How do I fix something to a tiled wall?

Tile is hard and brittle, which means it resists a bit but shatters under shock. Everything about doing this properly comes from that: no hammering, no wandering, and no pressure until the bit has bitten.

Safety

Step by step

1. Find out what is behind the wall first.A detector for pipes and cables, and a moment's thought about where the taps, shower and sockets are. Bathroom walls are the most heavily serviced in the house.
2. Turn hammer action off.This is the single most important step. Hammer action shatters tile immediately. Set the drill to rotary only before it touches the wall.
3. Mark the spot and stop the bit wandering.Masking tape over the mark, or a strip of tape with the position drawn on it. Glazed tile is slippery and an unrestrained bit skates across it, scratching the glaze permanently.
4. Use the right bit.A spear-point tile bit for ceramic, or a diamond-tipped bit for porcelain — porcelain is far harder and will destroy an ordinary tile bit. Not a standard masonry bit for the tile itself.
5. Start very slowly with light pressure.Low speed until the bit has cut a small crater and cannot slip. Then steady moderate speed and light pressure. Forcing it is what cracks tiles.
6. Keep the bit cool.A little water or a damp sponge on the tile face, particularly with porcelain. Heat blunts the bit and can crack the tile. Take the drill out periodically to let it cool.
7. Change bits once through the tile.Switch to a masonry bit for the wall behind, and hammer action can go on at that point if the substrate is brick or block — but only once the tile is fully penetrated.
8. Drill into the tile, not the grout line.Grout is much weaker and a fixing in it will pull out. Drilling the tile face is safer than it feels, and grout lines only suit very light loads.
9. Choose a plug that suits what is behind.Solid masonry takes a standard plug. Plasterboard behind tile needs a plasterboard fixing sized for the total thickness. Getting this wrong is the usual reason a tiled-wall fixing fails.
10. Seal the hole in a wet area.A little silicone in the hole before inserting the plug, and around the screw where it enters. Water tracking into a drilled hole behind tile causes damage nobody sees for a year.
11. Do not overtighten.The screw pulls the fitting against the tile and the tile is the brittle part. Tighten until firm and stop.

Tips

• Practise on a spare tile if you have any. Two minutes with an offcut removes most of the anxiety.
• A suction-cup drill guide or even a piece of card taped over the tile helps hold the bit until it bites.
• For a light fitting such as a towel hook, strong adhesive pads avoid drilling entirely and hold better than people expect on a clean glazed surface.

Common mistakes

• Leaving hammer action on — Tile is brittle and shatters under percussion. It cracks on the first blow, usually across the whole tile.
• Drilling into grout for a load-bearing fixing — Grout is much weaker than tile and the plug pulls straight out. Drill the tile face instead.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask