Shower from the 60's

[HooKooDoo Ku]

Any advice on how to cut mosaic tile?
The sheets I've purchased are NOT individually wrapped in plastic with a cardboard back, they are instead simply laid down individually in a box with a sheet of paper between each layer.

I have a wet saw I purchased from Lowe's 10 years ago... 7" blade if I recall correctly. But it's designed like a table saw... the blade doesn't move and you push your tile into the blade without a rolling tray.

So far, the only online videos I can find, people are either using a wet saw where either the blade moves or a tile tray moves... or people trying to cut the tile by hand, like this one guy who uses a diamond wheel with his dremal tool to cut thru the finish (to avoid chips) then a diamond wheel on a grinder to make (very poor) cuts thru the tile.

I can already foresee issues trying to "push" a mosaic tile thru a wet saw, and I'm hoping someone with experience can provide some pointers before I go a ruin some sheets of mosaic tile.

[cx]

1. What size are the tiles, Joseph?

2. Of what material? These are the 2x2s you purchased for the shower floor?

3. And they are not mesh mounted? Not mounted at all?

[HooKooDoo Ku]

Yes, this is in relation to the 2x2 I've purchased for the floor.
Link to product on Lowe's Website

They are mounted to a mesh, but they are NOT "shrink wrapped" nor are they sitting on a sheet of cardboard.

I had recently seen another DIYer here in the forum post about having some issues cutting their mosaic, and I recall one of their "solutions" was to leave the tile on the cardboard... which I don't have.

Also wouldn't mind any reminders on best approach to avoid chips as at least the cuts around the drain need to be clean.

[Snets]

in this situation, I might lay the sheet or sheets over the drain as you are laying out the mosaics and mark the tiles that need to be cut around the drain, then remove those tiles from the sheet and cut them individually on your saw. I'd probably number them in some way so they go back in the right spots when you set them in the mortar around the drain.

[Davy]

You might have to cut the tiles around the perimeter of the shower individually too with that type of saw.

You can buy a rub stone at the big box stores to smooth down the sharp edges.

[cx]

Originally Posted by Snets

I'd probably number them in some way so they go back in the right spots when you set them in the mortar around the drain.

Aww, Snets, where's your sense of adventure?!!

I agree with his cutting recommendation, Joseph. On the type of saw you have, that's about the only reasonable way to cut those tiles.

My opinion; worth price charged.

[HooKooDoo Ku]

Sorry fellas, with 64 tiles around the edge of the shower, I found that answer unacceptable.

So I tried something on my own... Contact paper.
I got some contact paper that was about 16" wide. For each sheet of mosaic tile that needed cutting, I cut a piece of contact paper as wide as the cut and laid the contact paper sticky side up on a board. Then I laid the tile face down on the contact paper so that I had about a 3 to 6 inch tail. Took the board to the wet saw and slid the tile off the board onto the saw (this was important as the contact paper is not very sticky, and picking the tile up without something to support it would quickly mess up the bond between the contact paper and the tile). I then used the tail to pull the tile thru the saw. But you have to have something to hold the tile down. You can hold it down on which ever side of the saw blade has more tile to push on. With some practice, I was able to cut the mosaic tile in cases where I needed the edge tile to be only 1/4" wide. The one thing I could NOT do was if a piece was cut just a little too wide, it was between difficult to impossible to shave just a little bit more of the tile with this method.

[HooKooDoo Ku]

Originally Posted by Davy

You can buy a rub stone at the big box stores to smooth down the sharp edges

I've recently purchased one of those. It has two different grits, but the two are so similar I don't know which is what grit.

In any case, the cuts with the wet saw were clean enough that I didn't have to cleanup the edges.

[cx]

Good job, Joseph. Proof once again that necessity is a mother, or something like that, yes?

[HooKooDoo Ku]

Any tips on how to best size/cut the tile going thru the corner joint?

Here's two sketches to show my plan for the shower with 12x24 field tile.


The basic idea will be to start with a full tile in a corner. Next cut a tile in two such that the 1st piece reaches the other corner, and the 2nd piece continues around the corner.

The specific question is how close to take the tile to the corner so the corner joint looks good.

Only thing I could find online (from a quack that talks about positioning tile so the shower won't leak???) was to have one wall go all the way to the corner and basically have the joint on the opposing wall.

I'd like the joint to be in the corner... but it seems like you have to figure out how to properly take the thickness of the tile and the thickness of the thinset to get a proper corner joint.

[Davy]

I usually center up the layout on the back wall so equal cuts are in the corners. I tile the back wall first and take those cuts to the corner. Then the side walls will overlap the back wall cuts. If the tiles have veins or lines in them, number the cut off pieces so you can continue the veins thru the corners.

[HooKooDoo Ku]

I've already tiled the face of the curb. For that one spot, I followed the concept of one tile in the center and equal cuts on both ends. But over all, we're talking about 32" walls and 24" tile. I showed the centered tile concept to my wife and she didn't like it... After all you are talking about one 24" tile in the middle and then two 4" tiles on either side. Doing that all the way up the wall didn't look good.

Now I'm wanting to follow with the concept of you cut a tile to the corner and continue that same piece of tile on the next wall so those veins line up.

But my more specific question was any suggestions or tips on exactly how close to take the tile to the corner before the cut. The idea is to wind up with an 1/8" joint in the corner. So I'm wanting to do better than simply take the back wall ALL the way to the corner and simply come off that tile 1/8" such that the entire joint is along the side wall. Obviously thinks like the thickness of the tile and the thinset come into play. Was hoping someone might have suggestions or rules of thumb to follow.

[Davy]

There's two ways to center the back wall. Center the tile like we talked about or you can center the grout joint and have two 16 inch tiles. But with the broken joint pattern, the rows will alternate between the two size cuts in the corners. With a 32 inch wall, one row will have 16 inch (approximately) cuts and the next row will have 4 inch cuts. Of course there's no rules except the one you like so starting in the corner with full tiles works fine.

You're over thinking the cuts in the corners. Run the cuts on the back wall to within 1/8 or even 1/4 inch of the side wall and the side wall tiles will hide that joint. Then when tiling the side wall, make a nice consistent size joint against the back wall cuts, usually about 1/8-3/16. If your walls are straight and plumb, the same size cuts will go up the corners. If not, the cuts will vary in size.

[HooKooDoo Ku]

Davy,

Thanks for the advice on the corners.

As for the tile pattern, I've come up with a slight modification that the wife likes. The concept is simple enough. Start with a full tile in the bottom corner and "wrap" the rest of the tile around the corners. But then rather than advancing the left edge of the tile a fixed amount for the next row, instead use a full tile in the next row starting from the opposite corner. Then keep alternating as you go up the wall.

[Davy]

Nothing wrong with doing it that way.