Tile Calculator
The exact tile count for any area with a 10% wastage buffer built in, rounded up to whole boxes, and costed as well if you have the prices.
Area, tile, buffer
The arithmetic is simple and almost always done badly: tiles = (area ÷ tile area) × (1 + wastage). A 4.0 m by 3.0 m room is 12 m². In 300 × 300 tiles, each covering 0.09 m², that is 134 tiles bare. Add the standard ten per cent buffer and the real order is 148.
The buffer is not padding
It pays for the cuts at every edge, the tiles that break on site, and the handful kept back for a repair in five years. Ten per cent is the normal allowance and it is what the calculator applies. Treat it as a floor rather than a ceiling: a diagonal lay, or a room full of jogs and corners, eats closer to fifteen, so add a box by hand when the setting-out looks difficult.
Boxes, and what they cost
Suppliers sell by the box, and the count inside varies wildly, four to six for large format and many dozens for small mosaics. The count is rounded up to whole boxes so the order can go in as it stands, and if you have the prices to hand it comes back costed too.
Ordered once, from one batch
Short orders are the expensive kind. A second delivery comes from another dye lot, the shade sits a fraction off the first, and the floor announces it for the next thirty years. Counting the wastage in from the start is cheaper than any of the ways of fixing it afterwards.
- A 10% wastage buffer, applied as standard
- Whole boxes, rounded up
- Costed too, if you have the prices
Off the envelope, onto a number
Area divided by tile size, with a guess added on top for cuts.
An exact count with a 10% wastage buffer already inside it.
Loose tile counts sent to a supplier who only sells boxes.
Whole boxes, rounded up, ready to order as they stand.
The money worked out separately, on a different sheet.
Enter the prices and the cost comes out with the count.
Built to carry the weight
An exact count
Area against tile size, worked room by room across a whole floor if you need it, with the buffer already inside the figure.
The 10% buffer
The standard trade allowance for cuts, breakage and the spares kept back for a repair, applied without having to remember it.
Boxes and cost
Rounded up to what the supplier actually sells, and priced out too if you have the rates, so the order needs no arithmetic at the other end.
What it asks, what it returns
What it asks
- The area to be tiled
- Tile size, and tiles per box
- Prices, if you have them
What it returns
- An exact tile count, buffer included
- Whole boxes to order
- The cost, when prices are given
What it assumes
- A 10% wastage buffer
- Rectangular areas, added up
- Skirting and borders counted separately
Three moves, nothing to guess
Enter the area
The area to be tiled. Add spaces one at a time and they accumulate into a single order.
Describe the tile
Tile size, tiles per box, and the price if you have it. The 10% wastage buffer is applied for you.
Order in boxes
Read the whole-box figure and the cost against it. One order, one batch, and enough held back for a repair.
A second order arrives from another batch, and the floor tells you so for the next thirty years.
Questions, answered
Straight answers about tile calculator, in plain language.
Ask us anythingIt is the standard allowance and it covers a straight lay in a simple room. A diagonal lay, or a plan with a lot of jogs and corners, is closer to fifteen per cent, so add a box by hand when the setting-out looks difficult. Wastage is cheap; a second batch is not.
Yes, if you have the prices. Enter them and the count, the box figure and the money come back together. Without prices it still returns the exact tile count and the boxes to order.
Because a second delivery usually comes from a different dye lot. The shade sits slightly off the first batch and the join stays visible for the life of the floor. Counting the wastage in the first time avoids it entirely.