How to Calculate How Many Tiles You Need

So you’ve decided to give your kitchen or bathroom a tile
makeover. Tiles come in so many shapes, sizes, designs
and patterns. Simple square tiles but they may be small or
big, brick tiles, mosaic tiles that come in sheets, long tiles,
short tiles even metal tiles – where on earth do you start?
How do you work out how much tile to budget for?

These 5 simple steps will show you how:

what you need:

tape measure, pencil, calculator, paper

Measure the width of
the room or wall.

Measure the length of
the room, or height of
the wall.

Find the square
footage of the wall

Multiply the measurement obtained
from the width by the measurement
obtained from the length/height to
find the square footage of the room.
Example:10 ft x 14 ft = 140
square feet.
1 foot = 12 inches =
30.48 centimetres

work out
the overage

Do this by adding 15% to total
square footage of the room, or 20% if
the pattern is diagonal or diamond.
Example: 140 square feet x 15% =
161 square feet.
161 square feet =
1932 inches squared =
49 square metres (49,000
centimetres squared)

Calculate the size
of the tile

Calculate the size of the tile (length
and width) and multiply it by square
footage of the room. Tiles typically
come in boxes covering a certain
number of square feet.
Example: If a box covers 5 square
feet, you will need 33 boxes of
tiles (32.2 rounded up).

Tip: Always budget for more than you need. Buying more tiles
allows for wastage from cuts and breaks. Having spare tiles
will make repairs easy. Spending a little more now will help
you save in the long run.