Help tiling round toilet...

[Gherkinboy]

Hello, I’m new to the forum (sorry if I'm posting in the wrong place!) and relatively new to tiling in general and I have a question....

I’ve got a job tiling a bathroom floor this week and I have to go round a toilet bowl. Removing the toilet and going underneath it isn’t an option and I was just wondering what is considered the best and easiest way to do this kind of thing?

Also, the tile cutting tool I have at my disposal is the one below - will this be OK for the job? :

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Any help much appreciated!

[CDS]

Hi Gherkin - Shame you can't remove the toilet as you'll get a much cleaner finish (it's not as hard as it looks but if you say it isn't an option??)

Firstly I would set out your floor so that grout lines run into the toilet- (Does that make sense? Imagine if the toilet was removed, floor tiled and WC replaced - would it straddle say 4 tiles or more) Will be far easier 'shaping 4 or 6 tiles than just 2 if you haven't done it before.

- Fit (or dry lay) any full tiles around the WC - To give youself something to work off.
- Get some cardboard make a close fitting template (allow for grout lines)and draw that template onto your tiles.
- Then cut down to your line in small strips using your cutter to leave a comb effect.
- You should then be able to tap these slivers out. You might need to tidy up unsmooth tile edges with your cutter or ideally some nippers.

No idea if your cutter will cope, might struggle with decent grade porcs. take it slow and wear goggles!

Probably worth a practise run on an off cut to get a feel for the sort of cuts you get. Any queries just ask

[Gherkinboy]

Cheers for the advice CDS that's great, all seems to make sense to me! I'd have never thought to cut into the tile like a comb and then tap the slivers out - what did we ever do without the internet eh

[Phil Hobson]

Nice one CDS,coul'nt put it better myself

[doug boardley]

same as CDS from me too

[albyshellshear]

im with cds on this one

[stevee]

this had to be cut round, using the above comb method on a plasplugs cutter,steve

[SOTON STEVE]

Or...
Lay your tiles as previously stated to see where your grout lines come to.

Draw your grout line on the floor to the bowl, vertically and horizontally.

Use approx 10cm long pieces of masking tape and start to lay the tape around around the bowl sticking it to the floor. make sure your continually overlapping each piece of tape untill your all the way round.

Mark on the tape where your grout line hits the bowl.

Measure off the distance of the tiles to the bowl along the grout lines.
Dont forget to add in the grout line width.

transfer these measurements to the tile your going to cut.

Peel off the tape on the floor and place it in the tile, lining up the marks that you have on the tile and the tape.

Hey presto......



Next I do it I'll take step by step pics.



Well .......it works for me.

[Wingn]

An advisable thing to do would be to mark your template about 10mm smaller overall. This means it's just a case of running the pencil round the toilet bowl (onto the tile) and you'll get a perfect neat tight profile.

[guil.rocha]

Couldn't have put it better myself CDS

[whitebeam]

Exactly what I would have said

[Gherkinboy]

Cheers for all the help guys, much appreciated

[penkhull]

You can actually draw your template on to the tile you're going to cut. You place a tile on top of your last full tile and then using another tile inbetween the toilet and the tile you've placed on top of your last full tile you can transfer the shape (Trace the shape).

Much easier to show than explain!