Cutting Porcelain
Almost every porcelain patio we install requires cutting. Sounds easy, right? Well, unless you know how… it is not an easy skill. This blog post shows an exceptional example of craftsmanship in one of our gardens I’ve had a few people ask how we managed to make the focal point in this Trentham garden, and a couple interested in having a unique feature like this in their patio.
So, before we go into it… if you planning on DIY, here are the key points:
Vibrations… Take them away. Insulation board is great, under the slab your cutting.
Blades… Use a good one. Diamond blade. Not a normal masonry disc.
End to end… Cut a few cm in and all the through each side of the slab
Multiple passes… Cut all the way across the cut in a few passes. Not all the way through at once.
Within a full garden makeover, here’s one we made earlier:
Creating the Lotus (brunch bar for scale). See below for finished product…
Every single piece in this was cut from either a 900x600mm or 1200 x 450mm slab of porcelain; creating a Lotus Flower - symbolising growth, purity and birth! (the clients soon after made a baby!! coincidence!?)
Practically, the trick was taking the vibrations out of the slab whilst using quality blades. Each piece was dry-cut by hand (in a suitable position to avoid dust pollution). Credit to Phil at Pulvex for the diamond blades… and some good old insulation boards from MKM!
The trade secret is how I got the shapes right. It was harder then I thought to be honest.
Others may question the joints, because they are so wide. This was not preventable, so I scaffolded them to hold the grout. This would not be done on a normal patio, when the joint lines should be 5mm with porcelain.
There was also some colour matching involved; and a frustratingly fractured big slab. Next time I’ll take the tension out of tricky corners with a diamond drill bit to prevent this.
Each piece is laid on a full mortar bed and liberally primed for adhesion and bonding, with a fall out to each side of the circle. Thanks to Cheshire Stone for the combination of slabs from their ‘Overland’ range.
I would love to create something like this again, so please contact us with your ideas and requests?
Another bespoke garden design and creation from Goodwin Gardens Ltd.
