You finally found and purchased perfect brick slips that will soon enhance the look of your interior. Now comes the time when dreams become a reality. And reality means preparing your valuable material to be laid soon by granting it the required size and shape.  

Cutting brick slips might be a difficult and stressful task to do, especially if you’re not a professional tiler with years of experience. The good news is that you don’t need to be an expert to embrace the effects of an exemplary job accomplished with your own hands.

Whether you’ve picked up some brand new brick slips or found yourself some beautiful reclaimed brick tiles that need a bit of a cut-to-size job, we’ve got you covered. 

Here at Lubelska, we prepared a helpful guide for you with tips on how to cut brick slips. Read it and you’ll be able to take care of your tiles like a professional and enjoy the desired visual effect. 

Popular Tools for Cutting Brick Slips

There’s a wide range of professional equipment for you to use to cut your brick tiles effectively. Whether you’re a future tiling expert or a regular DIY enthusiast, you might want to familiarise yourself with a few useful tools for cutting tiles that will make your job smooth and easy. 

Manual Tile Cutter 

One of the most popular and safest options for cutting brick slips is using a manual tile cutter. It features a scoring wheel and a set of jaws that break the two pieces of a tile apart in straight, diagonal lines. It works quickly and precisely, and professional tilers consider the manual saws one of the most fundamental tools in their daily work. 

The manual cutter might be an excellent solution if you’re looking for a tool that’s easy to use and will make your DIY task less complicated. 

Electric Tile Cutter 

If you feel like manual tile cutting is a tough nut to crack, you can opt for a more comfortable tool – an electric tile cutter. 

Professional tilers use electric tile cutters mostly to cut porcelain, ceramic, or glazed stoneware. This popular tool comes in handy also for brick. 

Clay is a relatively soft material, so an electric tile cutter will be an effective and  easy-to-use tool for cutting your slips. Use a standard tile cutter with a cut depth of a minimum of 25 mm for cutting brick slips. As most of the regular brick tiles come at 20 mm depth, the electric tile saws will be able to cut through them. 

While the manual tile cutting technique allows you to make straight cuts, mainly in standard-size tiles, the electric cutter gives you more possibilities. You can use it for more complex designs, such as mosaic tiles, or you can make angled cuts at, for example, a 45-degree angle.

The Best Blade for Cutting Brick Tiles

Once you’ve picked your magic tool for cutting brick slips, it’s time to complete it with the essential part that’s responsible for all the cutting itself – the blade.

You might come across a range of different blades for cutting. With various kinds of blades and the abundance of material you can cut them with, it can be daunting to select the right one for cutting tiles. 

If you want to cut brick slips, you should opt for smooth-edged blades or those with slightly serrated rims. These are also suitable for cutting, for example, porcelain or metal. Blades with heavily jagged rims, like rip blade or cross-cut blade, might easily damage your fragile, thin brick slips as they are intended for cutting hard and rough materials, such as hardwood. 

When cutting your slips, you might want to try out the diamond blade, regarded as the best blade for cutting brick tiles. The diamond blade is made of steel and features a diamond coating that increases its solidity and durability. So, if you ever wonder how to cut through a brick wall, the diamond blade is your answer. It’s perfect for precise cutting so give it a go if you want an even, smooth finish on your freshly cut brick slips. 

How to Cut Brick Slips?

You are now familiar with different pieces of equipment for cutting brick slips. You also know which blade to use for that perfectly smooth cut. It might seem like you’ve chosen your reliable cutting set and are ready to go. However, you still have some choices to make. It’s time to pick the correct method of cutting brick tiles. 

Dry Tile Cutting 

Dry cutting is a perfect solution for short-scale jobs. It works well for indoor projects where the areas require smaller tiles, resulting in a tiny amount of dust. The most common professional tiling tool used with dry cutting is the manual tile cutter. However, remember to pause the cutting every 2 minutes for the blade to cool down. This way, you’ll avoid damaging the equipment. 

Wet Tile Cutting

The wet cutting method is commonly a highly recommended tile cutting technique. As the name suggests, the cutting occurs in wet conditions, meaning it’s assisted with water. 

The main benefit of the wet cutting method is that water acts as a natural absorber; it reduces the amount of dust made from cutting slips. Therefore, this makes it a safer option in terms of health as it doesn’t expose you to respiratory risks like excessive dry cutting may do.

Water also helps decrease the heat generated during the blade’s friction against the tile. Thanks to that, the blade lasts longer, and the work is more efficient, as you don’t need to take breaks for your equipment to cool down. Water’s absorbing and soothing properties make the wet technique an ever-reliable tile cutting method, especially for more extensive and complex projects. 

Wrapping up

Here at Lubelska, we know that cutting brick tiles may seem like a complicated job. But with suitable cutting tools and reliable techniques, you can give your slips the right shape and size, just like a tiling expert. For more information, feel free to reach out to us!