Fitting zamora, what's best for cutting?

**Statia** · 01-11-2009

Hi guys,
I'm going to be stripping out our shower cubicle soon and refitting with new tray and enclosure. We went to Topps yesterday and came back with 4m2 of zamora beige 14.8 x 60 tiles for the enclosure. I also came out with a bag of Bal pro adhesive:

I've been onto eBay just this minute and ordered a set of 365 drills for porcelain. The only thing I don't have is a tile cutter, and I've never worked with porcelain before, and these tiles are pretty thick. I have a friend who's happy to loan me a powered wet tile cutter (diamond blade job), but it's only cheap and I doubt the blade would last with these tiles. I'm only going to be doing straight cuts.

Would I be best borrowing the wet tile saw and buying a decent blade wheel, if so which are best for these tiles? Or should I buy or hire a cutter? What do you recommend for these bad boy tiles? I noticed Topps advertised they hire out cutters. Is this worth considering?

Thanks in advance!

**diamondtiling** · 01-11-2009

Hi Statia, you would be better with a dry cutter, you will have lots of cuts and this will be the quickest way to do them. If Topps have a cutter that will manage then hire one from them, there is no point buying one for a one off job. What are the walls made up of and are you going to tank the shower area?

**Statia** · 01-11-2009

Hi DT,

Thanks for your response.

The walls are currently plasterboard on stud walls. I am going to rip off the existing board and tiles together and replace with aquapanel from wickes. I was going to pass on tanking with using the aquapanel, but I'm not 100% sure. What do you think?

Also, if you do think tanking is worth doing, is this any good?:

Dunlop Shower Waterproofing Kit

Thanks!

**diamondtiling** · 01-11-2009

I have never used the Dunlop tanking kit although I have used a similar paint on system which worked fine, tanking is for your piece of mind, if installed correctly then you should have no leaks. The aqua panels from wickes are what I use although I do tape all joints and corners and apply a paint on tanking system, either Granfix or Ardex systems, you could use a membrane type tanking kit which are readily available at most good tile shops and are easy to apply. Some tilers stick with the aqua panels on their own, I prefer to be safe rather than sorry later.

**Statia** · 01-11-2009

If I fitted the aquapanel, taped the joints (including upstands) then applied a paint on tanking system would that be a good job done? Could I then put adhesive straight on top of tanking and fit porcelain tiles?

Thanks!