# Forum Home Renovation Tiling  Cutting 600 x 600 ceramic wall tiles.

## Tamerton

:Biggrin:  Hi, I have some 600 x 600 ceramic wall tiles for my kitchen splash back and before I start I want to know the best way to cut these as they are so big .Mainly long edge cuts when I trim to fit is the main problem. Any advise is welcome. I have had some experience tiling but not with such large tiles and it will be expensive if I break them. Thanks for your help.

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## Ronaldo451

I have only had one go at tiling and my first effort was 300 x 300 polished porcelain floor tiles laid - black and white checkerboard laid on the diagonal. That meant that every edge tile had to be cut diagonally, hopefully with the end points intact. Porcelain tiles are 'hard as' and I thought the cuts going wonky and tiles cracking all ways was just my lack of experience. Don't know if I was imagining it or not, but the black tiles also seemed to be even harder than the white tiles. 
I ended up getting a cheap electric wet tile saw from Bunnings and used that to nick the corners in 5 - 10mm where the score line was going and then joined these by scoring with a good manual tile cutter - trying to cut the whole length with the electric saw would have driven me and the neigbours crazy as it really makes a noise and does minimally chip. This kept the points intact and gives the crack along the score line a bit of incentive on where to go. The width of the blade cut at the points was not noticable in the final job.
When I moved onto the soft biscuit wall tiles I could not believe how soft and easy they were to cut, which really showed me how hard porcelain tiles actually are.

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## Ronaldo451

PS - I also used a belt sander to clean up/trim down the edge and put on a slight chamfer where necessary

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## zacnelson

I also found a belt sander does wonders for cleaning up chipped edges from using a tile saw

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## familyguy

I tried one of those small cheap electric tile cutters when tiling my kitchen with 500x500 porcelain tiles, gave up after trying to cut the first tile. Ended up using my 5inch angle grinder and a decent diamond blade, did the whole job with one blade cutting faster and straighter than the cheapo electric cutter which I suspect  would probably have done a reasonable job if it had a decent diamond blade fitted.

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## denwol

Manual tile cutter gives the cleanest cut in my opinion. Angle grinder with good diamond blade did the small cuts. I thought the job came up pretty good.

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## Ronaldo451

Seeing as how I have (sort of) mastered the technology - here is a pic of the first tiling effort.  
I replaced the floorboards of the area to be tiled with 19mm compressed cement screwed to bearers which had been lowered so that the finished floor height after tiling would be the same as the adjacent areas.  
I then tiled first and put the skirting on top.

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## zacnelson

those black and white tiles look AMAZING

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## Ronaldo451

_those black and white tiles look AMAZING_  
Thanks Zac. They continue around the corner of the laundry into a toilet and cupboard area. The intention was to upgrade our house from a fairly basic 1941 brick bungalow to a more 'genteel' art deco type by improving the fittings and finish. Was very happy with the way these tiles turned out - especially for my first go at it!. Originally considered using 'plain' 200 x 200 glazed tiles as the polished porcelain ones were twice the price but glad we went with them. The smaller tiles would probably have made it look more like a bathroom than a quality feature. 
This is at the back of the house in a skillion area leading off the kitchen - that's the main bedroom with the glass panelled double doors on the right. The doors were bought from Ebay for $20 and came up great after a lot of sanding and painting. Really add a lot of light while maintaining privacy. 
Will use the same tiles in the foyer area at the front entry for effect and continuity. That will be about Stage 7 of what had become a reno with an increasing number of stages! Got an ensuite, walk in wardrobe and TV room to do first...that starts in the next few weeks. 
PS - here's a pic of the laundry door with leadlight to match the leadlight laundry window - another Ebay special, $90 for both!

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## Gooner

Ronaldo, that tiling job does look very good judging from those photos. Should be quite proud of that result if it is your first attempt at tiling. 
I just bought some 45x45 polished porcelain tiles today for my ensuite. (Which has turned out to be a 1 year reno job). I also bought some 30x60 ceramic wall tiles. 
I am now also contemplating how to cut these tiles. Wondering if I should hire a wet saw considering I have to make some tricky cuts around the doors and corner shower. 
Cutting these large tiles (well) seems like an expensive undertaking for the DIYer.

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## Vernonv

Gooner,
I just did our toilet (and will soon do the bathroom) in 300 x 600 (x 10mm thick) full thickness porcelain tiles ... very, very hard tiles. The tile supplier told me I'd need to cut them with a wet saw (and I think he was right).  
Anyway, I checked at the local hire place and they could hire me a wet saw for about $70 a day. In the end I got a chinese wet saw off ebay for about $300 (new). Cuts very well and am already onto my second blade. Once I'm finished tiling I'll resell the saw and hopefully recoup 50 to 75% of it's original cost.  
Well worth looking into I reckon.

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