Cutting granite tiles

sgtrock

Am trying to tile an island that my wife wants to extend out about a foot or so to make it into a breakfast eating area. The problem is she would like it curved and with my tile saw I can't do this. What do I need to cut in a curve.

Bob Mariani

With a 4" grinder you can cut a curve with a diamond wheel. Just do not cut all the way at first, turning around the curve and then again deeper. Now use a diamond grinder wheel to fine tune the shape. Next you need to use wet diamond disks from 50-8500 grit to polish the edges. Equipment if you do not have it (you don't) will cost about $1000. SOOO,,,, bring to a granite shop and have them do it for you, may not cost much at all. Make a template of the cuts you need with the edge profile and location specified.

yesitsconcrete

agree w/bobby - 4" grinder w/.110 blade's the way to go,,, i do it a bit differently in that i make a series of chord cuts then use the blade edge to finish the curve.

not sure how much luck you'd have polishing tile so i defer to bob,,, edge polishing granite's not all that difficult w/dry pads but reg 4" grinder's too fast,,, usual difference 'tween pro's & diy-er's is ability AND tooling

sgtrock

for the help. Also what do you think of using a grout colorant? Easy to do,
hard to do or not worth it?

losttool

I saw a segment on HGTV Pro where they filmed a guy cutting a granite tile on a wet tile saw. He was using a contoured diamond blade called
Arcus. I went to you tube and saw the same blade cutting curves in marble, travertine and porcelain on a wet tile saw. There is a product site www.arcusblade.com with more info and a phone #.

Bob Mariani

Grout colorant is used to change the color of a grout already installed. You should be able to find grout the color you want to use. But using the colorant is easy to do. With granite tiles, lay them without a spacer for best look or at least no more than 1/16" spacers.