How To Drill Into Tiles.
| DIY : Home Repair After you've finished tiling your beautiful new bathroom, the next problem is that you need to fit all kinds of accessories - towel rails, soap holders, toilet roll holders, etc. So how do you drill into a glazed tile without cracking it? The first tip is to try to align at least one of the screws so that it goes into the grout rather than the tile itself - use a bradawl or small screwdriver to make the initial hole, taking care not to crack the glazing on either side. Drilling directly into a glazed tile without breaking it is a bit trickier though, and you need to do the following: Again using a bradawl or a sharp nail, lightly scratch the surface of the glazing until you're through to the clay underbase. {You can also very gently tap it with a nail punch for this stage: just do it slowly, and carefully!}. Next, place a large "X" of masking tape over the area to stop the drill bit slipping and "skating" across the hard surface, and then use a low-speed drill to get through the tile. Do NOT use a hammer-action drill for this! There are various types of drill bit {costing under £5} which are designed specifically for cutting through tiles; however you can easily get away with using an ordinary 6mm or 8mm masonry drill provided you pre-scratch the surface, and use masking tape. Lastly, insert a rawlplug if needed, but don't use a "butterfly-bolt" type which expands behind the wall - if you over tighten it, you might find the whole tile comes off the wall. None of this is anything like as scary as it sounds, and provided you take your time and work carefully, you'll find that drilling into tiles is really pretty easy.
 Questions about drilling:
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