How To Cut Clay Roof Tiles By Hand

Terra cotta tiles are a lovely shade of red and made from clay that has very high concentrations of iron oxide which when fired gives the ceramic its bright and attractive color.

How to cut clay roof tiles by hand.

Position the first tile on the batten with the crown facing up and center the tile from side to side. Don t overdrive the nail. By examining the thickness of your clay roof tiles you will have a better idea of which tool is needed to cut them. Step 1 examine tiles.

Firmly press down on the glass cutter as you drag it along your marked line. Scoring should sound like a scratching or crackling noise. The idea is to just cut partially through the tile. Terra cotta tile although beautiful can also be very fragile.

To give you a rough idea of how many clay roof tiles you will need we ve selected one from each of the flat ranges which detail the size of each tile and the amount required per square metre. Drive a 10d nail at the base of the clay tile into the batten. Hip and associated tiles use hand tools where possible. Valley tiles methods will vary depending on roof pitch and fixing specification.

In general tiles should be set back from. Otherwise size each tile on the roof and cut on the cutting area using the equipment above. Score the tile along the cut line with the glass cutter. Add some mortar underneath the first clay tile to provide additional support.

Use your ruler to mark a straight line along with the desired cutting point. Again mark and cut on the cutting area using the equipment above. You don t want to push hard enough that you cut all the way to the bottom of your tile. The tool used for cutting thin tiles is a simple cutting knife.

Step 2 cutting thin tiles.