Tile Calculator

Estimate tile quantity and extra material needed for a floor or wall area.

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Area length (ft)

Area width (ft)

Tile length (in)

Tile width (in)

Waste (%)

Result

Enter values to calculate.

Summary

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Detail

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Calculate how many floor or wall tiles you need for a room, based on the area to cover, individual tile dimensions, and a waste allowance for cuts.

How It Works

How Tile Calculator Works

The calculator converts your room's length and width (in feet) to square inches, then divides by the area of a single tile (also in square inches) to find the base number of tiles needed to cover the floor exactly.

A waste percentage is added on top of that base count to account for tiles that get cut at edges, corners, or around fixtures and can't be reused — the result is rounded up to the next whole tile, since you can't buy a fraction of a tile.

Worked Example

See It In Action

A 10 ft × 12 ft room (120 sq ft) tiled with 12 in × 12 in tiles and 10% waste: 120 sq ft ÷ 1 sq ft per tile = 120 base tiles, × 1.10 = 132 tiles needed.

Real-World Use Cases

Who Uses Tile Calculator and Why

Estimating tile quantity for a bathroom floor before placing an order.
Working out how many extra tiles to buy for a kitchen backsplash to cover cuts around outlets and edges.
Comparing material needs between two different tile sizes for the same room.

Common Mistakes

Mistakes to Avoid

Leaving waste at the default 10% for a diagonal layout — diagonal patterns generally waste more from angled cuts than a straight grid, so that allowance often needs to be bumped up for that style.
Entering tile dimensions in the wrong unit — tile length and width fields expect inches, while the room area fields expect feet, and mixing these up skews the tile count badly.
Not accounting for grout line width, which slightly changes how many tiles physically fit across a given span compared to their raw manufactured size.

Pro Tips

Tips for Best Results

Order a little more than the calculated total if the tile is a specific dye lot or pattern — matching a discontinued or different-batch tile later can be difficult.
For a room with lots of corners, niches, or fixtures to tile around, lean toward the higher end of a typical waste range rather than the flat 10% default.

Troubleshooting

Fixing Common Problems

I keep running short of tile near the end of the job. — Increase the waste percentage on your next order — irregular room shapes, diagonal layouts, and inexperienced cutting all increase breakage and offcuts beyond a standard 10% allowance.

Glossary

Terms Explained

Waste allowance: Extra material added to a base quantity to account for cuts, breakage, and pattern layout losses during installation.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

How much waste allowance should I use?

A straightforward rectangular room can often use 10%, but rooms with many corners, diagonal layouts, or a diamond tile pattern typically need 15-20% since more tiles get cut and discarded.

Should I buy exactly the calculated amount?

It's wise to round up slightly further and buy a little extra beyond the calculated figure, since tiles from the same box can vary slightly between production batches — having spare tiles from the original batch helps with future repairs.

Does grout line width affect the tile count?

This calculator doesn't separately account for grout line width, which slightly reduces the effective coverage of each tile. For most standard tile sizes, this effect is small enough to be absorbed within the waste allowance.