Renting a tile saw vs buying one for my bathroom floor

I was set to rent a wet saw from Home Depot for $65 a day to do my 50 sq ft bathroom floor. My neighbor insisted I just buy a cheap $120 tile saw from Harbor Freight since I'd use it again. Honestly he was right. The rental would have cost me $130 for two days and the cheap saw cut perfectly fine through the porcelain. Plus now I have it for the kitchen backsplash next month. Has anyone else found that buying the budget tool beats renting for small jobs?

2 comments

2 Comments

kaiharris2d ago

Dude same thing happened to me with my basement floor. I was dead set on renting a saw for the weekend and my buddy talked me into just buying one from Harbor Freight. Ended up being like $100 after a coupon and it handled the 12x24 porcelain tiles no problem. I used it again six months later for a shed floor and let my brother borrow it for his kitchen. The blade went dull after a couple jobs but a new one is like 15 bucks so who cares. People overthink these tools sometimes when the cheap ones are totally fine for DIY stuff.

andrew_sanchez942d ago

Yeah, I read something recently that said most DIY guys don't need pro grade tile saws. It was from a contractor blog actually. They said the biggest difference is the motor and how long it takes to burn out, but for the average homeowner a $100 saw will last years. My neighbor bought one from HF last spring to do his bathroom floor and it's still going. The thing about @kaiharris mentioning the blade going dull is spot on though. I think people freak out about cheap tools but blades and bits are consumable anyway. A Harbor Freight saw plus a decent $20 blade is gonna do 90% of what a $500 one does for people like us.