It’s that time, you are looking to start a tiling project. Whether it is tiling our kitchen, bathroom or any other room, it is critical that you calculate how many tiles you need correctly, so you are not left short or with too many spare tiles once you have completed tiling.
Most homeowners will choose rectangular or square tiles when designing their new project. Square and rectangular tiles are the easiest tiles to calculate how many tiles you need. However, tiles like hexagons and scale-shaped tiles are harder to calculate.
Calculating How Many Tiles You Need
Once you have selected the tiles that you are going to use you can calculate the number of tiles you need. This guide is going to use centimetres as the measurement, to follow along you can convert the size of the tiles you are using into centimetres.
STEP 1
Firstly you need to calculate the area of the tile. Simple divide both the width and height of the tile by 100 and then multiply those values by each other.
For example; our tiles are 10x20cm metro tiles. When we divide the width and height of the tile by 100 we get 0.1 and 0.2. Once we multiply those numbers we get 0.02 which is the area of the tile.
STEP 2
Now we can work out how many tiles are in one square metre. Simply divide 1 by the area of the tile. For example; if we divide 1 by 0.02 (the area of our tiles), we get 50 which is the number of tiles in one square metre. If your number has more than zero decimal places you need to round the value up to the next whole number.
STEP 3
Now that we know how many tiles are in one square metre, you need to find out how many square metres you will need to cover your area. If the area you are tiling is a simple square or rectangle it is easy to find out how many tiles you need. However, if your space is not a simple square or rectangle you can use the chunking method.
The chunking method breaks the room up into multiple squares or rectangles making it easier to calculate how much space you have to cover. You now need to measure your space, take a measurement of the width and length of the space you are looking to tile in centimetres.
For example, we are looking to tile our kitchen. Our space is 4 metres by 1 metre. Multiple the length and width together, we get 4 which is the total number of square metres that you require tiles for.
If you are required to break up your space into multiple areas you can repeat the above step for each space and then combine the total together.
STEP 4
You now know the size of the space you wish to cover and the number of tiles in a square metre. You will now need to take the number of square metres and multiply the number of tiles per square metre by the number of square metres. You now know how many tiles you will need to cover your space.
For example; we have 4 square metres and there are 50 tiles in a square meter so we multiply 50 by 4 to get 200 tiles. We now know that we need 200 tiles to cover our space.
Tips When Calculating
When calculating how many tiles you need, you may find the tips below helpful.
- Order extra. When ordering your tiles it is always worth adding 10% more tiles to your order to cover for cuts and breakages. This will ensure that you have enough tiles to completely cover your space without having to order more.
- When measuring a room that is not a simple rectangle or square you will need to break up the room. You can always make a drawing on paper and break the room up into multiple areas making it easier to calculate the size of the space you are looking to tile.
- Most tile retailers will have a calculator on the product page which can make it really easy to calculate how many tiles you need. However, it is always worth a few minutes of your time to calculate the value yourself.
Now that you know how many tiles you need to complete your renovation project, you can go away and starting tiling. As always have fun when tiling and take your time with your project to get the best results possible.
