Rennovating and thinking of tiling - need tool recommendations please

[edwardk]

Hi - I'm new here but have read around a little bit.
I've been rennovating a place for a while now and it's nearly tiling time so I thought I'd get sorted out with tools and materials shortly.

I've got a fair few buildery type tools but nothing too tile worthy and am ignorant of tiling in general.

Having said that the weekend before last a mate popped round to show me a spot of tiling - she lent me a Plasplug wet disc cutter she had from B&Q for about £50 I think. Anyway, the few cuts I had to do tiling the floor of the cloakroom went ok - this was with porcelain tiles maybe 12mm thick over about a metre and a half square.

Anyway she's just bought a stack load of limestone, 20mm thick granite and travertine etc along with some porcelain and needs her cutter and tools back.

I've got a kitchen floor to do that's about 20m2 and a hall floor thats about 6m2 and a bathroom upstairs that's about 12m2 floor and then some around the walls no doubt.

I was wondering what cutter to buy - initially I was looking on Axminster at te £40 jobbie but having read a bit on this forum I think that this would be a waste of time. Also I wasn't aware of manual cutters like the ones on the youtube vids in the admin part of this forum. They look good and not as noisy of spinny disk dangerous....

I don't mind buying good tools and have so far mostly been drawn towards the wood work side of things so have some Makita and DeWalt stuff like planers / slide mitre saw / 1/2" router etc.

Guess I'm looking to spend about £200 or so on all the tools I need - and I'm guessing most of that will be on the cutter with a few quid on spreaders and so on.

Keen to give it a go and reckon from the taste I've had and the other work I've done it should be ok if I take it slow.

Thanks for any advice.
Ed
(Oh will have a bit more to spend as will be VAT free here in Guernsey)

 

[DHTiling]

Here's a list of tools to start you off... TradeTiler.Ltd Starter Tool List maybe give dave@TT a ring and discuss your needs with him...he will sort you out no probs....guernsey is no probs ..

 

[edwardk]

Thanks for the link - will check it out - can work out the peripheral tools like spreaders and sponges from that list but still in the dark a bit about cutters.

I've just been round to get some of that thick granite cut at my friends house - she hired a big wet cutter for the day so now I have the hearth cut.

I'm guessing that the rest of my needs will be for cutting porcelain or thinner natural stone tiles (maybe 12mm to 15mm limestone or travertine etc). I've only had exposure to disk cutters - it looks like the norm is the manual slide cutters like the Robi ones ?

What would be a good option for my needs of tiling a smallish house rennovation project ?
Brands to go for ? Ones to avoid ?
Models to go for ?

I know it's personal preference alot of the time !

Thanks
Ed

 

[edwardk]

Right - guessing it is down to choosing either a wet cutter or a manual one.

Checked out the manual ones in the local tile shop and bloke said you can't cut L-shapes (ie if doing a stretcher bond - sometimes need L shapes in corners).

Really not sure if I need a wet disk cutter or a manual one ?

Or maybe i should get a manual one and borrow my mate's wet cutter for the odd cut ?

Do you generally use manual cutters more than wet cutters ?

Any advice ?
Thanks
Ed

 

[medlar]

i use my manual cutters a lot more than wet cutters,the thing with L shaped cuts is that you dont need to use w wet cutter,you can use an angle grinder with diamond tipped blade, do 1 cut with the grinder down 1 of your marks,then cut along your other mark with your manual cutter and snap,obviously some tiles require a wet cutter

 

[Dan]

Bumpy bump bump