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The time has come to fix things to our newly-tiled shower cubicle wall. We have ceramic tiles on aquapanel fixed to wooden studs. We'll be fixing through into the studs (or noggins). What size clearance hole should we use in the tiles? The same as for a piece of wood, e.g. 4.5mm for a #8 woodscrew, or should we go larger when working with tiles? As we understand it any pressure on the tile inside the hole could easily crack it.

Is it OK to squirt some silicone (for waterproofing purposes) inside the hole once the screw's in?

What are you fixing ? a lot of small (low load) parts such as a shower rail/soap dish will come with screws supplied...and the size of the holes/plugs etc. will depend on the screws supplied.

More important is how to drill the tiles. More of that later when you reply.

We need to fix the shower screen and door and an electric shower. The supplied screws look to be #8, 1.25". As there's 10mm of tile and cement and 12mm of aquapanel (sorry for the mixed units, but I guess you're bilingual) that doesn't seem very much going into the studs, so we're going to use longer stainless steel #8 screws just to make sure it's the studs and not the aquapanel taking the weight. And this way we shouldn't need any plugs - correct?

That's correct. You should be ok with a 6mm bit for drilling through the tiles. I always inject some silicone into the hole before fitting the screw.

Bit of masking tape where you intend to make a hole, mark out on it and it will also help stop the drill bit wandering.
sorry wine~O didn't read you were going to do the follow up

just to elaborate, Either a specific tile drill bit, or a masonry bit. low speed... hammeroff..

A couple of bits of masking tape in a crossed way to stop the drill bit slipping... once you are through the tile surface / cement panel switch to a wood bit. Pilot in the wood/stud wants to be a smaller dia. than the screw...

Don't necessarily overdo the screw size. If the shower screen for example comes with 3.5mm screws, don't be tempted to put no 8's in

God.. I'm making no sense tonight. (What's new I hear the regulars ask...)

aeromech3 wrote:Bit of masking tape where you intend to make a hole, mark out on it and it will also help stop the drill bit wandering.
sorry wine~O didn't read you were going to do the follow up

Please feel free to join in. I don't have exclusive rights you know....

darrenba wrote:That's correct. You should be ok with a 6mm bit for drilling through the tiles. I always inject some silicone into the hole before fitting the screw.

Silicone - will do, thanks.

wine~o wrote:just to elaborate, Either a specific tile drill bit, or a masonry bit. low speed... hammeroff..

We have arrow-head tile bits, and they drill our test tiles very easily. As, to be honest, did a centuries old manky masonry bit

wine~o wrote:A couple of bits of masking tape in a crossed way to stop the drill bit slipping... once you are through the tile surface / cement panel switch to a wood bit. Pilot in the wood/stud wants to be a smaller dia. than the screw...

Noted.

wine~o wrote:Don't necessarily overdo the screw size. If the shower screen for example comes with 3.5mm screws, don't be tempted to put no 8's in

The problem was that we couldn't find long stainless steel screws in the smaller diameters - and we want to get well into the wood as not sure how well the Aquapanel will hold stuff, it does seem a bit crumbly especially if the screw has to be removed and reinserted. Is there any problem using larger screws? They still seem to fit the holes.

wine~o wrote:God.. I'm making no sense tonight. (What's new I hear the regulars ask...)

Making sense to us ...

oh and as an aside, sometimes it can be difficult to mark through a screen mount depending on the thickness, if a normal pencil/marker pen doesn't fit, then an old drill bit blunt end dipped in nail varnish can be pushed thru the hole to mark the drilling point.

wine~o wrote:oh and as an aside, sometimes it can be difficult to mark through a screen mount depending on the thickness, if a normal pencil/marker pen doesn't fit, then an old drill bit blunt end dipped in nail varnish can be pushed thru the hole to mark the drilling point.

Good tip, thanks. A shame nobody sells screw hole-sized markers! A set of four popular sizes would be very useful.

One of the advantages of using masking tape to prevent drill skid is that it also makes it easy to make a visible mark "on" the tiles.

If you're drilling a tile and you really want to make sure it won't crack, for instance if it's expensive or you don't have a spare, you can use a dremel type tool with a small diamond tip bit to break through the surface before then drilling normally.

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tcm wrote:If you're drilling a tile and you really want to make sure it won't crack, for instance if it's expensive or you don't have a spare, you can use a dremel type tool with a small diamond tip bit to break through the surface before then drilling normally.

Don't have a Dremel But our arrow-head bits are working well ...

Just found this -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HA84gBJM3c

Ebay do them for £4. They'd have worked well for marking the electric shower fixing holes (though Wine~o's method is probably cheaper ) and will be good for marking the holes for the shower side panels.

Oh I'm sure my method is cheaper... so long as the Mrs. Doesn't catch you using her veeerrry expensive nail varnish.. and insist that you replace it .....