Toolbox: Cutting Tile

Help Around the House : Episode ARH-158 -- More Projects »
If you need to do some tile work around the house, you'll need to know how to cut a tile down to size. It's easier than you think--that is, if you have the right tools. To cut tiles for the small jobs, you need a glass cutter. Before you begin any work, always wear adequate eye protection and gloves.

To use the glass cutter, what we want to do is take a straight edge and use that as a guide. Then place your cutter down to the edge and listen for the distinct scratching sound. Then you take the scored tile and place it over something like the edge of a table and just place one hand on one side and kind of bump it with the heel of your other hand. You get a nice clean break.

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If you have the right tools, cutting tile is as easy as cutting a piece of cake!

If you have trimming to do--let's say you have a curve on the tip--what you want to do is just nip away, kind of crunch away a little bit at a time. Work your way up to the cut line. And to clean this up, use what I call a tile file. It is a carbide imbedded piece of steel.

For the bigger jobs, use the snap cutter; there is a carbide embedded wheel on the bottom of this handle. To use the cutter, simply slide the tile in place, scratch the wheel across the tile, pull it back to the middle, and hit the knob with your hand.