Tile calculator

Measuring the area

Walls: add up the length of every wall you are tiling and multiply by the height you want tiled. Take off doors (a standard internal door is about 0.76 m by 1.98 m, or only the part below the tiling line on a half-height wall), windows, and anything that stays untiled, such as the side of a bath that is panelled. Floors: length times width; for an L-shaped room, split it into two rectangles and add them.

Adding for cuts and breakages

Herringbone and diagonal layouts cut a tile at every edge, so they need more. Buy all the tiles in one batch: a second order can be a slightly different shade, and the difference shows on a wall.

A worked example

Four walls of 2.4, 2.4, 1.7 and 1.7 m make 8.2 m of wall. Tiled to 2.4 m high that is 19.68 m². One door takes off about 1.5 m², leaving 18.18 m². Adding 10% for a straight lay gives 20 m² to buy. A 300 by 600 mm tile covers 0.18 m², so that is 112 tiles; at 1.44 m² a box, 14 boxes.

Adhesive and grout, as rough guides

The calculator allows about 2.5 kg of powder adhesive per m² of wall and about 4 kg per m² of floor, sold in 20 kg bags. Large tiles, uneven walls and a bigger trowel notch use more; the coverage table on the bag is the one to follow.

Grout follows the formula most makers print: (tile length + tile width) divided by (length times width), times the tile thickness, times the joint width, times 1.6, gives kilograms per m², with every size in millimetres. Narrow joints on big tiles take very little; wide joints on small tiles take a lot.

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The job card takes these areas and gives the days of labour, a price band from published rates, and tilers near you who take the work on. Cost guides · Tilers by town