How to Cut Ceramic Floor Tile with a Wet Saw

Ceramic floor tile is extremely popular, and has been for millennia. Yes – thousands of years. The heat-fired clay tiles have been respected for their durability since ancient times. To give you an idea, archaeologists are still finding ceramic tiles dating back thousands of years to ancient Rome and Egypt that are still in near perfect condition.

Aside from durability, it’s inexpensive, low-maintenance, and with the right equipment, ceramic floor tile can be easily installed even by amateurs. Once you know how to cut ceramic floor tile with a wet saw, then it’s just a matter of using your spacers correctly so that everything is nice and even.

How to cut ceramic tile with a wet saw, step by step

The wet saw that you will use to cut your ceramic floor tile will most likely be a tile saw, but could also be a masonry saw. Both machines can get the job done quickly and easily. Here’s how to cut ceramic floor tile with whatever wet saw you rented, purchased or borrowed, step by step.

1. Do a dry layout of the tiles so you can measure and mark where on the tiles you need to cut.
2. If you rent a wet saw, the general purpose diamond blade that probably comes with it is not ideal for a very hard material like ceramic. The best thing would be to purchase a diamond blade indicated for ceramic and porcelain, or rent one if possible.
3. Set up your wet saw by mounting the diamond blade according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Fill the water tank and turn the pump on to be sure that water can flow easily over the blade.
4. Put on your personal protective equipment, including eye protection.
5. Place the tile in front of the blade of the wet saw so that your cutting mark is aligned with the blade.
6. Your tile saw most likely has a stationary cutting head with a table that will slide into the blade, but if your wet saw is a masonry saw, the table may be the stationary piece so that you will have to push the cutting head into the tile. Check to make sure you know which type of saw you have.
7. Power on the wet saw and slowly slide the table holding the ceramic tile into the blade (or slowly slide the cutting head through the tile if using a masonry saw). Don’t force it to go faster than it naturally wants to go, and don’t press from side to side if you feel like your cut is crooked – stop the saw, adjust the tile, and then keep cutting.
8. Some ceramic floor tiles are brittle and have a tendency to chip at the end of the cut. You can minimize chipping by putting one hand on each edge of the tile (away from the blade!) and pressing towards the center. If you’re still getting chipping, you can try covering the last couple inches of the tile with a piece of electrical along your cutting line.