Making Curved Cuts In Ceramic Tile

Cut tile surface with glass cutter.

Making curved cuts in ceramic tile. You do need to go fairly slowly and evenly and keep the blade moving. Mark the curve that you need to cut onto the rough back side of the porcelain tile with a pencil or marker. If you do have to cut a curved piece there are two ways to do it. The low tech method involves using a pair of tile nippers.

Tile nipper to nibble away a curve. Next either use a grade school style compass or just find a round object about the size of your hole and trace out a circle that touches all three points of your triangle. Home improvement ron hazeltons demonstrates how to make a curved cut in cermanic tile when working on kitchen or bathroom sinks and countertops. Not that difficult even in porcelain tile which is much harder than ceramic.

Making curved cuts in tile is a two step process. In the first step you score a rough line with a glass cutter. You may need to make these cuts to accommodate the corners of the room or wall you re tiling or to make room for outlets to show through a tiled wall. This is for a half circle type of curve which will be probably the most common curved cut you ll need because every bathroom needs a toilet.

Wet saws can easily wash pencil or marker marks made off the glazed side of the tile. First you have to draw outline of the cut that you need to make on the tile itself and mark the part you are going to remove with an x. Cutting tile allows you to fit pieces in corners along household fixtures in irregular places or for other purposes. Home tile installation projects frequently require some tile cutting.

Whichever of the above methods you choose to make your straight tile cuts you ll probably want to use tile nippers to make curved and corner cuts in your tile pieces. If you lay tile it is rare to do a job and not have to cut a curved piece of tile. The point is simply to dig out a rough line in the glazed surface of the tile which will help you cut a better line in your second step.