I have wood-look large ceramic tiles for my bathroom and I don't know how to cut them without damaging.
While it was easy with smaller format tiles, cutting these alongside does make me worry that the tile might snap.
Any suggestions?
Tile – 150cm X 25cm ceramic tiles – how to cut them
bathroomceramic-tilecuttingtile
Related Solutions
Assuming you want to do this right and don't mind a little elbow grease.
1) Clean it up
Remove the ceramic tile, and strip the floor down to the bare concrete. Technically you don't have to do this, but not doing it is, IMO, just lazy. Building up the floor is convenient but not the best work you can do.
2) Build the base
Now that you're down to bare concrete, install Dri-Core tiles or something similar for subflooring, making sure you add ventilation as per manufacturer instructions. This product protects itself from moisture (except in a flood of course) and will likewise protect the tile from small moisture accumulations.
3) Put down whatever floor you like.
There are a number of interlocking carpet tile products available that allow you to do a floating style installation.
The grout question is a non issue if you remove the ceramic, as you should.
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.
Best Answer
Wet tile saw
The best way to cut straight lines is to use a wet tile saw. This gives you a nice clean line, and is safer and significantly less messy than a dry saw because the water keeps bits from flying everywhere.
Snap tile cutter
Another option is a snap tile cutter. This scores the tile and then you can snap it easily. It doesn't produce as clean of cuts as a wet saw so it's an ok option if you are hiding the cut edge under baseboard at the edges of the room.
Tile nipper
Another option is a tile nipper. These are only for cutting small pieces, doing detail work or cutting curves. They literally nibble a way a little bit at a time.