Flooring – Tile layout on the diagonal to minimize cutting

For cutting porcelain or ceramic tile, standard practice is to use:

• A wet saw with a diamond blade
• A manual tile cutter (a carbide wheel slides along a rail to score the tile, then you snap on the line.
• Tile nippers for complex shapes

You can use a diamond blade with a hacksaw to cut holes, but it won't be very efficient.

If you have mostly straight lines, you can get away with a decent manual cutter and perhaps a pair of nippers. A wet saw makes the job go faster, but is not necessary.

After wasting my money on tile nippers (they don't cut where they are supposed to any better that what you are having, IME) I went the dry diamond blade in an angle grinder route, and short of a wet saw I can't justify, would not do it otherwise. With dust mask and eye & hearing protection, of course; incredibly loud should not be something you experience directly. With a tiny bit of practice it was able to give me excellent results, and I even got to the point where I was mitering wall tiles (redoing an old bathtub with the old tiles needing to be re-used, and no outside-corner pieces available.)

The worst part for my job was cutting very small tiles, but the method I used for that might help depending what your problems with quality of cut are - I had to clamp them in between two boards to hold them steady for a cut and provide a straight edge to follow.

Also the usual "use of an angle grinder generic advice" applies - don't force it, don't let it twist in the cut. Practice on some of your waste tile offcuts.

Alternatively, see about renting a wet saw at the local tool rental place, but if you have a dry diamond blade and an angle grinder, you should not need to, IME.