Evening lads, I start a pretty big job in a couple of weeks, when all the floor areas are added up I will be laying tiles to 77 square meters. The tiles are sandstone 450x450 and 20mm thick, now I,ve got 2 wet cutters, one is a small plas plug which I use for cutting small kitchen tiles and the other one is a norton clipper which I use for heavier tiles, the query I have is that because the tiles are so big and quite heavy, I don,t think my clipper will be up to the job considering that every cut is going to have to be done on a wet cutter, so I was maybe for a one off thinking about hiring a heavy duty cutter when I came across a Titan 600w radial cutter on the net for about £100, are they any good?? should I buy it and can also then be kept for future jobs??? and is it up to the job I have coming up??? Also because of the weight of the tiles I am going to use ptb flexi instead of single part flexi, is this recommended??? Thanks in advance, your advice is always appreciated!!

Hi mate, the cutter "looks" OK for the money and would probably get you through the job. Bear in mind though that a lot of these cheaper machines - not just tiling tools, but drills / jigsaws etc are aimed at DIY market and so are not built to last.

Personally I always prefer to buy the best I can afford because I have learnt that if I buy cheap - I buy twice!

PTB would deffo help with the weight of the stone, but if you have a lovely flat smooth floor, then standard addy will be ok.

(always be aware that slower setting gear can "potentially" stain some stone due to water retention.)

Have got away with an angle grinder before on similar tiles ( after i had lent my wet saw to a mate who didn't bring it back on time )
sandstone is quite soft, just make sure you put a decent diamond blade in.
Would deffo save you a few quid if you are unlikely to be doing such a job in the near future and have two wet cutters already

Agree with Leatherface. Sandstone is quite soft. And the tile size you are cutting does not fall into the large format tile size range. 600x300 and 800x400. So easy to handle.

450mm is fine. What I learnt from a radial cutter is that its bulky to carry, set up, move and kept fed with water. Have you considered a snap cutter as a second tool?

Also don't forget your drill bits. Our kits will whizz through sandstone to give you perfect results. Each diamond crown is optimised to give a chip free finish. The kit we do has a mix of service pipes and fixtures & fittings. Excellent value for money in these credit crunch times. And the good news is that they are rock solid professional tools that wont fall apart like cheap Chinese or carbide drills.

hi again,
just a thought, how were you intending to seal the tiles ?

Sandstone eats sealer as it is very porous.
The last indian sandstone job I did was sealed with 2 coats of LTP cleartone oil - this brings out a lovely colour.
Then a further 2 coats of LTP mattstone sealer.
Once dried was impossible to tell tiles had been sealed unless you did water test !

This is very very important that you get sealing right !!!!!!!

My intention was to lay the tiles, then give them a coat with aqua mix penatrating sealer and another coat after I grout the tiles, is this ok???

Sorry, on a earlier thread I said the tiles were sandstone, that was wrong they are limestone, should this make any difference???

Originally Posted by cityone

Sorry, on a earlier thread I said the tiles were sandstone, that was wrong they are limestone, should this make any difference???

Yes
you will generally find that limestone tiles will take a bit less sealer than sandstone.
Always best practice to give limestone tiles one coat of sealer prior to fixing

Originally Posted by cityone

Sorry, on a earlier thread I said the tiles were sandstone, that was wrong they are limestone, should this make any difference???

it depends on which limestone jura tends to be hard and moleanos is soft, one you would easily cut with a grinder, the other one would chip ,so i would use a decent wet saw if i were you .

Originally Posted by garythetiler

it depends on which limestone jura tends to be hard and moleanos is soft, one you would easily cut with a grinder, the other one would chip ,so i would use a decent wet saw if i were you .

Forgot to re - mention about cutting

Best thing to do is get hold of a sample if possible if you are unsure
Try at home with grinder and wet cutter

Originally Posted by garythetiler

it depends on which limestone jura tends to be hard and moleanos is soft, one you would easily cut with a grinder, the other one would chip ,so i would use a decent wet saw if i were you .

Forgot to re - mention about cutting

Best thing to do is get hold of a sample if possible if you are unsure
Try at home with grinder and wet cutter
again be careful of staining - seal once first before start if poss

Once again lads your advice is priceless, thanks for the advice!!!