How to Use the Tile Calculator

Enter the length and width of each floor, wall or section you plan to tile. Click Add Another Area to include additional bathrooms, walls, rooms or floor areas.

Then enter the dimensions of your tiles in millimetres and select a suitable wastage allowance.

The calculator estimates:

• Total tiling area in square metres;
• Area covered by one tile;
• Tiles required before wastage;
• Additional tiles for cuts and breakage;
• Total tiles to purchase;
• Boxes required;
• Square metres covered per box;
• Estimated tile cost; and
• Optional adhesive bags required.

How Do You Calculate How Many Tiles You Need?

First calculate the total surface area:

Then calculate the area of one tile:

Finally:

A wastage allowance should then be added.

Tile Calculator Example

How Much Tile Wastage Should I Allow?

Tile wastage helps account for cuts, breakage, damaged tiles and future repairs.

Common planning allowances include:

• 5% for simple straight layouts with minimal cutting;
• 10% for many standard tile installations;
• 10–15% for irregular rooms or more complex layouts; and
• potentially more for diagonal, herringbone or heavily patterned installations.

Check with your tiler or supplier before ordering.

How to Calculate Tiles for a Wall

For a rectangular wall:

For example, a wall 3 metres wide and 2.4 metres high has an area of:

3 × 2.4 = 7.2 m²

How to Calculate Bathroom Tiles

For a bathroom, calculate each surface separately:

• Floor;
• Wall 1;
• Wall 2;
• Wall 3;
• Wall 4;
• Shower walls; and
• Any feature walls.

Add each as a separate area in the interactive calculator above.

Should I Subtract Doors and Windows?

For large openings, subtracting their area can improve accuracy.

For smaller projects, some people leave openings included because the additional tiles provide a useful allowance for cuts and future repairs.

How Many 600 × 600 Tiles Are in One Square Metre?

A 600 mm × 600 mm tile covers:

Therefore:

1 ÷ 0.36 ≈ 2.78 tiles per m²

In practice, tile quantities must be rounded to whole tiles and boxes.

How Many 300 × 600 Tiles Are in One Square Metre?

A 300 mm × 600 mm tile covers:

0.3 × 0.6 = 0.18 m²

Therefore:

1 ÷ 0.18 ≈ 5.56 tiles per m²

How Many 300 × 300 Tiles Are in One Square Metre?

A 300 mm × 300 mm tile covers:

0.3 × 0.3 = 0.09 m²

Therefore:

1 ÷ 0.09 ≈ 11.11 tiles per m²

What Does Tile Coverage Per Box Mean?

Tiles are often sold by the box. If one tile covers 0.36 m² and there are four tiles in a box:

The calculator automatically determines this from your tile dimensions and tiles-per-box entry.

How Do I Calculate Tile Boxes Required?

The result should be rounded up to a whole box.

How Do I Calculate Tile Cost?

If tiles are sold by the box:

This calculator estimates tile material cost only.

Does Grout Joint Size Affect Tile Quantity?

Grout joints affect the installed spacing between tiles. For most room-scale material estimates, wastage and whole-tile rounding generally have a larger effect than the small area created by grout joints.

The grout-joint input is included as a project reference, while tile quantity is calculated from the actual nominal tile area.

How Much Tile Adhesive Do I Need?

Tile adhesive coverage varies with:

• Trowel notch size;
• Tile dimensions;
• Substrate condition;
• Bed thickness;
• Back-buttering requirements; and
• Product formulation.

Enter the manufacturer’s estimated square-metre coverage per bag to obtain a basic adhesive quantity estimate.

Can I Use This Calculator for Floor Tiles?

Yes. Enter the floor length and width and the tile dimensions.

Can I Use It for Wall Tiles?

Yes. Enter the wall width as the section length and wall height as the section width.

Can I Use It for Kitchen Splashbacks?

Yes. Measure the width and height of each splashback section and add each one separately.

Can I Use It for Outdoor Tiles?

Yes. The area and tile calculations are the same for outdoor tiled surfaces. Make sure the tile and installation system is appropriate for the intended outdoor application.

How to Measure an Irregular Tile Area

Divide irregular spaces into smaller rectangles.

For example:

• Area A: 3 m × 2 m = 6 m²;
• Area B: 1.5 m × 1 m = 1.5 m²;
• Total = 7.5 m².

Add Area A and Area B separately in the calculator.

Should I Keep Spare Tiles?

Keeping spare tiles can be useful for future repairs because the same tile colour, batch or design may not always be available later.

Your wastage allowance can help provide a small quantity of spare tiles.

Does This Calculator Include Labour?

No. The calculator estimates tile and optional adhesive materials only.

Other costs can include:

• Tiler labour;
• Surface preparation;
• Waterproofing;
• Tile adhesive;
• Grout;
• Levelling systems;
• Trim;
• Sealant;
• Tile removal; and
• Waste disposal.

Tile Calculator Assumptions

This calculator assumes:

• Each entered surface is rectangular;
• Measurements are accurate;
• Tile dimensions are entered in millimetres;
• Tile area is based on nominal tile dimensions;
• Wastage is applied to the calculated whole-tile requirement;
• Tile counts are rounded up;
• Boxes are rounded up to whole boxes;
• Tiles per box are entered correctly;
• Adhesive coverage is based on the entered product estimate;
• No grout quantity is calculated;
• No labour cost is included; and
• Results are planning estimates only.

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