Free tool
Tile calculator: how many tiles do I need?
Enter the floor or wall size, the tile format, and the grout joint. The calculator shows how many tiles to buy in pieces, square meters, and boxes, with waste included.
How the calculator works
The surface area is divided by the area of one tile including its grout joint and rounded up. Waste is then added for cuts, breakage, and pattern matching.
The second line counts differently: how many tiles touch the surface when laid in rows from a corner. It is the upper bound, where every cut piece comes from a new tile.
Example
A floor of 3 × 2.5 m, 600 × 600 mm tile, 2 mm joint. The area is 7.5 m², 21 tiles are needed without waste, and 23 with 10% waste, which is 6 boxes of 4. Laid in rows from a corner, the layout touches 25 tiles: 16 full and 9 cut.
How much extra tile to buy
Waste depends on the layout pattern: the more angled and short cuts, the more tile ends up as offcuts.
| Layout | Waste | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Straight (grid) | about 10% | cuts only along the walls |
| Running bond (brick) | about 10% | an offcut is left at the start of each row |
| Diagonal | about 15% | tiles are cut at an angle along every wall |
| Herringbone | 15–20% | many short angled cuts |
Tile quantity questions
How do I calculate how many tiles I need for a floor?
Multiply the room length by its width to get the area. Divide it by the area of one tile including the grout joint, round up, and add about 10% waste for a straight layout or about 15% for a diagonal one.
How do I calculate tiles for a wall?
The same way: multiply the wall width by the tiled height. You can subtract windows and doors, but keep the waste allowance: there is more cutting around openings than on a plain wall.
How many tiles are in one square meter?
Divide 1 m² by the area of one tile. There are about 2.8 tiles of 600 × 600 mm in a square meter, about 5.6 tiles of 300 × 600 mm, and 25 tiles of 200 × 200 mm.
Why can an area estimate be wrong?
Area does not know where the cuts fall. If a narrow strip is left at a wall, each strip takes its own tile, and the offcut often cannot be used elsewhere. The exact count comes from a layout that shows every cut piece.
See where every cut lands
The calculator gives you a quantity. The 3D planner shows the layout itself: full tiles, cuts, niches, and openings.