Tile Calculator
Count the tiles and boxes needed to cover a floor or wall, with a standard waste allowance for cuts and spares.
Learn how it works: How Many Tiles Do I Need?10% waste suits a straight grid layout. Diagonal or herringbone patterns waste more, so use 15 to 20% for those.
Enter the area and tile size to count the tiles.
How to use the tile calculator
Enter the length and width of the area in feet, then the tile size in inches, since that is how tiles are labeled. Set a waste factor and, if you know it, the number of tiles per box. The count and the boxes to buy appear right away.
The result rounds up to whole tiles and whole boxes, because you cannot buy a fraction of either. The figure before waste is shown too, so you can see how much the allowance adds for cuts and breakages.
Why a 10 percent waste factor
Ten percent is the standard allowance for a straight grid layout. Tiles break during cutting, edges need trimming to fit walls, and you want a few spares for future repairs that match the original batch and shade.
Buying short means a second trip and the risk of a different dye lot that does not quite match. The extra tiles cost little next to the labor of relaying a floor, so the small overage is cheap insurance.
Diagonal and herringbone patterns need more
A diagonal layout cuts every edge tile at 45 degrees, which wastes more material than a square grid. Herringbone and other angled patterns are even hungrier, since the repeating angle leaves many partial tiles along the perimeter.
For those layouts, raise the waste factor to 15 or 20 percent. The calculator lets you set any percentage, so you can match the allowance to the complexity of the pattern you have chosen.
Working out how many boxes to buy
Tiles are sold by the box, not the piece, so the practical number is the box count. Enter the tiles per box, printed on the label, and the calculator divides the total by that figure and rounds up to full boxes.
A 120 square foot floor in 12 by 12 inch tiles needs 120 tiles before waste, or 132 with a 10 percent allowance. At, say, 10 tiles per box, that is 14 boxes once you round up to cover the spares.
Frequently asked questions
- How many tiles do I need for 120 square feet?
- With 12 by 12 inch tiles, each covers one square foot, so 120 square feet needs 120 tiles before waste. Adding the standard 10 percent allowance brings it to 132 tiles.
- What waste factor should I use for tile?
- Use 10 percent for a straight grid layout. Diagonal, herringbone, and other angled patterns produce more offcuts, so raise it to 15 or 20 percent to avoid running short.
- How do I work out the number of boxes?
- Enter the tiles per box from the label. The calculator divides the total tile count by that number and rounds up to whole boxes, since tiles are sold by the box.
- Why buy extra tiles I might not use?
- Spares from the same batch match the color and let you replace a cracked tile years later without a visible patch. Reordering separately often gives a slightly different dye lot.
- Can I use this for a wall as well as a floor?
- Yes. Enter the wall height and width in place of the floor length and width. The math is the same, since both come down to covering an area with tiles of a known size.