Tile Calculator
Tiles and boxes for floors and walls, with joints, layout waste and skirting.
Units and currency
Floor
Areas you will not tile (cabinets, bathtub, fixed furniture)
Walls
Doors, windows and other gaps in the tiling
Shopping list
| Item | Needed | Buy | Cost |
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About the Tile Calculator
Find out how many tiles and boxes to buy for a floor, a bathroom or kitchen wall, or both at once. Enter the rooms (and the bits you will not tile, such as a door, a bathtub or fixed cabinets), the tile size and the joint width, choose the layout, and the calculator gives the tiles to have on site, the boxes to buy, the area you are buying and the cost.
Floors and walls are worked out separately, because they normally use different tiles. Skirting can be cut from the floor tiles — the strips are added to the floor-tile order — or bought as ready-made pieces, and wall tiles can have a border or listello row.
How to use it
- Pick Metric (m, mm) or US (ft, in). Under Floor, add each room as length × width, or type an area. Add anything you will not tile, such as a kitchen counter base or a bathtub.
- Enter the tile size — tap a common size or type your own — and the joint (grout line) width. Choose the layout; the cutting allowance changes with it and you can edit it.
- Enter the pieces per box from the box label, or switch to the box coverage (m² or sq ft per box) and the calculator works out the pieces.
- Keep Skirting ticked to get the running length (walls minus doorways) and the strips or pieces it needs. Tick Walls for bathroom or kitchen walls and enter their tiled height.
- Add a price per box, tile, m² or sq ft to see the cost, then copy the list or download it as CSV.
Examples
12 m² ÷ (0.602 × 0.602 m) = 33.1 tiles; + 10% = 37 tiles. With 4 skirting tiles (13.1 m of 100 mm skirting, 6 strips per tile) that is 41 tiles = 11 boxes of 4 (15.84 m²).
2 × (2.4 + 1.8) × 2.1 = 17.64 m² − door 0.75 × 2.1 m = 16.07 m² → 88.4 tiles; + 10% = 98 tiles = 13 boxes of 8.
168 sq ft ÷ 2.031 sq ft per tile = 82.7; + 10% = 91 tiles = 12 boxes of 8 (192 sq ft).
33.1 tiles + 15% = 39 tiles = 10 boxes of 4 (before skirting).
How it is calculated
Each tile covers its own size plus one joint in each direction, so a 600 × 600 mm tile with 2 mm joints covers 602 × 602 mm of floor. Tiles = area to tile ÷ that area × (1 + allowance), rounded up to whole tiles, and boxes = tiles ÷ pieces per box, rounded up.
Skirting length = the perimeter of each rectangular floor − doorways + any extra you add. Cut from floor tiles, each tile gives as many strips as its shorter side holds (600 mm ÷ 100 mm = 6), each as long as its longer side; those tiles are added to the floor order.
How much extra for cuts?
Every layout loses part of the tiles that are cut at the walls, and angled layouts lose more. The starting allowances are 10% for straight and offset (brick-bond) layouts, 15% for diagonal and 20% for herringbone — a common rule of thumb rather than a standard. Use more for small or irregular rooms, large-format tiles, natural stone or patterns that must match, and less for big, simple rooms laid by an experienced tiler.
Tiles vary slightly in shade and size between production batches, so buy everything at once and check that the boxes carry the same batch or shade code. Keep a few spare tiles for future repairs.
Box labels
Boxes state the number of pieces and the area they cover (for example 4 pieces = 1.44 m² for 600 × 600 mm tiles). If you type the coverage, the calculator rounds it to whole tiles and warns you when the label and the tile size do not agree — usually a typing slip or a wrong unit.
Limitations
- The allowance is a percentage, not a cut-by-cut layout plan; very small or oddly shaped rooms can need more.
- Areas of other shapes (L-shaped rooms, alcoves) can be added as several rectangles or as typed areas; typed floor areas add no skirting length, so enter it under Extra skirting length.
- A border or listello row runs the full length of the tiled walls; doors and windows in its path are not taken off.
- Skirting strips per tile = the tile’s width ÷ the skirting height, rounded down, with nothing allowed for the saw cut: when the height divides the tile exactly (six 100 mm strips from 600 mm), the last strip can come out a few millimetres short — choose a slightly lower skirting or expect one strip fewer.
- Grout and tile adhesive are not included.
- Pieces per box and prices are whatever you enter — check the label and your supplier.
Privacy
Everything happens in your browser. What you enter or open here is not uploaded or stored by MySmartCoPilot.
Frequently asked questions
How many 600 × 600 mm tiles are in a square metre?
Without joints, 1 ÷ 0.36 = 2.78 tiles. With 2 mm joints each tile covers 0.602 × 0.602 = 0.3624 m², so 2.76 tiles per m² before any allowance for cuts.
How many tiles do I need for a 10 × 10 ft room with 12 × 12 in tiles?
100 sq ft. With 1/8 in joints each tile covers about 1.02 sq ft, so about 98 tiles before cuts; with a 10% allowance, 108 tiles.
Do I deduct the area under kitchen cabinets?
Only if you will not tile under them. Fixed base units and bathtubs are often left untiled; add them under "Areas you will not tile". Many people tile the whole floor so cabinets can be moved later.
How do I count skirting tiles?
Measure the walls of the room, take off the doorways and choose the skirting height. When it is cut from floor tiles, each tile gives several strips (six 100 mm strips from a 600 mm tile); the calculator adds those tiles to the floor order.
Why are wall tiles worked out separately?
Wall tiles are usually a different size and product from floor tiles, with their own box size and price. Tick Walls to add them; the shopping list then shows both.