How many tiles do I need? The amount of time needed for any project can be calculated by taking the area of the floor or the wall which is about to be tiled in square feet and then dividing it by the area of a single tile in square feet as well.
This is an easy-to-understand formula once you go through it step by step. Many tile calculators on the internet tend to give false estimates on the number of tiles needed as they don’t take into account the gaps left between individual tiles as well as the tile that would need to be cut to fit the dimensions of each and every floor and wall in a house. Wastage is another big thing that is overlooked. You can easily calculate the no. of tiles needed for your home project by using the formula below.
No. of tiles needed = Total area of the floor or wall to be tiled in square feet / Area of a single tile in square feet
*Where Area can be calculated by multiplying the height of the tile with the width of the tile
The number of tiles needed for a floor can be calculated exactly by using this method but if you form a design pattern in the tiled floor by mixing two different types of tiles of different dimensions then you must subtract the total area of the tile to be used in greater quantity from the area of the tile to be used in smaller quantity and then divide it by the area of a single tile.
Usually, it makes sense to order a few tiles extra whenever you put in an order for three reasons:
- Many tiles are cut to fit the dimensions of a room and hence there is wastage
- Tiles can also undergo breakage during construction
- Tiles can also break a few years down the line from the time when you install them. At this point, it may not be possible to get the exact same design of tile as you got initially, so it is best to save a few tiles in case any breakage occurs: so that you don’t need patch work later on with unmatched tiles
Wall Tiles Calculation
Wall tiles can be calculated using the exact same method I mentioned above. By dividing the area of the wall by the area of a single tile.
No. of tiles required = Area of the wall / Area of a single tile
Examples of Tile Calculation
Example 1 of tile calculation
Calculate No. of tiles required for tiling the floor?
Width of room = 12 feet
Length of room = 14 feet
Height of tile = 2 feet
Width of tile = 4 feet
Area of floor = Width of room x Length of room = 12 x 14 = 168
Area of a single tile = Height of tile x Width of tile = 2 x 4 = 8
No. of tiles required = Total area of the floor or wall to be tiled in square feet / Area of a single tile in square feet = 168/8 = 21
Example 2 of tile calculation
Consider an L shaped room. How are you going to calculate the no. of tiles required for such a room?
The easiest way to proceed is to divide the L shaped room into two parts. In the above image, the larger area 1 represents a rectangular area while the smaller area 2 represents a squared area. You can easily calculate the no. of tiles needed for each area and then add the no. of tiles needed.
Hence in this way by breaking complex shapes into simpler shapes you can calculate the no. of tiles required in any room shaped in any way.
If you still want to use a tile calculator, I have linked a free one here.
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