Have You Ever Cut A Tile Successfully?

Being at home a lot these days often means a stint of ‘do it yourself’ jobs. Mine usually consist of a brush and a tin of paint. I’m quite good at that, but anything else and I may struggle. Don’t get me wrong, I will have a go at most things provided it’s safe to do so, but painting is usually the diy subject I can complete with relative ease.

For sometime now, we have needed a new sink in the bathroom. It sprung a small leak a few months ago and had it patched up by a local plumber. He did recommend that it should be replaced a.s.a.p. You know how it is, drip drip, splosh splosh, more dosh! Like most things, it got put on the back burner and forgotten about.

A while later, I was drawn to a website selling bathroom sinks, as you are. Who knew there were so many different shapes and sizes to choose from? All with fancy names too. The Belmont, The Arezzo, Keswick and so on. I had to double check to see I wasn’t on a hotel booking website. Then I came across a ‘special offer’, one of those too good to be true offers for a smart ceramic basin with £50 off the retail price. Free delivery too! So, without further ado, I pressed the ‘Buy’ button and the ‘Waldorf’ fancy sink was dispatched to our house.

A few days later and the heavy parcel arrived with fragile stamped all over it. I did check it over then put it back in its well padded box. There it remained for the next few months! Well, the old one was still working so why fix something that isn’t broke? To be honest, I haven’t much confidence with fitting one of these things and together with the likelihood of me flooding the house out, I left the new one where it was, for now.

After a chat with the son in law, we decided both of us would have a go at taking out the old one and replacing it with the all new shiny ‘Waldorf’ basin. In all fairness, it went quite well. There were a few dribbles here and there, not from me, but from the connections to the taps. All in all, I can’t complain, the son in law did all the contortionist stuff in the cupboard below. He also got a quick soaking too, but he soon dried out.

After making his way home, he left me with the chore of fitting small pieces of marble either side of the new ‘Waldorf’. However, the expense of marble soon turned out to be prohibitive for me so I decided I would use a couple of large wall tiles I had left over and cut them down to fit. It should look nice, matching the tiles that are on the wall.

That’s when the real problems started. Have you ever cut a tile successfully? After two days of trying out various cutters and tools, I am left with a load of broken pieces all over the floor! I have watched videos on Youtube, read diy books on tiling and even asked advice of people who have experience in this sort of thing. There must be a knack, a secret, who knows what? Whatever it is, I haven’t got the hang of it and I doubt I ever will. The remnants remain in a small pile in the corner of the bathroom.

Tomorrow, I will go and purchase two more matching tiles and ask the guy in the shop if he could possibly cut them for me. I never want to see another tile cutter again. Give me a paint brush and tin of paint any day unless it’s over 3 feet from the ground as I hate hates too!
If you’re having trouble cutting your tiles, here’s a link that you may find useful, but then again.

How To Cut Tiles