well suited for doing cladding work with your own hands.

It is applied in the following order:

• Mark the part to be cut with a pencil or felt-tip pen on the tile;
• The material is installed on the base of the device so that the cutting line is under the impeller of the machine;
• Using the tool handle, carefully cut the cut with the impeller along the marked mowing line;
• The tile is fixed on both sides of the intended cut using the so-called wings;
• Lightly hitting the handle of the machine, separate an unnecessary piece from the tile.

If after several such blows the tile remains intact, then try to cut the next plate.

How can you cut tiles with wire cutters?

Nippers are used to break off tiles.

This tool is used when it is necessary to cut tiles for holes in different places: for platbands, for water pipes, etc. Nippers do not cut in the literal sense of the word, but break off small pieces from the tiles along the cut line. The nippers themselves have 2 carbide-coated clamps. The upper one cuts through the glazed layer on the tile, and the lower one serves as a support for the plate. Cutting pliers are used like this:

• The contour of the recess is applied to the tile;
• Insert the tile into the nippers so that the upper clamp is on the marked mowing line;
• Squeeze both halves of the tool and break the tiles along the markings. You cannot “bite off” large pieces, the edges will be uneven or the tile itself will crack;
• Having completely passed along the marking and removing unnecessary material, the cut on the tile is cleaned with a file or diamond sandpaper.