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I am putting (vinyl?) commercial flooring tiles in one of my hallways. The product I've seen one guy (pro) use at a supermarket once was this:

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Now, that baby is $200+. I was wondering whether the following, much cheaper variant that to me (non-flooring-pro) seems like it does a similar job:

enter image description here

The tiles are relatively soft and I have cut them with a utility knife before (for under my washer where precision was not important) but I want a more precise tool for my hallway as they will be more exposed.

Is paying $170 extra worth it? The speed is not an issue as I have time and will not be doing this very much in the future.

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I think the second one is for ceramic. It's basically a glass cutter for brittle material. It won't work on a tough material like vinyl. – Chris Cudmore Jan 29 at 21:19

1 Answer

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Buy yourself a steel ruler long enough for the job, and a few quick release clamps. Just clamp the ruler and tile to a workbench and score along the ruler with a utility knife. It's a bit slower, but for a single room, the savings is significant.

As well, you should only be cutting the edges that go against the wall. Remove the quarter round and baseboards before you lay the tiles, and reinstall them after you're done. This will cover any imperfections in your edge cuts.

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