Sanity Saving DIY Bullnose Tile Trim Tips

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The lessons learned detailed below are an extension on how to bullnose tile. These bullnose tile trim tips are small summaries and illustrations to save you from learning them the hard way. We will also explore some of the alternatives out there on the market.

An important side note: all these tile trim tips were learned on the DeWALT D24000.  So a few suggestions may not apply to other wet tile saws, but the majority are applicable.

Let’s get right to it!

You need a spacer between the tile on the wet tile saw tray and the saw backstop.

The tile spacer prevents the profile blade from eating my tile tray backstop. Notice the “bite” marks in the spacer from previous cuts.

I don’t recall if I ground off the edge of the scale on my first or second pass through. But I did. I was pissed. My brand new DeWALT D24000 saw had more than just a scratch. I knew I would have to keep looking at my mistake until my beloved saw and I part ways. Which means forever. <Sigh>

A “custom” scale. 9 years later I’m still too disappointed to put more than one arrow. So I’ll just make it bigger.

A side note on the spacer which is probably obvious, but for completeness: choose a perfectly square spacer long enough to keep the tile from rocking out of place.

Be conscious of how you mark your tile.

You need to somehow maintain the layout once you take the extra time to organize the tiles in the most artistic order (one of the main arguments for DIY tiling!). Be conscious about marking any tiles you use in your projects. Your marks should be clear and make sense to you (and any helpers, too). You have many choices: pencils, china markers, Sharpies, etc. You may also want to write it down on a piece of paper in addition to writing on the back or top edge of the tile.

When you are determining where you want each tile to go, I recommend marking your pieces to maintain order.  The markings ensure you install your tiles in the desired order and orientation in the bathroom (or any installation project you are working on). Solving an undefined puzzle without anything to clearly reference will turn your project into a nightmare! Forgetfulness will set in between your wet tile saw and the project location without markings to keep your design straight.

How good is your memory? 😉

Pro tip: think about your tiles and your marking devices. Are you installing white Carrera Marble or a beautiful onyx which will have backlighting?  No Sharpie markers here!

However, Sharpie markers are great for marking a necessary cut with a tile wet saw.  Pencil instantly vaporizes when the water from the wet tile saw sprays it.  A permanent marker line is perfect to mark the location of a cut.  The picture below illustrates how to line up the mark with the diamond blade ensuring the mark is cut off. It does not mark where the tile should stay, which will leave you with permanent marker on the tile you intend to install.

When marking the edge needing a bullnose tile trim you can mark a little more on the front.  I tend to put a few arrows which I can’t miss.  However, I also make sure they are small enough so there are no remnants of marker after using the profile wheel.

Notice the 4 small arrows at the top of the tile marking the edge.

Each piece of natural stone tile is a slightly different height.

1/2″ travertine tile had slight differences in thickness. The height difference is not enough to notice on the wall or the floor, but enough to drive you batty when determining the height of the profile wheel on the saw. You have to keep adjusting the height of the wheel. It is a total time sink. Ordering the tiles by thickness is one way to minimize this problem .

Producing small tiles cut down from a large tile naturally minimizes the slight tile thickness problem.  For instance, when grinding down both sides of 3” strips from one 18” tile you get 5 pieces of identical thickness (after 5 cuts of 1/16” from the diamond blade you are left with a scrap about 2.5” wide).

If instead, you end up cutting down 5 tiles to fit a different wall and end up using the scrap to do the same 3″ job I am very sorry for the time lost.  However, I appreciate your dedication to less waste! You rock.*

It takes a while longer to guide each tile through the profile wheel.

This makes sense when you take into account you are grinding away a solid curve on stone. See Figure 1.

Figure 1.

/**MATH TANGENT** The stock DeWALT diamond blade included with the D24000 wet tile saw eats 1/16” of any tile which is .03124 sq inches of a tile ½” thick. Calculating the arc of a profile wheel is slightly more complicated.  On a ½” travertine tile the ground off area is .05375 square inches (if it is perfectly lined up which is, admittedly, a stretch).  A straight diamond blade is cutting 58 percent of the stone as a profile blade. Click on the picture to get a larger version of the math behind the calculation.  **END MATH TANGENT**/

Math summary: The curved profile blade is working 42 percent harder than a straight blade!  Now you have the math behind why it is so slow.  Thank you blogging…I always wanted to figure that percentage out but never took a moment to actually do it.

Make sure you bullnose enough tile.

Switching back and forth from the profile wheel to the diamond blade is a pain.  At best, it wears on your attitude when you are in the middle of a job and find out you missed a piece or need just a little more tile trim cut and polished.  Switching the diamond blade and profile wheel back and forth and polishing a single piece takes time!

It is essential to have a wet tile saw with adjustable water nozzles.

Directly hitting the diamond blade and diamond profile wheel with water extends the life of the blade and wheel. It also cuts down on the fine stone dust. The nozzles on the DeWALT D24000 are cojoined and have a turning radius of 360 degrees. While the nozzles can rotate 360 independently, since the nozzles are together at the attachment point their angle is always identical.

It is important to have the ability to adjust the nozzles both directionally and rotationally to account for the size and angle differences between a diamond blade and a profile wheel. Figure 2.

Figure 2.

With the diamond blade the water sprays either side of the blade at the same point and same angle.

When the bullnose profile wheel is attached, rotate the nozzles separately to maximize the area cooled by water.  As you can see in Figure 2, the left nozzle points just inside of the left edge, cooling the leading edge and the area behind it on the left side.  The right nozzle points further back than the left, directing water towards to the middle of the arc.  This optimizes cooling the area doing the majority of grinding.

Determining the size of the profile wheel: ½” versus ⅜”

This is not necessarily a lesson learned, but a thought process for when you decide to buy a profile wheel.  I went with a ½” profile because of the flexibility the bigger size allows.  If I want a smaller curve I can just raise the profile wheel to give me a similar cut to what the ⅜” profile wheel provides.  You cannot go the opposite direction; a smaller wheel cannot give you a larger curve. I know the curve is slightly different but I do not have enough room to store all my tools as it is. So I am OK with making a compromise until a size difference is absolutely necessary. As it is I already need to buy a new profile wheel.**

There are differences in tile thickness between different kinds of tiles.

The design theme I chose for my house is a waterfall pattern.  The waterfall mostly consists of travertine with small pops of color coming from interlacing granite and marble.  The travertine tile is 1/2″ thick.  Granite and marble are 3/8″ thick. This is not a problem on a flat surface with no edge showing.  But the point of bullnose is the tile is on a viewable edge.  The difference in thickness is noticeable if you look close enough.

However, the artist in me said limiting the edge to travertine would mess up the overall visual look.  I conceded a small 1/8″ difference because the aesthetic look when looking at the window sill from over 6″ away is so much more striking.

Problems occur from differences in installation height.

Attention to detail during installation matters!  If you are installing the tile and then polishing it later it needs to be as close to level and in line with the front edge as perfectly straight as possible.  Differences will make the polishing portion more difficult and the final product will not have a uniform curve.  The picture shows one such tile where I did not notice the slant before the tile set.  I used option #2 to create the bullnose and did not polish the curve until after it was installed. The tile that is still polished, but it is a couple millimeters out of line.

There are often level, straight and square problems with the installation surface.

If you have any house construction experience at all you are already nodding your head.  NOTHING IS LEVEL, STRAIGHT, OR SQUARE. I’m surprised my bay window hasn’t fallen off the side of the house with as much mortar I put on the window sill to level it.  Actually, that is being generous.  I know there is still a slant.  I just made it less obvious. OK, it is still obvious, but the slant is less than before. And I may have used the majority of an extra bag of mortar in the process.

Notice how the arrows are on a not so subtle slope. Also note how little of the window sill shows up next to the tile. Yes, it used to be worse.

When you use option #2, setting the tile before polishing the edge, and use the edge wall as a guide you notice the wall is not straight. The baseboard mirrors the wall, which meanders in and out while the tile tries to match. 

You still need to polish the edge of a tile including times when you do not need a curved edge tile trim.

Even if you want a 90 degree angle on a tile, all edges of a tile come from the store unpolished. This is the case if you are fabricating your own shower shelves or walk in shower curb.

Polishing the edges of the three shelves is no problem with the grinder and polishing pads.

Polished edges are also a very clean look on the exposed top edge of a tile back splash.  Stone tiles do not come finished on the edges.  Polishing it to a finer finish not only looks better, highlighting the colors within the stone, but it is also easier to clean.

Sometimes you need a small polished miter.

Likewise, there are times when you need to fabricate a couple millimeters of beveled edge tile trim.  If you look at a 12” X 12” tile of granite you’ll notice the outer edge is beveled at 45 degrees. I needed this ability to replicate this bevel in order to create the pieces needed on the front edge of the countertop.  In my instance, I needed 1” strips.  So I started using my 12” long scraps.

The problem is once you start cutting pieces down one piece may have three beveled edges with one straight edge.

The arrows indicate the 45 degree beveled edges prefabricated on the tile.

A close up of the prefabricated 45 degree beveled edges on the pictured scrap tile.

If you are left with a scrap from the inside of a tile, the 1” outside edges have a bevel, but the long sides have a 90 degree edge with no bevel (illustrated above). It will look odd if you put two opposing tiles with unmatched beveled edges side-by-side on the front of the counter.  One piece has a 45 degree beveled edge and the other is straight. By putting the bevel on all sides you get a nice, clean, professional look.

All tiles on the front of this countertop have beveled edges on every side.

On a similar note, when you are putting granite tile against travertine tile you have a choice to make. Travertine tile has a 90 degree corner with no 45 bevel. The waterfall theme featured in many of these pictures uses both travertine and granite.  Since the majority of the tile work consisted of travertine I cut off 1/16” of the outside granite edges, removing the bevel so they would match the travertine.

Notice the level of polish on the tile.

Rich, my tile mentor, was very kind to teach me this lesson.  Translation: no tiles were harmed while learning this lesson! Notice how different tiles have a different finish.  There are many levels of polish.  Notice the difference from the mirrored finish of granite or marble against the matte finish of travertine.

Partial snapshots of my neighbor’s house, his tree and the sky are reflecting off the mirror finish on what actually is Dark Emperador marble. The travertine does not.

The reflection in the tile. Proof my neighbor’s house really has a continuous gable roof.

While you may want to make a statement with a mirrored bullnose profile, prefab bullnose tiles available at the store have a uniform look.  This means instead of using all the diamond pads just because it is quick, fun and easy to step through them, keep tabs on how shiny the edge polishes up so that you match the tile trim finish with the face of the tile.

Alternative finishes: prefabricated profile edges

One other option to finishing edges is to use a prefabricated profile edge.  A prefabricated edge allows you to introduce a new design element to your tile project with metallic finishes or it can also can match the grout.  It has the added benefit of eliminating the need for *any* profiling, and thus speeding up the task at hand.  You might argue that last point should be the strongest proponent, but as you may have noticed, I am not into doing the easy way if a few extra hours of work allows me to maximize my enjoyment of the final look for years to come.

I experimented with this for the first time in the master bathroom.  Just to be clear, I did not need to do it.  I could have fabricated my own tile trim edges: rounded or straight. A straight edge would only need the final polish.  The finished look is the reason I decided to go with the Schluter prefabricated metal profiles.  I was going for a black and white theme with granite, glass and glam.  I had a crystal light above the smoke glass vessel sinks and smoke glass and stainless waterfall faucets, a mirrored vanity set between the two and stainless hardware in the shower.  Adding a stainless profile tile trim made the stainless a more prominent theme in the bathroom.  It also tied in look of the wet wall for the shower to the look of the wet wall for the sinks since they are opposite walls.

Bullnose Profile Tile Trim Tips Summary:

1. You need a spacer between the tile on the wet tile saw tray and the saw backstop.
2. Be conscious of how you mark your tile.
3. Each piece of natural stone tile is a slightly different height.
4. It takes a while longer to guide each tile through the profile wheel.
5. Make sure you bullnose enough tile.
6. It is essential to have a wet tile saw with adjustable water nozzles.
7. Determining the size of the profile wheel: ½” versus ⅜”
8. There are differences in tile thickness between different kinds of tiles.
9. Problems occur from differences in installation height.
10. There are often level, square and straight problems with the installation surface.
11. You still need to polish the edge of a tile including times when you do not need a curved edge tile trim.
12. Sometimes you need a small polished miter.
13. Notice the level of polish on the tile.
14. Alternative finishes: prefabricated profile edges

In the end, tile finishing  is about making compromises with the best answer you can muster at the time and keep making forward progress.  I know about my little imperfections and pieces I wish I could redo.  I also realize I’m going into the minutiae on some of these tips.  The engineer in me likes optimization. Stepping back, I know my slightly imperfect fancypants window sills are striking from more than 6 inches away. They are certainly 1000x better than what was there before!

Having these tile trim tips make sense to you (and remembering that I should reread this post before starting my next tile project) is more important than my nitpicking. Knowing about all these considerations makes you better prepared before going into a project. You can consider all these bullnose profile tile trim tips beforehand rather than the “oh crap” moment while you are racing against mortar drying.

As always, please comment or send me a note if there are any glaring missing tips and/or improvements!

For more on how to actually bullnose tile here is another post which shows you two different methods of fabricating bullnose tile.

While researching this post I have also discovered some different alternatives on how to bullnose tile trim. I plan on exploring and writing about them in a follow on post.

*I honestly wrote this in my rough draft because you seriously do rock.  However, upon proofreading I could not help but laugh.  Rock… We are talking about stone… I am such a dork.

**A sad but honest and educational follow on post is now up.