1st Job: Tools and techniques for cutting thin pieces (19mm)

[plugger2]

hi tilers -- my first post (and my my first tiling job). I'm very glad to have come across this forum, looks like a great resource for advice from the "pros".

My project is a kitchen backsplash. I'm using 200x200 ceramic wall tiles (nothing special here, I would think). I'm planning to use 1.5mm grouting spacing.

I have a couple of cutting challenges. I need to cut a total of 20 thin (19mm) tile slices to fill the gap between the benchtop and the first row of fill sized tiles. I was reading up on tools, and realised that the standard manual tile cutters might be difficult to use for pieces this thin. So I've bought myself a wet tile table saw. Nothing fancy (I'm sure it is not of pro standard, just a light duty made-in-china DIY jobby), but it was at a price that could be justified for the single job. This is the one:

eBay Australia: Buy new & used fashion, electronics & home d

I've also bought a diamond tile saw cutting blade for my angle grinder, and a 4 pack of Vitrex "tile files". These are the "tile files":

eBay Australia: Buy new & used fashion, electronics & home d

As well as cutting the thin 19mm slices of tile, I need to diagonally cut corners off 28 of the 200x200 tiles to allow for 7 diamond shaped 75x75 inlay feature tiles.

Finally, I need to mitre the edges on 8 tiles and tile pieces for a single out side corner. The customer (my wife) is very adamant that it must be a mitre job -- no trim allowed! :-)

So there it is lads. Clearly, my life is in your hands from this point on! Any advice that will more likely lead to a happy customer will be much appreciated. Am I on the right track with the tools I have for my cutting requirements? Are there particular things to observe when cutting and mitering to avoid chipping the glazed surface etc.?

All advice and pointers much appreciated. :-)

[Bri]

Your little saw should easily cope with the thin cuts and mitres (mind those fingers!)


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[Mike]

is there no way of avoiding the small cuts? maybe put them at the top? a manual cutter should cut them no problem at 19mm

[bobbynz]

what size cuts would you get if you horizontaly centred the walls. ie. put the centre of a tile to the centre of the wall you should end up with two large cuts top and bottom. But check for any other cuts you might have. you really want to have as little small cuts as possible and keep each wall symmetrical within the area you are tiling.
If your wet cutter wont allow you to cut on a 45 degree then you can use your hand grinder very carefully. Practice on some offcuts first

[Alan.P]

As above, try and set out to avoid the small cuts, small cuts NEVER look nice and should be avoided, the rest sounds / looks about right.

[Alan.P]

And just an after thought, British Standards is 2mm spacers minimum for walls.

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[suave]

welcome!

[Nick HBS]

Hi mate, you and I are in the same boat as I'm just coming to the end of my very first job. I bought a cheap (£35) wet tile cutter from B&Q and it was more than capable of cutting some very fine edges.

You'll find this is an excellent forum, everyone is very supportive of newbies like us.

[kilty55]

hi plugger are you in oz? i think there is also a new ausatralia forum too?

[plugger2]

hi again,

Well, after one aborted first attempt in January, I finally back to this job, and it's now almost done. All that's left to do is the grout sealing and the caulking with silicone (benchtop, vertical wall joints, under cabinets.)

I'm wondering how long to leave the grout before sealing... unfortunately, no guidance on the product data sheet for this (I read some people say leave grout to dry for up to weeks before sealing, but given these are only 2mm joints I thought thatmight be overly cautious.) The grout has been in for three days now. What do people think? (Standard cementuous colour grout, only mention of curing time is to leave 24 hours before removing grout haze.)

I'm pretty pleased with how the job turned out after all. The aborted attempt was trying to start from the middle of the wall and work outwards, but the gravity would not be denied, and tiles were slipping. I thought the adhesive would be more glue-like and hold them in place while they set. Nope.

A batten underneath the row would have been a good solution, but tricky to fix since the back wall was already tiled (the back wall is tile over tile -- I know, I know, no lectures please, it was an "on balance" thing.)

I tell you what, though, I tried to remove one tile after letting the adhesive set for three days, and it was ON THERE. I ended up having to break the tile with a hammer to get it off. I don't think the rest are going to be dropping off anytime soon!


Here's a picture of the tiled backsplash (caulking still to be done):

Backsplash_photos 001_s.jpg

Those thin pieces along the bottom turned out to be more like 13mm than 19mm. Perhaps it's also easier to see why putting them where they are was the "least bad" solution. Also, I did need the tile saw to cut those. No way the Sigma currter was going to do anything that thin.

One thing that turned out well was my bevelling on an outside corner. This was tricky, but I am pleased with the result:

Backsplash_photos 002_s.jpg

One thing I was less pleased with was the fine chipping on the top edge of my sliver cuts showing up the coloured grout. Originally, I had bee planning to use a light colour grout, but changed the plan to a dark brown after the tiles were up and could easily see what a dark grout would look like.

If I had known I was going to use a dark grout, I probably would have used only finished edges (would have meant I'd only get two slivers out of tile, but what the hell... they weren't expensive tiles.)

Too late now. Fortunately, the "customer" (my wife) doesn't think it's really a big deal:

Backsplash_photos 003_s.jpg

Still, any cover-up "cheats" that people know to hide fine suface chipping in the glaze like this?

The other thing I discovered working from the bottom up was that the benchtop (inevitbly) was not perfectly square to the bottom lof the overhead cabinets --- it drops off a few mm moving from right to left. This resulted in a bigger gap above the tiles on the the left hand side compared to the right:

Backsplash_photos 004_s.jpg

Backsplash_photos 005_s.jpg

If I had realised, I might have tried adjust in the size of the slivers to get progressively larger moving left to right, but maybe that would have looked even worse, In any case, I'll try to disguise the discrepancy with silicone to some extent.

So there it is: My first (and quite possibly last!) tiling job.Thatnks evryone for the generous advice -- on a job like this, you learn as much as you can before you start by talking to people who know, and learn the rest by doing! I'm done. (For now, at least. ;-) )

[doug boardley]

it looks fine mate, apart from the thin uts at the bottom, I'd have been inclined to lower the wall units so there wouldn't have been a need for any slithers, but hey-ho hindsight is a wonderful thing. Looks good though, well done, and most importantly SWMBO is happy

[prceramics]

looks good mate to avoid the chipping on the slithers always use the good side of the tile (the non cut bit) where it meets another tile but all said and done i bet your other half is well happy witch is the main reason we live and breathe.