How to drill through tiles

How many of you avoid drilling tiles in fear of cracking or breaking the tiles? Many of you I would imagine, well when you know how to drill tiles correctly the fear will be gone. This post is about drilling tiles that are already fixed, dried and grouted and not about drilling tiles that are not fixed to the wall or floor.

Getting started

Firstly gather all the tools you require for the job, they are:

• Masking tape
• A hammer drill / drill
• A small masonry drill bit
• A masonry drill bit the correct size for the rawl plug
• Rawl plugs
• A pen or pencil
• A level
• A hammer

Which drill bit do I use to drill tiles

A dedicated tile drill bit or a masonry drill bit are what you should use for drilling tiles, these drill bits are easy to spot as they have a wide tip which is tungsten carbide to make it really strong to go through masonry.

What drill do I need to drill tiles

Any kind of drill will do, a battery drill is fine as long as it has enough power, you don’t need to have a hammer drill unless the wall or floor behind the tile is really hard. In most cases you can use a battery drill set to the ‘drill’ setting and masonry drill bits.

Drilling the tile

You need to decide where you are going to drill and where you are going to fit the item to the wall, making sure it will fit in the area before you drill. Once you know where to drill, take some masking tape and stick it to the tile. This is done for two reasons, firstly it’s easy to mark the drill hole and secondly it will help stop the drill bit from slipping around.

Now that you have the masking tape stuck on the tile where you want the hole or holes to be you can offer up the item to be fixed and mark the masking tape with your pen or pencil. You should check to make sure the item your fixing is level if need be.

Now take the small masonry drill bit and place it into the drill. If your drill has a setting, set the trigger adjustment to only go slowly. Now take the drill make sure it is on the drill setting, not the hammer or screw settings, place the end of the drill bit on your first mark on the tile. Make sure the drill is horizontal and vertical to avoid slipping, and slowly press the trigger. By having the drill go slowly it will go through the glaze of the tile, when your through the glaze stop and adjust the trigger so it goes in all the way. Now place the drill back into the hole you have started and drill through the remaining of the tile and into the wall. You may have to use the hammer setting once your through the tile to drill into the wall.

Do this same procedure for all the holes you need to drill. You ned to check how deep your hole needs to be, this will depend on what you are fitting but you should go a little deeper and I’ll explain why shortly. Next take your larger drill bit and re-drill the holes in the tile, start carefully and then drill all the way through into the wall.

Next, and here is the important bit, if you haven’t got rawl plugs with the item your fitting you need to get suitable ones for the job and the correct size. When you have the correct rawl plugs, place one in each hole, push them in as far as you can, then take a screw and put it into the rawl plug but only a turn or two, now take a hammer and VERY carefully tape the rawl plug into the tile, now, as long as you have a deep enough hole you should be able to tap the rawl plug through the tile and level with the wall or floor behind. The reason for doing this is as you screw into the rawl plug the plug expands (as it should to grip) but this will crack the tile if the plug isn’t deep enough or on the surface of the tile.

If your rawl plug has a flange on it you can cut this off with a knife to allow the plug to go through the tile.

So as long as you take your time and follow these tips you should be able to drill tiles without cracking or breaking them every time.