Setting the Ceramic Tile

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Expertise in nibbling comes only with practice, so select a few sacrificial tiles, and try some patterns before you start the job. A few tips: Wear safety glasses and gloves; chips fly with surprising velocity when nibbling. Take only small bites; large ones tend to run out beyond the desired line. Keep the handles parallel to the plane of the tile so the nibblers don't over- or undercut. Even if you're experienced, try some practice cuts when working with tile you haven't used before. Some types of tile are more brittle than others and may have inherent limitations or preferred breaking patterns.

By comparison, using a snap cutter is simple, and the results are much more pleasing. Just set the tile against the base (closest to you), and draw the handle toward you, pulling the scoring wheel across the face of the tile. There should be no need to bear down very hard. Only the surface of the glaze needs to be cut, and a sharp cutter should accomplish that with light pressure. If you have trouble, suspect a dull cutter. It's difficult to tell how sharp one is by looking or feeling; the best test is whether it's working.

Don't run the cutter across twice for good measure. It's very hard to get back in the same groove for a second try, so you'll probably get two scores, which will produce a ragged break.

Once you've scored the face of the tile, use the wings on the handle to put pressure on the tile on each side of the score. A pop with the butt of your hand should snap it cleanly. If the wings' tips mar the face of the tile, wrap a little duct tape around them.

Depending on the tile used, snap cutters can cut down to around a ½” width. To break a piece this narrow, though, you'll have to set scraps on the tile on each side of the score so the arms can reach. Occasionally, there will be a small imperfection in the cut that you can correct with nibblers. If your layout dictates a cut smaller than ½”, plan to cut the end tiles on both sides of the room, so the cut pieces will be of reasonable size.

You can't plan a wall's layout to the degree that you can a floor's, but you can measure carefully to anticipate problems. The same general rules of fudging floor grout lines for out-of-square apply to walls. Unfortunately, you won't often be able to hide irregularly sized cut tiles at corners, so try very hard to keep the grout lines running parallel to the walls. Fortunately, wall tile doesn't usually run full height, so problems won't have such a large space to grow.

To cut around faucets, you can use a carbide hole saw if you're very persistent. Most tile setters aren't, and choose to split the tile on a line where the center of the hole will be (with the snap cutter) and then nibble out both pieces for the faucet stem. A trim ring will cover most of the dirty work.

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