The next step in finishing your tiling project, is to make sure that the entire area is covered. There will be spots which will not be able to accommodate a full tile, so you will need to cut these specific tiles to size. Cutting tiles for corners, spaces or plumbing fixtures is important and the following techniques can be applied:

Cutting for walls
To cut tiles to fit at the base of the wall or around the edges of the floor, place a loose tile over the last full tile in the row.
Place a second tile on top and slide this top tile towards the wall until it touches. Remember to take the spacer width into consideration. Also consider the flow of any type of pattern on the tiles.

Using the edge of the top tile as a guide, draw a line on the tile below. (See image below).

Cutting Tiles

Use your tile cutter to cut a straight line. First score firmly along your marked line and then break the tile. Practice makes perfect! But don’t practice too much, otherwise you might just run out of tiles; ending up with a half tiled floor/wall.

Cutting for Curves
To cut a curved shape from a tile, draw the shape on the tile. Then, using the tile nippers, remove small bits until the curve has been achieved.
Another way of achieving the curve, without relying heavily on your tile breaking skills, is to make many straight, narrow cuts into the tile that end at the mark with a grinder. The narrower the cut, the smoother the resulting curve will be. You can then use your tile cutter to break apart the smaller cuts.

Toilet Base Curve
When you need to cut tiles to surround the toilet base, use a piece of newspaper and cut it into 4 tile sized portions. Lay the portions around the toilet base, and draw the shape to be cut out. Cut out the 4 pieces and place each portion on a tile and trace the shape to be cut onto the tile. (See image below)

Cutting Around Toilet Base

Piping Curve
When you need to cut tiles to surround any type of pipe protruding from the wall or floor, follow these steps to get the perfect cut each time:

First you will need to determine the centre point of the pipes, and mark it with horizontal and vertical lines. Place the tile on the vertical line and mark off the depth, which will be half of the pipe width.
You will then determine, depending on the layout of your tiles, where the curve should be on the horizontal line. Once you have the curve mapped out on the tile, it is time to proceed with nipping off portions of the tile, until you get the curve you need. (See image below)

Cutting Around Piping

To finish off the curve you have created, you can use the file to smooth it out.

Now that the all your tiles are cut to size and the entire surface is covered with tiles, the next step is: “to lay the tiles”. This will be discussed in the next article which will be posted on Friday, 28 October 2016.

Should you not have the inclination, patience or experience to tile yourself, do not despair, we are proud to announce that Valuetec has added Tiling, painting, plastering and light renovation work to our service offering in Pretoria. If you require assistance with a renovation project, give us a call or email us for more information and let’s add value to your home the professional, correct and affordable way.