# Forum Home Renovation Tiling  Porcelain tile - Cutting toilet hole

## Gooner

I need to cut a hole in a 45x45cm porcelain floor tile for the toilet waste. I.e. the hole has to be about 10cm in diameter. 
Unfortunately the hole needs to be near the edge of the tile, but still entirely within the tile. I have attached an image for reference. 
Whats the best way of doing this? I am thinking I need a diamond hole saw for the job, but I assume it would be expensive for a diamond hole saw this size. (Especially considering I only need it for one cut!). 
I have a 50mm diamond hole saw. Perhaps use this and then tile nip it? I have a feeling it will look like sh*te if I do it this way. 
Any suggestions would be appreciated. 
While I am at it, I will also ask about another cut I need to make to the tiles. I have attached another image showing the types of cuts I need to make around the corner shower. I assume the only way to make these cuts is this a tile saw? I.e. can I use a manual tile cutter for these types of cuts? I assume not. 
Thanks for any help.

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## Vernonv

Gooner,
Check out the pic below.
. 
I did this with a 100mm diamond blade (about $10) on an angle grinder and a pair of tile nippers (if that's their proper name). 
Draw the circle on both the front and back of the tile. Then using the angle grinder, start cutting the circle into segments (cut as close to the circumference as possible). Do this from the front and back. Keep going until you have cut the bulk of the hole away.
Then using the nippers start chipping away small pieces of the hole until you have it to the desired shape. Some times it helps to undercut the circumference on the back of the tile - makes chipping away at hard thick tiles a bit easier.

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## Animalector

you cannot do the second type with a scribe type tile cutter, you will need to use a diamond blade on an angle grinder or a bench tile cutter, I paid $18 for my angle grinder for our media room tiling project and it's still going strong even after some concrete cutting..  the diamond blades are $10ish or something..  
Just go nice and slow and keep the tile well supported 
Andy

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## Vernonv

Sorry, forgot about the second cut. Do as Animalector said ... use an angle grinder and diamond blade. 
The only thing I can add is to cut the tile in a number of shallow cuts on the face of the tile (at least to start with). This is because the tile may break as you are nearing completion of the cut and if the top is already scored, the break is more likely to happen in the bottom of the tile and leave the face still intact.

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## Ronaldo451

I had to cut a hole for a mixer tap for the laundry that was bigger than the burr drill I had for cutting 35mm pipework holes in tiles. Likewise did not want to fork out for a one time holesaw, but it was only in a soft biscuit tile. 
I used the 35 mm holesaw to centrecut where the tap was going, and then cut 'slots' across the diameter of the hole with a diamond continuous rim blade in a 100mm angle grinder - ie held the blade at 90 degrees to the tile and poked it through from the back until the rim met the pencil mark for the size hole I needed. Made quite a few slots and then joined and tidied them up with the grinder. Should work with porcelan tiles if you take your time.

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## Gooner

Thanks for the reply guys. 
Vernov, the hole you made for your toilet waste looks very good from that photo. Any chance of a close up photo to get a better idea of what I can expect? 
I just want to point out that I assume your guys have done this in ceramic tiles. What about porcelian floor tiles? I assume porcelain floor tiles are another beast altogether.

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## Vernonv

> Vernov, the hole you made for your toilet waste looks very good from that photo. Any chance of a close up photo to get a better idea of what I can expect?

  Sorry Gooner, the toilet is already in and it's fully enclosed at the back, so you can't see the hole (although I still made sure the hole was neat  :Biggrin: ).   

> I just want to point out that I assume your guys have done this in ceramic tiles. What about porcelian floor tiles? I assume porcelain floor tiles are another beast altogether.

  The tiles I used (floor and wall) are full thickness porcelain tiles ... very hard (which I found actually make the job of chipping out the circumference easier). Just take your time and try not to chip off too much at a time.

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## autogenous

There is tile cut places that provide a service of cutting one off tiles

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## Animalector

ha yeah there are tile cut places but the rate of successful cuts is actually quite crap and you gotta pay for all of them..  (from memory it was like 70% success or something pretty bad) I don't recall the exact number.. 
Indeed my tiles were ceramic, so goodluck with the porcelain. 
Andy

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## autogenous

> Indeed my tiles were ceramic, so goodluck with the porcelain

  If they're breaking tiles then you'll break more, probably saving you cash. 
The issue with porcelein is that you may have found a value for money size tile. 
If they are impossibly hard then your in trouble.

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## Tools

A lot of tile shops will do it for you. They prbably don't guarantee that they won't break them though. 
Tools

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## Gooner

Well if Vernonv did it in porcelain, I will give it a try. Cut doesn't have to be perfect as the toilet will be sitting on top of it covering the hole. But I want it to look neat regardless. 
If it doesn't work out then I may try to find a place that could cut if for me.  
Tiles were $84 sqm (45 x 45) so I don't want to be breaking too many of them. 
I actually just found a 100mm hole saw on ebay for $20 + $7 postage. Hmmm... Each tile costs around $17, so it may be cost effective to buy the hole saw. Does anyone know if these things work well on porcelain?

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## autogenous

Cut a square hole with a 4 inch diamond blade from a tile shop
Tell them what you want the blade for 
As long as the square doesn't exceed the outside of the toilet riser you in for the money shot.

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## Vernonv

Some people seem to think it's difficult to cut holes in tiles, but I don't reckon it's that hard. 
In the toilet (see pic above) I had to do 6 holes ranging from about 40mm (hardest to do) to 100mm (easiest to do) and all but 1 was completely surrounded by tile. I did not break a single tile, and was very happy with the quality of the finish of each hole. This isn't my first tiling job, but it is the first time I've had to cut holes in tiles.
Give it a go, you'd be surprised how easy it is.

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