This calculator will help you estimate how many square feet of tile you will need for your next project. If you already know the size of tiles you will be using and their cost per square foot, the calculator will also provide a breakdown of how many pieces of tile you’ll need as well as the total cost for your project.
Tile is typically purchased by the case, but many home improvement stores also sell tile pieces individually. If it’s a smaller project, you will probably buy tiles individually. The calculator provides both square footage as well as the number of tiles needed if you enter the tile size.
How to calculate tiles needed
It doesn’t matter if you are tiling floors, walls, a bathroom, shower, or backsplash, the way to calculate how many tiles you will need is by finding the square footage of the area you will be tiling then add an allowance for waste.
For most project materials, you want to add a buffer to allow for waste. Waste is the amount of leftover materials that might no longer be usable after making cuts or that break during installation. For most project, allowing 10% for waste is sufficient. If you have a lot of cuts to make, or you are new at tiling and might need to re-do a few cuts due to mistakes, a 15-20% waste allowance is reasonable.
How do you calculate floor tiles for a room?
To calculate how much tile you should buy for floor, you would multiply the length and the width of the floor to find the floor’s square footage.
How much tile do I need for my shower?
To calculate tiles needed for a shower, you would multiply the length and width of each of the shower’s three walls. Add those 3 numbers together to get the shower’s total square footage.
You would use this same method to find calculate tiles for a bathroom. You will need to combine the square footage of each bathroom wall to be tiled to get your square footage.
How much tile do I need for backsplash?
If you are going to tile a backsplash in your kitchen or bathroom, you would need to know the desired height of your new backsplash. Then, you would multiply that by the length of the backsplash which would tell you the square footage.
How many 12×12 tiles do I need for 100 square feet?
To find the specific number of tiles you might need for a given square foot project, you would need to first convert your tile’s size to feet rather than inches. Do this by individually dividing the tile’s length and the tile’s width by 12 (there are 12 inches in a foot). Then multiply the two answers together to fine the tile’s square footage. Once you have the square footage of your tile, you would divide the square footage of your project by the square footage of your tile.
In the example above using a 12 inch long by 12 inch wide tile for a 100 square foot project, we would divide the tile’s length (12 inches long) by 12 and then divide the tile’s width (12 inches wide) by 12. Then multiply the two answers together, which provides the tile’s sq ft. Now you would divide your projects square footage (100 sq ft) by your tile’s square footage (1 sq ft):
( tile length: 12/12 = 1) X (tile width: 12/12 = 1) = 1
Project sq ft: 100 divided by 1 = 100
We now know we need 100 12×12 tiles for a 100 sq ft project.
How many 18×18 tiles do i need to cover 100 square feet can be answered using the same formula as above:
( tile length: 18/12 = 1.5) X (tile width: 18/12 = 1.5) = 2.25
Project sq ft: 100 divided by 2.25 = 44.44
We now know we need 45 18×18 tiles for a 100 sq ft project.
