Do you struggle to cut tiles to the correct size?

Cut Tiles Right First Time

Tiling with full tiles onto a perfectly smooth and perfectly square wall is a relatively simple job which is easy to DIY. Unfortunately these conditions are unlikely to be the ones you are facing in your kitchen or bathroom. We consider it our job to help you with the difficult bits, and we always like to share DIY tips and tricks whenever we find something that might help you.

Cutting tiles to give you the correct joint size may be something you find difficult, and the problem is that if you cut a tile too small it is useless, and if you cut it just slightly too big it is very difficult to trim it without breaking the tile. It is best to get the tile marked out correctly in the first place, so you can make an accurate cut.

A further challenge comes around the edges of the room, where you need to cut tiles to take account of walls that are not plumb, which means you might need a cut that is angled across the face of the tile – but how do you make sure the grout line is going to be an even width to it looks professional when you have finished.

DIY Tiling Made Easy

The Tile Clip Pro is a guide which is designed to help you get an accurate cut and evenly-spaced joints. It quickly slots on the edge of tile so you can offer it up and mark it against the wall or floor tiles you have already laid, knowing that the result will be an even grout line. The thickness of the Tile Clip Pro gives you an accurate and even grout line of 2.5mm, if you use the smaller one, or 4mm if you use the larger one.

The Tile Clip Pro comes with two sizes of tile guide – 9mm and 14mm, and they are adjustable, so they can take almost all tiles on the market. You can buy Tile Clip Pro online here for only £2.99 including postage.

Using Tile Clip Pro to get a Professional Finish

The finished edges of tiles always look better than a cut edge; therefore you want any cut edges to be against the boundaries of the room.

Unless your walls are perfectly plumb you are likely to need a cut that is slightly angled in order to give you an even grout line in the corners and edges of the room.

1. Slide the Tile Clip Pro on the edge of the tile and measure the size of cut you need to make. The width of the Tile Clip Pro automatically allows for the space you need either side of the tile to get an even and accurate grout line. Note that the cut edge of the tile is going to face into the corner – so you will mark and cut the tile and then turn it before sticking it to the wall.

   

2. So place the top of the tile against the bottom of space and mark it (see above).
3. Then place the bottom of the tile against the top of the space and mark it (see below).

   

4. Cut along that line between the two marks, and then rotate the tile 180 degrees when you place it on the wall so the cut edge of the tile faces the corner.

You can see this process using the Tile Clip Pro in this video guide.

We have loads of projects and videos on tiling and decorating in our main Projects section on the website.